[IshKebab]

I 100% agree with your assessment, but I would definitely add SolveSpace. It's an open source parametric modeller but unlike FreeCAD it is actually usable. Not as fully featured as Solidworks etc. but it has all the basic stuff working quite nicely.

Somewhat unconventional interface but it works ok. If you must use open source it is definitely the one to use. As I recall it only has basic assembly support though.

[erickj]

as someone who is just starting to look into free/open sourc CAD tools, what about FreeCAD makes it unusable? I've just done a few of their tutorial/walk throughs recently and can't really tell what was unusable vs. me being new to the entire CAD modelling process.

[IshKebab]

I can't remember to be honest. It's been a while. At a guess I think it would just be really unusable - everything being needlessly clunky or impossible to discover. Case in point - you followed tutorials. With something like Solidworks I think most people could work out how to do a lot just by experimentation in the program.

I would definitely recommend using either SolveSpace or Fusion 360 (free for hobbyists) if you want to learn CAD (or pirate Solidworks if you can be bothered). After that you could try to use something like freecad and won't get confused by it.

Same for electronics. Don't try and learn from Kicad or Eagle. They have ridiculously awful interfaces. I would recommend Designspark PCB or pirating Altium.