absolutely free CAD type programs

[ruben]

hello

good afternoon
i wanted to know which programs are absolutely free

I have used the non-commercial version of fusion 360 but it only lets me make 10 sketches.

my only preference is that they are completely free.
free and easy to use

thanks

 

[ruben]

or with free for life without the restriction of the sketches



thanks

 

[ruben]

i like CAD software for desing

 

[djc]

Someone asked a similar question some six months ago.

https://www.homemodelenginemachinis...d-model-with-measurements-that-is-free.36285/

Perhaps you could review those answers and say in what way they do not meet your needs.

If you research Fusion, I think you are limited to the number of 'active' projects/documents so you just make some of them inactive to continue.

https://www.desktopmakes.com/post/fusion-360-s-10-document-limit-explained

 

[rleete]

SolidWorks was on sale for $25 for the "makers" version. Not sure if it still is, but that is a bargain.

Edit: Just checked, and it's still that price. Why go with some half-assed free stuff, when you can buy one of the best packages out there for a nominal fee?

 

[Charles Lamont]

Onshape has a free licence plan.

 

[TonyM]

I prefer NanoCAD and Tinkercad.

 

[timo_gross]

Someone asked a similar question some six months ago.

https://www.homemodelenginemachinis...d-model-with-measurements-that-is-free.36285/

Perhaps you could review those answers and say in what way they do not meet your needs.

If you research Fusion, I think you are limited to the number of 'active' projects/documents so you just make some of them inactive to continue.

https://www.desktopmakes.com/post/fusion-360-s-10-document-limit-explained

There is "no free lunch", there is no such thing as "free" Cad Software. All you can get is something that does not cost money. You will still have to invest (same word? wonder why!) time instead of money.
The company offered "free" hobby licenses and small buisiness licenses of the in "first post mentioned software" to gain recognition and to utilize "free highly qualified labour force" in order to debug and test their software.

 

[stanstocker]

hello

good afternoon
i wanted to know which programs are absolutely free

I have used the non-commercial version of fusion 360 but it only lets me make 10 sketches.

my only preference is that they are completely free.
free and easy to use

thanks

First off: Have you done a search for free cad packages? Open Source CAD packages? You will get lots of hits, everything from clickbait to completely open and unrestricted cad packages of varying quality and capability.

The BIG hole in the free / open source world is quality CAM, although perhaps the latest FreeCAD may have filled that in, haven't had a free day to go play with it and see how it stacks up. This is based on needing to run machine tools in a conventional CNC sort of manner. The world is full of slicers for 3D stuff, and the router world has quite a few good free options. For running lasers in the small shop Lightburn is about the best game in town.

You haven't specified your OS. Other than purely web based packages, odds are you will have your choice of operating system opening up or eliminating many options. I have a few windows machines in spite of being a linux bigot. Alibre, virtual synthesizers / VST's / amp and cabinet modelers, tax software, on1Photo Raw, Lightburn (linux support discontinued as of release 2.x) and RC flight simulators simply make windows a necessity for the applications I want to use. There just are not open source options that I like as well, or in my opinion that are as good in ease of use or quality. In some cases there just are no even make excuses and fight your way through open source alternatives at all. Hurts to say it, but I'd rather be pragmatic than be one of those insufferable one and only one true way jerks. A wonderful app that is a joy to use on an irksome OS beats a lousy app on a wonderful OS.

Here are few options to have a peek at:

Free and easy? Tinkercad. Web based, increasingly capable, not just a LEGO like bunch of blocks any longer. About the only one I'd call "easy", and it still can trip you up.

Free with no restrictions? Freecad for parametric 3D CAD, LibreCAD for 2D. There are some others, do a google search. I had a lot of hassles with Freecad years ago and gave up on it, bought Alibre. FreeCAD has released an actual 1.x release level package after many years, I've heard that it actually works, many of the big issues have been resolved, and at least some of the often used workbenches have similar if not fully consistent behavior.

Free but with varying restrictions: Onshape, Fusion360 Hobby, NanoCAD. Many others, often in various forms of the old "Hey Kid! First one's free!" school of marketing. As you have seen over the years, Autodesk is particularly skilled at this game. They've been playing it since BEFORE there was such a thing as IBM PC Compatible. Used to run it on a Heath/Zentih (IIRC) H100 desktop almost half a century ago. Yup, even then they would change the terms on you.

