Free CAD Software - Overview

Brief Overview of Free CAD Software

[ You may also be interested in my post on CAD using LibreOffice Draw. ]

[Nov. 17, 2013]

[Dec. 6, 2013 - update]

[April 21, 2015 - update re BRL-CAD]

[Feb. 2019 - update re nanocad]

[September 2019 - update re OnShape]

https://sites.google.com/site/lagadoacademy/useful-links

Purpose of This Page

The intent of this web page is to provide a quick overview of free CAD software. The target audience is not the professional CAD user, but rather the casual CAD user (such as the hobby machinist) who is looking for software for occasional personal use. There are of course many excellent CAD packages available for purchase. The information is current as of the above date(s), and is accurate to the best of my knowledge. However, please note that I do not have the time or resources to fully test and evaluate the software listed below; this information is based partly on personal experience, and mostly on web based research.

MORE INFORMATION --> See also this page for more links to CAD software.

Note: All of the software listed on this page is FREE.

COMMENTS: Did I leave something out? Get something wrong? To leave comments or send email, please visit the home page.

✔ = yes

✘ = no

C = see Comments below

W = reportedly runs on Linux using Wine (don't count on this unless you actually try it)

Other Evaluation Considerations

In addition to the basic criteria shown in the above table, you may also want to consider the following in choosing CAD software:

Ease of learning: Generally speaking, the more features a CAD program supports, the steeper will be the learning curve. If you are only going to use CAD occasionally, it may be worthwhile to go with software which has fewer capabilities, but is easier to learn and use.
Manual: Does the software have a manual available? A manual is a useful aid in learning the software, and is also another source of evaluation information.
Tutorials: Are there tutorials available, either written or video?
Support group: Does the software have a support group which can provide help and answer questions?
Export to PDF: If you are going to share your work, the ability to output to PDF will make it possible to share with others who do not use CAD.

Additional comments:

BRL-CAD

Support for other formats: "An assortment of geometric converters to convert to and/or from other geometry formats, including Euclid, ACAD, AutoCAD DXF, TANKILL, Wavefront OBJ, Pro/ENGINEER, JACK (the human factors model for doing workload/usability studies), Viewpoint Data Lab, NASTRAN, Digital Equipment's Object File Format (OFF), Virtual Reality Mark-up Language (VRML), Stereo Lithography (STL), Cyberware Digitizer data, and FASTGEN4."

Draftsight

DraftSight has a Resource Center with manuals and tutorials. Additional tutorials are available on YouTube.

Can be downloaded from the vendor. The Linux version is 32-bit. To install on a 64 bit Ubuntu system, the best advice I have found so far is here (google translation of Spanish page).

eMachineShop

This software seems to be offered primarily as a front end to ordering custom designed parts. I do not know if it is useful for CAD in general.

LibreOffice Draw

LibreOffice Draw is part of the free LibreOffice suite; it is not true CAD, but does have capabilities for making scaled and dimensioned drawings. It does not have true 3D, but does offer some limited 3D features. For more on using LibreOffice draw for CAD, see this link.

OnShape

The following was copied from this link:

"Onshape is a 'freemium' product - Free and Pro version. There is no functional difference between the two.

It runs in a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera) and therefore on Windows, MAC and Linux.

There is a IOS version out now (iPhone/iPad) and an Android version soon.

The technology used is WebGL. If you want to know if your device supports this, go to (https://get.webgl.org/)

Free users may have any amount of 'Documents' (CAD files) up to 5GB. The Free users may have up to 5 active private Documents at one time. 'Active' means 'available' - like having a library book. The Free user may have unlimited inactive private Documents (the books in the library). Any document may be made public and not have it count against the five. There is a great video (second on the page) here that explains this (http://www.onshape.com/product-tour)

The data is yours an you may use it for free forever. The differences between the 'Free' and 'Pro' versions are; (1) No limits on active private documents and (2) 100GB storage

The business model wants you (the hobbyist and maker) to use this for free. We will never come back and squeeze you for money. Yes I am an employee and am happy to answer any questions this group has."

See also (below) a short piece about my experience learning and using OnShape.

OpenSCAD

From Wikipedia: "OpenSCAD is a non-visual, programmer-oriented solid modeling tool. OpenSCAD has been recommended as an entry-level CAD tool for designing open source hardware such as scientific tools for research and education."

QCAD

QCAD is free, but with limitations; additional functionality requires a purchase. The free version opens and saves in DXF format only (imports SVG, exports to PDF). Additional parts libraries (add-ons) can be downloaded for free.

Sketchup Make

Runs in Linux under Wine, with some limitations. The Pro Version (which requires purchase) supports DWG and DXF formats.

Solid Edge 2D

"...includes limited symbol libraries (a 2D library with the most popular symbols for mechanical/plumbing is included)..."

Tinkercad

Linux support: Should work on any Linux system wich supports WebGL; see this link.

OnShape - Personal Experience

[September 7, 2019]

This month I decided it was finally time to start learning 3D CAD. My background in this area start with high school drafting classes (many years ago in the paper and pencil era), a little bit of experience using AutoCAD (2D), and extensive use of LibreOffice Draw (see above). I still use LibreOffice Draw for a lot of basic 2D drawing, as it is quick, easy (in part because I have used it so much), and is a good fit for very simple plans and drawings. However, I have a longer term goal of getting into 3D printing and perhaps some CNC work, so I thought it was time to step up to 3D.

