Our great sponsors
-
WorkOS
The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.
> If you like Linkage, you might also like Solvespace.
No, I mean Brent Curry's Linkage[1] bicycle design software, not David Rector's Linkage Mechanism Designer and Simulator[2].
You should read Wikipedia article.[0]
N.B. About SolveSpace, as I'm its experienced user[youtube,patreon], I may say next: yes, it could be used for bike mockup, as any other CAD, but it still has a lot of limitations and even does not export correct STEP files yet[3], and in FreeCAD such STEP could fixed only partially.[video]
So, for serious 3D CAD work I highly recommend use FreeCAD (and LibreCAD for 2D CAD work) instead of SolveSpace, and use SolveSpace only as a helper tool like a calc or as a notepad for noting ideas.
About Linkage Mechanism Designer and Simulator, it is only useful for planar (2D) kinematics analyze, and if You are looking an alternative for it take a look on Pyslvs[4], that is in part based on SolveSpace's solver.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rattleCAD#History
[1] https://bikechecker.com/
[2] https://blog.rectorsquid.com/linkage-mechanism-designer-and-...
[3] https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/206
[4] https://github.com/KmolYuan/Pyslvs-UI
[video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3LJMeqUDrU
[youtube] https://www.youtube.com/@appsoft
[patreon] https://patreon.com/app4soft
> If you like Linkage, you might also like Solvespace.
No, I mean Brent Curry's Linkage[1] bicycle design software, not David Rector's Linkage Mechanism Designer and Simulator[2].
You should read Wikipedia article.[0]
N.B. About SolveSpace, as I'm its experienced user[youtube,patreon], I may say next: yes, it could be used for bike mockup, as any other CAD, but it still has a lot of limitations and even does not export correct STEP files yet[3], and in FreeCAD such STEP could fixed only partially.[video]
So, for serious 3D CAD work I highly recommend use FreeCAD (and LibreCAD for 2D CAD work) instead of SolveSpace, and use SolveSpace only as a helper tool like a calc or as a notepad for noting ideas.
About Linkage Mechanism Designer and Simulator, it is only useful for planar (2D) kinematics analyze, and if You are looking an alternative for it take a look on Pyslvs[4], that is in part based on SolveSpace's solver.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rattleCAD#History
[1] https://bikechecker.com/
[2] https://blog.rectorsquid.com/linkage-mechanism-designer-and-...
[3] https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/206
[4] https://github.com/KmolYuan/Pyslvs-UI
[video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3LJMeqUDrU
[youtube] https://www.youtube.com/@appsoft
[patreon] https://patreon.com/app4soft
> A while back, I put together a list of bike-oriented software at:
> https://old.reddit.com/r/BicycleGear/wiki/software
Nice list. It yet complete, but has some I not seen before, such as "Bike-Draw".[0]
One I've found recently is Brent Curry's Linkage[1] bike design app, which looks like a serious competitor for BikeCAD and rattleCAD.
And there are few other not listed in your list SaaS for bike design, I've listed in previous comment.[2]
Also, I'm trying to create own bike design template/macro for FreeCAD.[3]
[0] https://github.com/occamsshavingkit/Bike-Draw
[1] https://bikechecker.com/
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38096780
[3] https://fosstodon.org/@app4soft/111282227406105616
[4] https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?t=82131