1.7% Market Share of CAD Software

[marcin_ose]

Friends,

This is good - according to the Wevolver newsletter (https://blog.wevolver.com/newsletter/), FreeCAD has a 1.7% market share:



Any thoughts on how to increase that?

Marcin

[thschrader]

Any thoughts on how to increase that?
Marcin

Yes.
Ask more than only 500 people and 30 engineers. That was a survey in the wevolver
community alone. I think the diagram above does not reflect the true situation worldwide...
https://blog.wevolver.com/2018/03/15/en ... are-usage/

[freecad-heini-1]

I miss Creo, Catia and NX in this chart.

[triplus]

A percent or two would likely come from more promotional activity. Likely a lot of CAD users don't know about FreeCAD. Or don't know FreeCAD can already do the task they use CAD for.

[NormandC]

Ask more than only 500 people and 30 engineers. That was a survey in the wevolver
community alone. I think the diagram above does not reflect the true situation worldwide...

That may turn out to be the understatement of the year.

I didn't know the Wevolver community. It's apparently formed of people who know about open source, so of course results from this community will be skewed. People in the industry who don't have any special interest in software have no clue what open source is, or that it even exists.

https://blog.wevolver.com/about/

So yeah, the real state of affairs is that FreeCAD would probably not register on such a pie chart.

[Kunda1]

Any thoughts on how to increase that?

Indirectly:

• Volunteers to improve the FreeCAD API documentation
• Funding for GSOC-like projects to improve FC in ways the community supports

[AndrewHeard]

Just my 2 cents worth... I have moved to FreeCAD after using a combination of TuboCAD Deluxe and SketchUp Make over the last year (also AutoCAD LT, Drafix, OpenOffice Draw in the past). TurboCAD seems to have more bugs with each new release. SketchUp has a very easy learning curve and is a joy to use; you make great initial progress but I quickly ran into what I consider fundamental problems
• When two lines cross, they cut each other
• When two lines contact each other, they stick together.
• When two lines are exactly congruent, the second line is “absorbed” by the first

I am not a power user (unlike most of the users I read on this forum) but just trying to create my own new house 3D plans and other minor tasks. I appreciate FreeCAD is developed by volunteers with $0 budget but I have found some seemingly easy tasks tedious & little issues/ bugs with the UX especially compared to SketchUp which "just works" so nicely - big development & marketing budget. I initially trialled FC a year ago before deciding it was too complex & confusing and went onto buy (waste) good money on TC. But I returned to FC a month ago after giving up on SketchUp due to the issues listed above. I have no regrets, it is working out the best tool for my requirements, but I simply write my honest experience here as many potential non-power users may be put off too.

[triplus]

If i understand correctly. Regardless of all the issues you are having/had with FreeCAD. You have returned to FreeCAD in the end. As it is still better compared to other options?

Well that actually isn't all that bad?

[AndrewHeard]

If i understand correctly. Regardless of all the issues you are having/had with FreeCAD. You have returned to FreeCAD in the end. As it is still better compared to other options?

Well that actually isn't all that bad?

Correct - not bad at all - in the end. I was just explaining my "journey" and why increasing market share (this topic) may be difficult.

[abdullah]

It has the 100% of the Market Share in the independent republic of my home.