Back when I was in grad school I set up an HTML/CSS to PDF workflow for making posters. It was surprisingly difficult to find a decent way to render nice-looking web pages with reasonably modern CSS to PDF without having things get cut off or reflowed. I had to use a specific prerelease build of a webkit-based tool to get my template to render correctly. I wonder if there are any better tools in this space these days.
Apart from that, the main issue was the lack of publishing-quality text justification, so I just manually added line breaks where needed to make it look decent. It still beat fiddling around in PowerPoint.
I first used FreeCAD around version 0.12 for designing simple parts for my 3D printer. At the time, it was very buggy and would reliably crash or corrupt your model if you ever tried to go back and edit a previously specified dimension or even just clicked the wrong thing. I ended up starting a new model from scratch whenever I needed to go back and change something.
I started using the latest versions (0.18, 0.19) again recently, and the experience is dramatically better. I’ve designed about a dozen distinct models and have been able to make major changes to a part without any crashes or bugs, and a number of much-needed ergonomic improvements have made the part design process much quicker and less frustrating. Thanks, FreeCAD devs! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Apart from that, the main issue was the lack of publishing-quality text justification, so I just manually added line breaks where needed to make it look decent. It still beat fiddling around in PowerPoint.