Cheap, not free : Solidworks light and fluffy "makers" edition. $25 on sale. Maybe harsh, when solidworks dropped their EAA deal and brought out the "makers" edition the marketing was so gee whiz fluffy cutesy "Look at me! I'm a MAKER! Squeal with glee" multicultural diverse cliche cliche after cliche I darn near puked a few times before I could figure out just what the heck it really was. Biff and Babs flirting by the glowforge sort of feel. Seems they actually have something sort of useful, but nobody I know is using it and you just don't hear anyone singing it's praises on any of the forums. All my partners in crime are either full on Solidworks or Alibre folks for the most part, the retired guys who used to get full Solidworks via the EAA membership tended to go to Alibre for purely financial reasons. If you happen to a veteran, both brands have good to excellent pricing for you.

Two paid but not insanely expensive possibilities:

Real CAD at a decent you own it and it never expires price: Alibre Atom

A decent 2D DRAWING program with good CAM - Vectric Cut2D. Lowest cost version of the Vectric software. I've used VCarve Pro for years, but it's far from free. I all capped drawing as it is not in any way a technical cad package, it's for folks using routers for wood work. Different mindset to teh software, different market. But still very good software.

For a different sort of object creation, there are good free organic sculpting packages: Blender or Sculpt3D. Neither one is a technical cad, but worth knowing about. Nomad on a larger android tablet with a good stylus is excellent. Wings3D is well liked by many. Blender has some add ons that make it more useful for technical CAD but I haven't tried them out, blender is already insanely complex for a mere mortal like me.

"Easy" is actually the biggest stumbling item in your request, I find some things easy others find hard, and struggle to do what others find trivial. If you use a CAD package regularly you will eventually find it easy or at least consistent and know the magic keyboard shortcuts no matter which package you use.

 

[lucca]

Try FreeCAD. I have been using it since 2017 for engraving to complex vehicle design. See https://abbottanp.com/ Knowledge Center along the right hand side of the web page.

 

[petertha]

Cheap, not free : Solidworks light and fluffy "makers" edition. $25 on sale. Maybe harsh, when solidworks dropped their EAA deal and brought out the "makers" edition the marketing was so gee whiz fluffy cutesy "Look at me! I'm a MAKER!

The Marketing department has indeed had their fingers in the mess. (As a SW user) I keep monitoring Maker, but not brave enough to make the leap. As you mention everyone has different requirements. Or more often when venturing into 3D, don't know what they don't know quite yet. SW is pretty good software. At first brush, to replicate this power for $25 or $100 or whatever price is this month seems like a steal for model engineering purposes. Specific to Maker from what I've been reading, they did everything pretty much 'right' or at least according to their broad brushes of a non-commercial packaging..... up to the point of execution. Its a full version of SW, no different than buying SW Regular seat. In fact Maker packages other modules (freeform design, whatever they call it) which isn't even included with paid SW Regular which p*sses me off. Maker can save files in STL & STEP therefore can 3D print. Other export formats are turned off, I think the ones that talk to CNC, because, well, that is their way of ensuring non-commercial use. Whether we agree or disagree, that is how they implemented. IMO less confusing that Fusion, but that's another topic. If you need CAM, particularly integrated CAM, look elsewhere. Files made in Maker cannot be read in Regular, which again is their way of controlling commercialization. Aside from a watermark, the powerful Drawing module is identical to Regular.

But where they seem to have stumbled is associated to logging into 3D-Experience (The Swamp as I call it). It should be as simple as digital handshake validation with mothership you are who you say you are & proceed. But... seems like it works, it doesn't work, it forgets, it coughs on updates, little or no related support... And that aspect seems to be the pain point where many struggle & throw in the towel. But I also know people using Maker, deal with the occasional glitches it & happy as a clam.

Yes it seems EAA & all those other prior promotional SW discounts are being corralled into this maker-type of subscription based, online validation mode. I think Student & US military are still around (with detailed credential validation). And this might vary by country. And will $25 or $100 this year go to $250 next year? One only has to look at other apps to answer that question.

https://discover.solidworks.com/solidworks-makers?utm_medium=email&utm_source=promotional&utm_campaign=_XCMP9093_&utm_content=DM48291&RCid=@F8j7S+l6oE0l9et55Xljjw==

 

[BoCam]

Fusion 360 allows you to have 10 "editable" sketches. You can turn off "editable" for a specific sketch and it'll allow you to make another sketch. You can turn editable back on for any of your sketches up to 10 at a time.

 

[TSutrina]

hello

good afternoon
i wanted to know which programs are absolutely free

I have used the non-commercial version of fusion 360 but it only lets me make 10 sketches.

my only preference is that they are completely free.
free and easy to use

thanks

FreeCAD is free CAD design. FEA analysis etc. And you can import and export the standard file types. No size restrictions. I used Pro E and Unigraphics as an engineer. And have used Solid Works. This can compete with them. Using these programs for 15 years there is no program that does everything well. Free CAD isn't different. You learn to get around problems. Had to do that for the commercial products also. The new version 1.0 is still being debugged. It is usable but less friendly right now. That will change. You can drop back to the previous version.