Talk:Power users hub

Encourage wholistic approach
Mr. Juergen Riegel,

I am encouraged to see this effort to bring a parametric CAD system to Open Source. Though it appears you're still in the very early stages of development (this was written as of v.0.5 where I was unable to construct anything other than a cube via the GUI on Windows) there appears to be some promise. I will be keeping an eye on the progress of this app.

By way of suggestion/encouragement: if you want this program to be a real contender in the mechanical manufacturing industry, I recommend taking a step back and looking at the whole process of design, not just the specific role that a modeler program plays in the effort. When you consider a broader view of things, investigate current enterprise-level offerings, and see how the design data can take a central role in bringing mechanical products to market, you'll see that there needs to be an open data structure that all departments of an enterprise can use to automate and drive their particular manufacturing roles. Keeping this source data centrally located in the part, assembly and 2D drawing files of the CAD system - data comprised of not only dimensions and tolerances, but also meta-data like material and finish that gets utilized by accounting and purchasing functions - means that it becomes single-entry, automating much of the information exchange accross the enterprise.

Building your application with a broad perspective in mind from the outset will put you way ahead of the game in terms of usability in real-world scenarios. It will allow your application to interface with other IT components and allow it to become a viable component of manufacturing efforts.

-K. Lasse

wholistic approach
Hi, your right, we'r in a early stage and have a lot to do! The design is very open, at the moment we use it e.g. with optical sensors, but to target on such a big aim is vain! Catia V5 has this broad approach and they work with 1000+ developers (only for the core, not to mention the lot of applications). So the first aim of FreeCAD will more narow until the momentum is bigger.

Thank you for your opinion! --Pilotfish 15:24, 25 November 2006 (CET)