You keep decrying how proprietary and horrible Fusion360 is, but you propose no viable alternative. OpenSCAD is much, much harder to use, SolveSpace is very good but nowhere close to Fusion (or even OnShape), last I used FreeCAD I couldn't make heads or tails of it and it liked to crash a lot, and those are the best options.

What would you suggest? Complaining is easy.

> OpenSCAD is much, much harder to use,

> What would you suggest? Complaining is easy.

What are the complaints about OpenSCAD? If it's the language itself, then there's some similar projects using Racket[0] and JavaScript[1] respectively.

[0]: https://docs.racket-lang.org/ruckus/Ruckus_Language_Referenc...

[1]: https://openjscad.org/

Mainly the language and the lack of immediate feedback, along with the fact that it's more verbose than the point-and-click interface of Fusion. I will try out the Python version, though, it sounds interesting.

> I will try out the Python version,

I don't think there's a Python version, unless you count using Ruckus via Python on Racket[0].

> lack of immediate feedback

When "Automatic Reload and Preview" is enabled, OpenSCAD re-renders the shape whenever the text file is saved, so there's hardly any time delay, although there is arguably a spacial remoteness due to the text being separate from the shape.

> along with the fact that it's more verbose than the point-and-click interface of Fusion.

I personally find it difficult manipulating 3D objects by with a 2D cursor. I've spent a fair amount of time on the point-and-click editor in Blender, and I find it less confusing to have a textual expression of the shapes at hand.

Perhaps the one (possibly accidental) killer-feature about OpenSCAD is that it works well with external editors, such as vim.

[0]: https://github.com/pedropramos/PyonR

Have you tried SketchUp[1]? I moved off of it to OpenSCAD awhile back, but it seemed to work ok for what I needed.

[1] https://www.sketchup.com/

Yes, unfortunately SketchUp isn't parametric, which I definitely need, and it tends not to produced closed solids, which creates problems for 3D printing.

Check out BricsCAD. Bricsys recently released shape for free, to compete with Sketchup I guess. It's a reskinned and (greatly) simplified version of their CAD product. https://www.bricsys.com/en-intl/shape/

The higher tier packages have a 3d constraint system. Imagine Sketchup and AutoCAD had a baby with some parametrics thrown in.

I personally own Sketchup, TurboCAD and BricsCAD. BricsCAD is the one I use the most, it obsoletes Sketchup for me totally. I much prefer it to the AutoCAD OEM I use at work and I possibly would pick it over SolidWorks. Although my SolidWorks experience is much more limited.

It's still proprietary but one of the few CAD packages I found that runs on linux and you can own without paying a monthly fee.

Fusion 360 is excellent, but I feel people don't recognize the true cost of it. I have a long post (not more than 3 cm under yours currently) in this very thread about alternatives.

But yes, one will have to make compromises.

> I feel people don't recognize the true cost of it

That's a bit patronizing.

> I have a long post in this very thread about alternatives.

I did read that post, and it comes to much the same conclusions as mine. For the two-hour hobbyist projects I dabble with, the cost is acceptable.