@Dublya
Thanks for your interest though the 20+ pages of read
and your elaborate reply giving us a great insight into your line of thinking.
dublya wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:36 pm
1. Letters. Letters are overdone in the icon world, especially in, oddly enough, the design apps. Ai, Ps, F ( autodesk fusion360), F (Figma)
Although over some time I still have a bit of reservations concerning the new logo, as I still think the original logo has this classic outreach that is hard to beat, but for the sake of modernisation and keeping with current trends, and attempt at revamping is also much appreciated. So I think the new logo is an attempt in this direction, What are your thoughts on the new logo?
dublya wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:36 pm
2. The caliper is the single, best physical object to indicate a 3d modeling app, imho. If anyone has a better candidate, I would love to know of it.
That's why we are all here, to look for the best candidate
So lets keep boiling up some ideas.
dublya wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:36 pm
3. The final thought is regarding the name, FreeCad. This describes what the app is: its a free, as in libre, computer assisted deisgn tool. There is also of course librecad, libreoffice, librecmc, so this notion of putting free before the tool category is fairly common.
But really, a name does not have to describe or categorize something anymore than a mark or icon has to use the first letter of that name.
For instance, look at Blender and its mark at blender.org. Or Sketch and its mark at sketchapp.com Or the new sketch/figma app being built from the ground up for linux called Akira
https://github.com/Alecaddd/akira
Both blender and akira are fully open and free software, forever, but the word free or libre is no longer necessary, it's implied. Of course we are free and open source, like all the best software. It's understood. Not to say that
dublya wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:36 pm
Finally, the last thing I want to do is offend anyone who been here many years longer than I have, hammering away diligently with out pay to make this app the amazing, outstanding, and basically mind-bogglingly rad piece of the software that it is. I am only suggesting that the name and mark continue to evolve to reflect the maturity of the app and secure its rightful seat in the modern pantheon of free and open source apps.
libre should not be clearly stated in a tagline, just that it doesn't have to be part of the name anymore.
So with these thoughts in mind, I'm suggesting we begin to consider a new name along with the new mark and icon
Okay about the name Freecad. In my opinion we should absolutely stick to it. let me explain why.
-Freecad has history accumulated already
-Freecad is easy to find and remember for anyone.
-Freecad needs a lot of visibility to stand out and compete with currently existing programs who benefit from tremendous funding on a marketing level. So having a basic simple name that achieves the most with the less is crucial in this game.
We can't really speak for other programs in the same context because they all had different starting points, different interests and industry. Clearly the Animation/VFX and graphic design industries have much bigger audiences and are generally typically more accessible than say CAD.
CAD in the sense of Mechanical, Architectural, Industrial etc etc... tends to be very sophisticated in terms of knowledge base. So the niche is already fairly small as it is not just anyone who can pick them up and create a rocket science space ship with it. So in that regard we can use Blender and Akira as model of inspiration to extract the best from their success story, but must also remain realistic within the constraints of what CAD really is. In this context I give tremendous credit to the initiator of Freecad. the guy was deadly spot on to create a name that goes well with its purpose.
dublya wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:36 pm
Finally, the last thing I want to do is offend anyone who been here many years longer than I have, hammering away diligently with out pay to make this app the amazing, outstanding, and basically mind-bogglingly rad piece of the software that it is. I am only suggesting that the name and mark continue to evolve to reflect the maturity of the app and secure its rightful seat in the modern pantheon of free and open source apps.
Yes we can all agree that we want to keep evolving in the best direction possible that reflects the open source world mindset. In that regard I still welcome more thoughts and suggestions from your as far as what could be made better. In time I believe that Freecad will be ripe and take it's seat in the world of commercial giants since it has already conquered the CAD/CAM/Architecture of the Open Source world based on current standards.
dublya wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:36 pm
A big thanks to all those folks. It took me about a year to get the hang of freecad and then its just kind of clicked. Now I just love it.
Big thanks to you as well, for your comment which perhaps marks the start of your future contribution to it's devop. Yup i've been there, first 3years of pain and sacrifice into learning Freecad was tedious but in the end when it clicks, it's magical.