<br>PS I'm pretty ignorant of MacOS, so I might be steering you wrong, but it looks like the second link on this download page is for 10.6-<br><br><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/files/FreeCAD%20MacOSX/">http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/files/FreeCAD%20MacOSX/</a><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 5:59 PM, poppy <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:poppy@foostache.com">poppy@foostache.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I'm interested; unfortunately their Mac build is 10.7 only right now. I filed a bug about it, but I'm not interested in spending the time to get a monster of a build system running just to try out the program. You say it's worth it?<br>
<br>
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/mantisbt/free-cad/view.php?id=635" target="_blank">http://sourceforge.net/apps/<u></u>mantisbt/free-cad/view.php?id=<u></u>635</a><br>
<br>
I've been learning Art of Illusion instead, in the meantime. (I tried learning blender several times over the years, but it's just a mess to me compared to other apps. #nopatience) Wings is also somewhat interesting to me, but the UI seems mostly impenetrable so far.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
+ p</font></span><div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
On 2012-03-22 17:29, Michael Prados wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5">
<br>
My background is in mechanical engineering, so I'm only being slightly<br>
hyperbolic in the subject heading.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/free-cad/index.php?title=Main_Page" target="_blank">http://sourceforge.net/apps/<u></u>mediawiki/free-cad/index.php?<u></u>title=Main_Page</a><br>
<br>
I have spent some time with Blender, Bricscad, and Openscad, and they<br>
are each useful for many tasks. But I am convinced that the fundamental<br>
architecture and philosophy of these projects means that they will never<br>
displace mainstream mechanical CAD programs, even with focused attention<br>
and support. That is fine, because they are intended for different<br>
purposes.<br>
<br>
Free-cad, on the other hand, has strategically tied together several<br>
free software projects to create a package with the potential to win the<br>
hearts and minds of people doing mechanical design, given enough support<br>
from the community. I have been watching it for a couple of years, as<br>
it surpassed several other nascent projects to become the prototype of<br>
something that could transform how we interact with physical objects.<br>
<br>
It isn't there yet, but its developers seem capable and determined, and<br>
I think it is time they got some love. Last Sunday, Stallman cited CAD<br>
as one of the three most important areas for free software development.<br>
I find this fact very encouraging, since he, unlike me, has no reason to<br>
be especially passionate about how objects are designed.<br>
<br>
I want to see if there is interest at Noisebridge in aggregating a<br>
special interest group devoted to free and open source mechanical CAD<br>
software. My intention would be to focus on free-cad, but if another<br>
serious contender should arise, I'd be interested in learning about this<br>
too.<br>
<br>
The goal that inspires me is a future where free-cad is a strong<br>
alternative to Solidworks, Pro/Engineer, and Inventor, to at least the<br>
same extent that Gimp is an alternative to Photoshop, and ideally to the<br>
extent that gcc is preferrable to many proprietary compilers. Some of<br>
the things that I think a special interest group at Noisebridge could<br>
focus on are:<br>
<br>
* learning to use the package as it is<br>
<br>
* creating new tutorials<br>
<br>
* evangelizing to people doing mechanical design, who generally don't<br>
know much about free software<br>
<br>
* studying the architecture and workflow of the program, and how it<br>
compares to proprietary alternatives<br>
<br>
* reaching out to the core developers, and providing feedback<br>
<br>
* writing code, at any of three levels - bolt on extensions, patches,<br>
and contributing to the core<br>
<br>
* exploring how free-cad might be better tied in to rendering, 2d cad,<br>
3d printing, CAM, 3d object scanning, open source robotics, openscad,<br>
and online 3d repositories like thingiverse and google 3d warehouse<br>
<br>
Unfortunately, I'm sort of committed until late April, but I wanted to<br>
get the idea out there while it is on my mind. Am I the only one<br>
interested in this topic, or am I in good company? Are there people<br>
interested in meeting to talk about this?<br>
<br>
-Mike<br>
<br>
<br></div></div><div class="im">
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</div></blockquote>
<br>
</blockquote></div><br>