FreeCAD funding.

[keithsloan52]

Don't suppose that FreeCAD has any funding.

I like the idea of having a lapel badge with the FreeCAD logo on it. Trouble is that it seems the people who could supply such a thing need a minimum order of 100. Not sure how much a thing would cost at such low volumes.

But anyway do we have a sponsor who would fund a supply of FreeCAD merchandise.

[yorik]

Hm until now we have absolutely no funding... Some people did donate money already through sourceforge I think, but so far I believe it has only been used in the past for server maintenance, etc. Sincerely I don't think any of us wishes to spend time on things such as merchandising now, and earning money would not help freecad much at the moment...

[mrlukeparry]

I agree with yorik, probably the most thing that is valuable to all of us is time.

In the long run a few years, it would be interesting to have some foundation to manage monetary matters such as organising conferences or code sprints, sponsor developers to go conferences such as travel costs, programming bounties, equipment e.g. 3d printers to build new functionality.

To be honest I don't think we are ready for this.

However, I would really fancy one of those FreeCAD bottle openers someone CNC'd.

[keithsloan52]

Well I agree that I would not want developers, testers and people doing documentation distracted by such things.
But that does not mean there are people who might step up to the plate to service such things as they don't
feel technical and skilled enough to contribute in such ways.

I think merchandise would help spread the the message about FreeCAD and get more people to use it.

[yorik]

But that does not mean there are people who might step up to the plate to service such things as they don't feel technical and skilled enough to contribute in such ways.

Ah that is another matter. Indeed, if someone would want to do that kind of actions, why not? I think it would help spreading the word about freecad... We made some t-shirts once! viewtopic.php?f=8&t=932&p=7166&hilit=t+shirt#p7166 (opensource t-shirts, you can take the image and make some more yourself)

[logari81]

I believe, the right moment for putting more effort in promoting FreeCAD is after the topological naming and the assembly module is done. Before this, we may unnecessarily create many negative opinions. Unfortunately, users cannot always understand how difficult the development of a parametric CAD system on voluntary basis is.

[tanderson69]

I believe, the right moment for putting more effort in promoting FreeCAD is after the topological naming and the assembly module is done. Before this, we may unnecessarily create many negative opinions. Unfortunately, users cannot always understand how difficult the development of a parametric CAD system on voluntary basis is.

I had this same thought. A negative first impression can last a long time! Some people will never get over it.

[pinniped]

I agree with logari81. It is difficult to get and maintain any serious funding too early in the project. I have worked on a number of commercial projects and had many arguments about what stage the product or its prototype should be at before it is presented to prospective customers or investors. A bad first impression always kills a project. As an example, one of my more recent projects was an instrument to be used by vulcanologists. The development was at the stage where the lead scientist can take data, manually fiddle with it for a few days, and come up with results and pretty pictures. The product required more software development to make the data collection easy and a little more work on the user documentation. A few items were sold but I suspect the customers got a lot of hype and didn't fully understand what they were getting - there seems to have been no more interest since then because the potential customers believe they can do a better and cheaper job if they design the entire thing themselves (their idea is not correct, but that is the idea that will stick due to a bad first impression).

For me, the ability to create assemblies is critical. I am putting off working with Free-CAD until the assembly feature is ready because without that feature there is too much hard work needed to get the desired results. I think the other thing needed is a little more work on the documentation so that a user can follow a fairly simple tutorial to create some parts and an assembly. For example, in SolidWorks there is a tutorial to create a hinge. More carefully planned tutorials will be extremely helpful. One item on my wish list is a document on how to use Free-CAD via C++; if it is possible for me to avoid Python in my work I will be very happy.

Short story: I think the Assembly feature and more documentation is the absolute minimum needed before Free-CAD can really be promoted for general CAD users. You can be very sure at the least that many hobbyists and some small businesses will have an immediate use for Free-CAD when those objectives are achieved. I haven't had time to look at some tools like the architecture module, but the drawings sure look good. As long as the documentation is easy to follow, having various modules like the one for architecture on show will make the project appeal to a much larger audience.

[NormandC]

I think the other thing needed is a little more work on the documentation so that a user can follow a fairly simple tutorial to create some parts and an assembly. For example, in SolidWorks there is a tutorial to create a hinge. More carefully planned tutorials will be extremely helpful.

Surely, you understand that the FreeCAD project relies on volunteers to contribute to the project by writing code or documentation and many other things. You realize that there are only about half a dozen guys who write lines of code in their spare time? That in their minds they have better things to do than to write documentation? And who would argue with them? In any case, programmers are not always the best people to write for end-users.

Do you realize that there are not many more people doing work on the documentation? And the current contributors mostly translate the current pages, not much new content is created.

The FreeCAD project definitely needs more help in the documentation area. With the current volunteers, what you're asking for will be difficult to attain. How do we get more people involved? How do we get you involved?

If everyone waits for a completed software and documentation, what are the odds of what you wish for happening soon?



Hint, hint...

[NormandC]

Indeed, if someone would want to do that kind of actions, why not? I think it would help spreading the word about freecad... We made some t-shirts once! viewtopic.php?f=8&t=932&p=7166&hilit=t+shirt#p7166 (opensource t-shirts, you can take the image and make some more yourself)

I had completely forgotten about this! I think I'm going to order one as a Christmas gift to myself.

If I wear it at work I may have a lot of explaining to do about what the heck is FreeCAD, then open source.