I've been using Blender a few times for 3D printing. Functional parts with playful/artistic touch. I can recommend it for that. I tried FreeCAD recently but it feels, well, constrained.
FreeCAD is like entering values into a form, while Blender is like playing around with the model interactively. You can drag anything around, tear it apart, fix it again. It's possible to keep things editable, almost parametric, but this requires more planning and knowledge.
For getting started you definitely want to follow tutorials. One for basic mesh modelling, and one with focus on CAD. (How on earth are you supposed to figure out that you want a "subdivision surface" modifier. It's the first thing I add in every project.) But I'm thinking now FreeCAD may be just as hard to learn as Blender (unless you already know CAD).
(But now that I know the basics of CAD workflows, CAD Sketcher looks interesting. Before that, I wouldn't have seen the point.)
FreeCAD is like entering values into a form, while Blender is like playing around with the model interactively. You can drag anything around, tear it apart, fix it again. It's possible to keep things editable, almost parametric, but this requires more planning and knowledge.
For getting started you definitely want to follow tutorials. One for basic mesh modelling, and one with focus on CAD. (How on earth are you supposed to figure out that you want a "subdivision surface" modifier. It's the first thing I add in every project.) But I'm thinking now FreeCAD may be just as hard to learn as Blender (unless you already know CAD).
(But now that I know the basics of CAD workflows, CAD Sketcher looks interesting. Before that, I wouldn't have seen the point.)