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I've never used any cad software before but I've been looking into a bunch of them and I think I am going to try to learn Plasticity. Does anyone use this software that may be able to answer a couple of newbie questions?

When I start the program or start a new project it does not start with a blank slate. There is always a cube in the workspace. This cube is over 62 thousand inches in size. Pretty useless for someone with a 10 x 10 inch workspace. There is nowhere in the program to set the size of the workspace that I can find. There is a place to set up the grid but it seems there is no adjustment to the actual work area. If I scale this box down to 10 in x 10 inches on my screen it is just a dot.

I've never used any cad software before but I've been looking into a bunch of them and I think I am going to try to learn Plasticity. Does anyone use this software that may be able to answer a couple of newbie questions? When I start the program or start a new project it does not start with a blank slate. There is always a cube in the workspace. This cube is over 62 thousand inches in size. Pretty useless for someone with a 10 x 10 inch workspace. There is nowhere in the program to set the size of the workspace that I can find. There is a place to set up the grid but it seems there is no adjustment to the actual work area. If I scale this box down to 10 in x 10 inches on my screen it is just a dot.

(post is archived)

[–] • 2 pts

I use FreeCAD. I kind of suck at it still since I mostly just modify other models and don't spend a ton of time with it but it is powerful.

[–] • 1 pt

I have changed over to that now. Better tutorials online and it is going very well.

[–] • 2 pts

My recommendation is to learn fusion360. There is a free version that is limited for hobbyists. You have to pay attention that you pick that one when signing up and downloading and installing it. I recommend them because the how-to and support community is huge and very helpful.

[–] • 2 pts

That was on my consideration list but I chase plasticity based on many videos I watched on the subject. Overall stability, Power, capability, and price over the long term. Apparently you can make a grand per year on Fusion but if you make 1001 then you gotta pay them over 600 bucks. So at that point you have to relearn a whole new program. I'm too old for that nonsense.

[–] • 1 pt

I agree with this one, individual license free, won't be able to collab, but you can import STL files easily and modify them.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

FreeCAD.

It just works.

[–] • 1 pt

I think I'm giving up on the Plasticity. There are tons and tons of beginner videos on YT for it but virtually NONE of them are worth a damn. They skip stuff and don't start with the basics. I found a great beginners course on FreeCAD and so I downloaded it and have started learning it. So far so good.