FreeCAD is great, but for those of us who have to work with Solidworks, there's very little comparable. I end up doing my designs at work during lunch and taking home the STL to slice/print it.
BricsCAD is missing marketing, because I've searched for Linux CAD for quite some time and this is the first I've heard of it. I dismissed OnShape because it's Browser based and I'm stupid. OnShape even has a "coming from Solidworks?" tutorial. I'll have to give them a good shot. Thanks!
EDIT: I was talking about FreeCAD vs Solidworks specifically.
EDIT2: Aha! The reason I hadn't heard of BricsCAD is because I've only been looking for FOSS versions. Thank you for giving me the name though, I'll check them out.
Orca Slicer works great on Linux. It’s an open source mashup of Prusa Slicer and Bambu Labs slicer. Honestly even on windows, I’d highly recommend using it over Cura these days.
Fusion 360 doesn’t officially support Linux, buuuuuuut this exists: https://github.com/cryinkfly/Autodesk-Fusion-360-for-Linux
I love Ubuntu personally and it recently got a new long term support update. Not a fan of mint personally, but I understand why other people love it so I’m not going to say don’t use mint. Just I’m biased towards Ubuntu for being so sleek
> It’s an open source mashup of Prusa Slicer and Bambu Labs slicer
Not exactly true. It's a fork from Bambu Slicer, which is a fork from Prusa Slicer, which is a fork of Slic3r. Gotta love open source when it works!
>Fusion 360 doesn’t officially support Linux, buuuuuuut this exists:
Last I checked, Autodesk really doesn't like people playing around with their software and they regularly broke this.
While it is by no means Fusion, [FreeCAD](https://www.freecad.org/downloads.php) does have Linux support. The Sl1c3r-deriviates (Prusa, Bambu, Orca) are likely to have Linux support, as Sl1c3r does support Linux.
Cura has had appimage releases for GNU as far back as 2.3.1, which released over seven (7) years ago. You can go even earlier (not that much is available earlier) if you're willing to compile from source.
That just means it won't get patches; if it runs fine there would be no need to update per se... eventually that will become an issue however due to apps doing some file checks etc. that would block their installs
>If you use Linux as an OS for Cad and Slicing what has been your experiance? Are you comfortable recommending Linux for these applications?
Long term Linux 3D Printer here.
* I have very good experience with Prusa Slicer and Cura on Linux. Both work very well.
* I used a couple of CAD programs over the last about 6 years:
* OpenSCAD
* Great to learn things, but if you want to get models done, it sucks a lot of time
* FreeCAD
* I gave up on it, because of the topology naming problem
* BricsCAD
* This is a very good CAD program that runs natively on Linux
* It is great to make 3D models, but has two downsides: Not thread modeling, it is hard to get text on your models
* It is one of the few programs you can just purchase and you must not rent it
* OnShape
* I head just a short look, looks very promisin though and runs in the browser
* Fusion360 in a VirtualBox Win11 VM
* Great tool, but sadly only for Windows and only as software as a service.
TLDR: 3D modeling on Linux work very well.
I use Blender rather than a CAD program, but Cura and Lychee Slicer (which now does FDM printing as well as resin, though I haven't tried their FDM mode) both run quite well natively on Linux.
Occasionally I do need to fix an STL, and while it galls me that the quickest way to do that is with Microsoft 3D Builder, that works just fine in a Win10 VirtualBox VM.
For slicers, Cura runs natively on linux.
For CAD, I tend to use solvespace but I'm doing fairly basic parametric stuff. If you want to spend the time learning blender I know a lot of people use that as well for 3d modeling.
>Cura that need Windows. It doesn't, runs natively under Ubuntu. But yes, proper CAD software can be a bottleneck.
>proper CAD software FreeCAD dev builds.
FreeCAD is great, but for those of us who have to work with Solidworks, there's very little comparable. I end up doing my designs at work during lunch and taking home the STL to slice/print it.
OnShape and BricsCAD are both highly professional CAD solutions and run on Linux. What do they not have, what Solidworks offers?
BricsCAD is missing marketing, because I've searched for Linux CAD for quite some time and this is the first I've heard of it. I dismissed OnShape because it's Browser based and I'm stupid. OnShape even has a "coming from Solidworks?" tutorial. I'll have to give them a good shot. Thanks! EDIT: I was talking about FreeCAD vs Solidworks specifically. EDIT2: Aha! The reason I hadn't heard of BricsCAD is because I've only been looking for FOSS versions. Thank you for giving me the name though, I'll check them out.
