As a youngster, I worked hard to find new ideas and had an entire folder of inventions and designs. I would spend hours sketching them and even built a few of them, at one point. The most notable build, was that of a fishing platform. It was only a simple wooden block with a hooking level made on a section of 4″ guttering. Not exactly worthy of an award, but it did attract fish, it didn’t catch them, but they seemed to like it.
Over time, I learned to use 2D CAD. I would transfer my sketches over to it and keep them archived. Once I got my hands on a 9pin Dot-Matrix printer, I could add them to my folder. They looked quite professional, even if the product wouldn’t be. Tinkering was the best part of this. Altering the design and labelling the updates became a normal process. So, where are we now?
There are many 3D CADs available, but unless you go for an Open Source one, there is an enormous learning curve ahead of you. Many products, such as Solidworks, demand a premium, but there is one that stands out. As a free install, FreeCAD has almost all of the same features, where intermediate designers would be just as well off, more so without a price-tag.
I have found FreeCAD very hard to learn, but am assured that skills can be transferred, quite easily. Some posts that I have read, talk about taking two weeks out to get the hang of it. As they say, ‘When it clicks, it clicks!’ Although 2D is simple and not effective for 3D printing, etc, I miss the days of the simplistic processes. Maybe, with two weeks at hand, 3D could be on the cards.
It’s worth a look at FreeCAD if you want to implement designs with printability and workflows. I like the option of going into Gravity Sketch on the META Quest 2. VR doodling is quite fun, and simple too.