I decided to go with OnShape because I prefer Linux, and OnShape is an easy option in that regard. Right now I am using Ubuntu 18.04 and Firefox, and OnShape is working perfectly for me. OnShape also offers free, online, self-paced tutorials which makes the learning process go a lot easier. As I write this, I have completed three of the twelve "fundamentals" courses, so my experience this far is quite limited. However, I plan to update this section as I go along so the impressions are fresh in my mind. Note that there are other free course (a total of 99 in all right now), in addition to the Fundamentals courses.

Each of the Fundamentals courses is divided into a number of parts, and each part is divided into multiple lessons. The lessons start with a brief video explaining a specific function or concept. Following the video is an exercise to complete, in order to put the video lessons into practice. OnShape recommends using two browser windows for the exercises - one for the exercise instruction and another for the online document creation; however, I found it easier to just switch back and forth between browser tabs. The ideal setup would be dual monitors, but I am not currently set up for that.

Completing the three courses I have taken so far took about 6 hours, divided over seven different days. I prefer to work on the courses a little bit every day, so I can better reinforce what I have already learned. My initial impressions of the tutorials is that they are quite good. The lessons are well organized, and brief enough to get through in a single sitting. A minor concern is that some features of OnShape have changed since the lessons were written, and the lessons have not been updated to reflect that. However, the number of changes is very small, and the differences are also minor enough that it's easy to see there has been a slight change.

As of this writing, even though I am still very much a novice I have been able (with plenty of guidance) to create a familiarly complex 3D part document. Admittedly, I would not have been able to do it without guidance, but I was able to learn and understand the methods and approach, and become more confident in using OnShape.

[September 9, 2019]

I just went through the tutorial on Drawings, and this has cleared up a few things for me. Initially I had thought that if someone wanted to use OnShape for 2D drawings they could do it by not using the 3D capability. I still think this could be done, but it it would actually require more effort than just using a 2D program to begin with. To see why this is so, you have to understand the difference in OnShape between a sketch and a drawing. In OnShape, a sketch is a 2D outline which can be morphed into a 3D shape through various operations. Once you have defined 3D parts and assemblies, OnShape will then automatically generate a drawing with various views of the part. The drawing views can then be further annotated with a separate set of drawing instructions. If OnShape was used just to create 2D drawings, you would essentially be creating a 2D drawing, and partially re-creating it again. Where OnShape gets its efficiency is in its ability to "draw" a part (or assembly of parts) in 3D, and then quickly create multiple 2D drawing or views of that part. There are also many other benefits that come from the 3D aspect as well as the ability to specify materials, computer weights and volumes, and much more.

By the same token, I also do not think it is worth learning OnShape with the idea that you will start with 2D, and then work your way up to 3D. This is primarily because OnShape is first and foremost a 3D CAD package with the added benefit of being able to produce 2D drawings as well. To effectively produce 2D drawings with OnShape, you would have to learn many of the 3D functions anyway. I would therefore recommend to anyone who just wants 2D CAD that OnShape is not for you.

Fortunately for me, I started working with OnShape with the express purpose of learning 3D CAD. I have not tried any other 3D CAD software, so I cannot say how OnShape compares to other offerings, but I can say that so far I have found OnShape to be a well constructed and powerful 3D CAD program. I would not say that the learning curve is steep, but rather somewhat long and gradual. My impression at this (very early) point is that I will be able to create useful documents with perhaps 10 hours of training, although I would add that those documents are not going to be very complex (and not as efficiently constructed as an experienced OnShape user). Hopefully the ability to use OnShape for useful work early on will lead me to use it more often, and I will become more proficient as I use it more.

[September 11, 2019]

At this point I have progressed to the point where I can create simple parts with some confidence. I think I can also do multi-part creations, if the individual parts are not too complex or numerous, but this is still a bit of a struggle. In particular, there are some subtle issues with logically connecting the individual parts and features so that any changes will propagate appropriately. I have found it useful at this stage to give myself some "assignments" such as creating a threaded rod. Also, I have volunteered to make simple drawings for some other people in order to give myself additional training.

The learning process up to now has been fairly time consuming in that I have tried to devote some time every day to learning OnShape. For me anyway, this is more effective than doing exercises once a week or even every couple of days; by doing daily exercises I reinforce what I have already learned while building new skills.

[September 13, 2019]

This will likely be my final entry on learning OnShape, even though I still have much to learn. At this point, I have invested about 20 hours (maybe more) in teaching myself OnShape. Even with this small amount of training, I can create multi-part 3D drawings, and generate 2D drawings from those. I have learned that there are multiple ways to produce similar results, but that some methods are superior to others in terms of taking full advantage of parametric 3D functions. My training is far from complete, although I believe I have learned enough at this point to use OnShape productively for my relatively simple requirements. My plan going forward is to continue to take additional online tutorials, and to use OnShape as much as possible - even for simple drawing tasks - in order to reinforce my learning.

[Oct. 12, 2019]

A bit more on creating 2D drawings with OnShape: I have found that it is possible to create drawings directly from a "sketch" (which is 2D). The "normal" method of producing drawings is to create one or more 2D sketches, which are then used to generate 3D shapes. The 3D shapes can then be used to generate a drawing. While I have found that 2D drawings can be created directly from a sketch, this has both benefits and drawbacks. The primary benefits is that for simple parts a 2D drawing can be quickly generated and dimensioned. The major drawback is that functions like chamfers and fillets are not available in 2D. Not surprisingly, while OnShape is a very powerful 3D program, it is feature poor when used solely for 2D drawing as it is not intened to be a 2D CAD program.