> I enjoy the act of technical drawing and 3d design. Downloading pre-existing models doesn't have the same "I did that" feeling. Especially after a long day at the coding mines, doing some shape manipulation is like brain yoga.

Right!

I have a cheap 3D printer. It took me over a year to decide that buying it wouldn't mean another white elephant gadget.

So I made myself a list of things I'd always be able to download and print if I never managed to learn CAD. I've barely printed any of them, because I can do my own things already.

God loves the OpenSCAD/code CAD devs I am sure, but it is not really the case that you can just "program" general objects, because real life things are not simple geometrical constructions; there's a lot of arbitrary organic design in them. A lot of compromises and tweaks and useful accommodations, that lead to some hellish maths (and if I was good at maths I'd have a maths degree, not a CS degree).

I decided I would push past the pain points of learning FreeCAD, and I have now become comfortable enough in it, and designed enough real things.

I am borderline religious about the impact the combination of FreeCAD, PrusaSlicer and a cheap 3D printer has had on my ability to reason about physical objects, and make things I have only before imagined. It's incredibly liberating: I am now someone who can make physical things.

Like you I also love that I don't have to think about costs or licences.

FreeCAD isn't perfect but it's not in the same "clearly left behind" category as GIMP. It's more like QGIS: somewhat idiosyncratic but actually quite powerful. It's made my life enormously better.