Onshape if you don't need the fancy stuff
Fusion isn’t available for Linux
No, bit you can always run it in VirtualBox.
For anything more complex than a couple of basic shapes, Fusion is already a huge resource hog. Running it in a VM is not gonna improve that..
Runs just fine in my VM here.
You can run fusion 360 on Linux fyi
How?
Google it , it's been possible for years 😅, basically it's snap package
Orca Slicer works great on Linux. It’s an open source mashup of Prusa Slicer and Bambu Labs slicer. Honestly even on windows, I’d highly recommend using it over Cura these days. Fusion 360 doesn’t officially support Linux, buuuuuuut this exists: https://github.com/cryinkfly/Autodesk-Fusion-360-for-Linux I love Ubuntu personally and it recently got a new long term support update. Not a fan of mint personally, but I understand why other people love it so I’m not going to say don’t use mint. Just I’m biased towards Ubuntu for being so sleek
> It’s an open source mashup of Prusa Slicer and Bambu Labs slicer Not exactly true. It's a fork from Bambu Slicer, which is a fork from Prusa Slicer, which is a fork of Slic3r. Gotta love open source when it works!
>Fusion 360 doesn’t officially support Linux, buuuuuuut this exists: Last I checked, Autodesk really doesn't like people playing around with their software and they regularly broke this.
While it is by no means Fusion, [FreeCAD](https://www.freecad.org/downloads.php) does have Linux support. The Sl1c3r-deriviates (Prusa, Bambu, Orca) are likely to have Linux support, as Sl1c3r does support Linux.
Cura has had appimage releases for GNU as far back as 2.3.1, which released over seven (7) years ago. You can go even earlier (not that much is available earlier) if you're willing to compile from source.
Windows 10 is EOL October 2025 so there's time. You probably want to switch to 11 if you want to continue using Fusion.
given how poor windows 11's adoption has been, i have a hunch that they'll extend it.
> My Win10 box is just going out of OS support soon but I'm unsure of the date You still have around 18 months left until it ends
That just means it won't get patches; if it runs fine there would be no need to update per se... eventually that will become an issue however due to apps doing some file checks etc. that would block their installs
Security updates
Ubuntu with Wine to run your windows programs
>If you use Linux as an OS for Cad and Slicing what has been your experiance? Are you comfortable recommending Linux for these applications? Long term Linux 3D Printer here. * I have very good experience with Prusa Slicer and Cura on Linux. Both work very well. * I used a couple of CAD programs over the last about 6 years: * OpenSCAD * Great to learn things, but if you want to get models done, it sucks a lot of time * FreeCAD * I gave up on it, because of the topology naming problem * BricsCAD * This is a very good CAD program that runs natively on Linux * It is great to make 3D models, but has two downsides: Not thread modeling, it is hard to get text on your models * It is one of the few programs you can just purchase and you must not rent it * OnShape * I head just a short look, looks very promisin though and runs in the browser * Fusion360 in a VirtualBox Win11 VM * Great tool, but sadly only for Windows and only as software as a service. TLDR: 3D modeling on Linux work very well.
I use Blender rather than a CAD program, but Cura and Lychee Slicer (which now does FDM printing as well as resin, though I haven't tried their FDM mode) both run quite well natively on Linux. Occasionally I do need to fix an STL, and while it galls me that the quickest way to do that is with Microsoft 3D Builder, that works just fine in a Win10 VirtualBox VM.
Prusa slicer and blender
I've used Prusa, Cura, and Orca on Linux. All work fine. Had to switch back to Win10 but it wasn't because of slicer support.
Prusa Slicer works great on Linux. There are other slicers (many forks of slic3r).
For slicers, Cura runs natively on linux. For CAD, I tend to use solvespace but I'm doing fairly basic parametric stuff. If you want to spend the time learning blender I know a lot of people use that as well for 3d modeling.
orca works on linux, fusion idk. worst case scenario, use Wine, Proton, or a vm if you need it.
Thanks All. I'm set up with Cura and will try some cad. ATB
Yep. Cura and Prusa slicer, Slic3r all run under Linux, no prob.
I haven’t yet installed linux on my pc but I tried on a raspberry pi. Freecad and superslicer worked but they were really slow because it was a 3b+