What the work actually involves

You receive a written brief for a mechanical part or assembly and produce a fully parametric model from it — deliberate sketch planes, fully constrained sketches, a feature tree someone else can read and edit. Other tasks flip the direction: you're handed an existing model plus a change request and must propagate the edit without breaking downstream features, or you audit a model (sometimes AI-generated) for dimensional accuracy, tolerance application, and whether the construction actually expresses the stated design intent. Alongside the geometry you write up why you did it that way — which datums you chose, where you applied GD&T and why, what manufacturing process the geometry assumes. That written rationale is often the more valuable half of the deliverable.

The project runs in FreeCAD. micro1 is explicit that Fusion 360, SolidWorks, or Inventor experience transfers, and prior FreeCAD exposure is a plus rather than a gate — but you should expect to be productive in an unfamiliar tree and constraint solver fairly quickly, and the topological naming quirks of FreeCAD will come up.

What the screen looks for

  • Real parametric discipline, not surface modeling habits. Expect probes on fully-constrained sketches, feature ordering, and how you keep a model robust under later parameter changes.
  • GD&T you have actually applied. ASME Y14.5 or equivalent, on parts that were made — datum selection, tolerance stack-up, the difference between a tolerance you can inspect and one you can't.
  • DFM across two or three named processes. Injection molding, sheet metal, CNC, casting/forging — with the specific geometric consequences, not the vocabulary.
  • Assembly-level work. Mates, joints, mating tolerances, and how you organize a multi-part model.
  • Experience depth matched to task tier. Roughly 4+ years for editing assignments, 10+ for complex creation work. Reverse engineering (scan-to-CAD, point clouds) and scripting (Python, iLogic, VBA) are genuine differentiators.

Logistics

Fully remote contractor engagement, hourly, largely asynchronous — you take tasks from a queue rather than sitting in meetings. You need your own machine capable of running CAD comfortably. Volume on these projects fluctuates with customer demand; treat it as a supplement to other work rather than a guaranteed weekly load, and expect a calibration phase where early submissions get reviewed closely before task volume opens up. Pay is stated as observed in the $40–100/hr range and typically tracks task complexity and demonstrated experience tier.