I'm in the same boat! I got tired of the constant enshittification of Fusion360 and started learning FreeCAD. And wow! it's way less intuitive. But I think I'll push through, as I don't want anything but open-source for this. The reason being that I don't want the same thing to happen again: I spend an unholy amount of time learning how to use a CAD software, and then it becomes the hottest steaming pile of corporate shit possible and I don't want to use it anymore. That's why I haven't even started looking at OnShape. With open-source the biggest risk is that the same thing might happen if the project gets abandoned, but it doesn't seem to be the case for FreeCAD (at least in the foreseeable future). In any case, I'm interested in hearing what others have to say :)

Freecad

WAIT DON’T DOWNVOTE !

Freecad Link Branch by realthunder : much much much better than the original

https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD

If you still don’t like it try Ondsel, though you need an account to download it.

Personally I love openSCAD, but it is probably really unintuitive to someone without programming experience and even then has it's own limitations.

FreeCAD is in a weird position ATM, it is actually really good! ...just not in the stable release... The Dev version is significantly more palatable, and they even went on a feature freeze to really push through with their major 1.0 release.

For now though Onsdel (Sort of a fork of FreeCAD packaged with Dev release and UI improvements) has worked really well for me thus far!

I'm quite happy with FreeCAD. It's not really intuitive but I'll gladly take that over any other program with those modern account/subscription/cloud bullshit "features".

It looks like Fusion 360 runs fine on Linux these days, I don’t know how reliable that is in practice (I would expect not very much).

OnShape is a great option if the licensing terms are compatible with what you are doing. They used to have similar licensing terms as Fusion 360 where you could still get paid for your work with a free version (i.e. YouTube) but changed the terms to remove this loophole. Fusion still allows this with the Startup license but of course could change their mind at any time, then you’d be out of luck.

I dislike the lockdown of Fusion 360 but its mental model works with my own (I can’t “get” SolidWorks and never remember how to do anything). Speaking of SolidWorks, they added a reasonably-priced license for DIY/hobbyists, but it’s the same lockdown as Fusion 360 and still Windows only.

I’m in the same boat as you, just a hobbyist doing this for my own use, I have no interest in becoming an industrial engineer. For now I will keep using Fusion 360, and when that stops being an option I’ll move on to something else. I can whip out models for my prints easily enough and the 10 documents limit is just an annoyance, not a real limitation.

At the very least whatever you design in Fusion 360 or OnShape won’t be stuck in there, you can export it out via .step files. You lose design history (if applicable) but not the model itself.

You could try Ondsel, the trimmed UI makes it easier to use than Freecad in my opinion, the learning curve is still steep tho. No account needed if you get it on GitHub: https://github.com/Ondsel-Development/FreeCAD/releases

You could also take a look at Plasticity, seems very intuitive to use and should work well with your clicky workflow, it's a one time payment and has a Linux version. I don't have any personal experience with it, but there is a trial version so you can try it before investing any money. https://www.plasticity.xyz

I think the guide I did at !cad@lemmy.world is still in pretty decent shape.

I actually settled on Alibre Design. Permanent license at half the cost of a year of OnShape for a slightly dated but very capable parametric modeler, and the free trial made Parametric modeling click for me in a way FreeCAD didn't. It comes with a renderer of a similar class, though I haven't tried that yet. Changing colors of parts has been enough for my needs.

FreeCAD has apparently fixed the topological naming issue, one of the big things that was keeping them so far behind the commercial suites. It's already in the weekly builds, along with several other enhancements pioneered in the Realthunder fork, including UI enhancements and a default Assembly workbench. Version 1 is going to come out in the late summer or early fall, I think. Ondsel is FreeCAD but they have some venture funding to pay developers to work on the main project and to bolt-on an optional paid PDM system (download from their GitHub and you don't have to sign up for anything). I had some crashing issues on both Windows and Linux when trying to import DXF files into either flavor, and as you say, there's still that learning curve, but I can get a part done in it now if I need to.

SolveSpace can do some nice things and will teach you good techniques.

I had the same issues as you with OnShape, particularly since their free licensing is very weird, and in the worst case it implies that while YOU must use your designs non-commercially, no one else is similarly bound. It's sloppy legal drafting, and that annoys the little black kernel of lawyerness still sunk down in my heart. Fusion has become the poster child for free feature erosion and price hikes.

BricsCAD Shape is a basically an AutoCAD clone warped and twisted to act like SketchUp, and it works on Linux. It's meant to be the tease to get people into their full-suite ecosystem, but I couldn't find any legal limitations on the free version.

Depending on what it is you're scanning, the people mentioning Blender may have a good point.

Shapr3D at $300/year might also be a good option.

Finally, for your particular workflow, Plasticity at $150 permanent license may hit the exact sweet spot. Definitely try their free trial. Some of the other programs I tried are also interesting.

I'm in the same boat but with semi professional needs.

I have not found any alternative yet to Onshape that works on linux.

I'm trying FreeCAD and derivatives from time to time but it really feels like a serious step backwards.

I don't think onshape has the market position to rug-pull their free tier. They need as many people using it as possible to act as a counterbalance to fusion, and the server costs are really not that high for a web app that does the vast majority of processing on the client side.

I like "Solvespace" myself. It's simpler than FreeCAD and works better with the way I think of things (more focus on 2D planes). I don't do the "scan and sketch" thing though so can't speak to that. Might be worth a try.

https://solvespace.com/

This is not the answer to your work flow, but I found a lightweight solution that works for my simple designs: OpenSCAD

The work flow here is to implement geometrical shapes within a few lines of code.

Although you still need windows, Rhino3D is amazing and has a perpetual license. It's way cheaper if you are studying or teaching. There is also sketchup which works through the browser but I don't know if that works on Linux.