CAD Software for Beginners and Hobbyists. Step one is to find some CAD software you can learn to love. This is the software you'll be using more than any other of the 3 basic packages, and it will take the most time to master as well. The very first thing you need to know is that there is no one single best CAD package for everyone. BricsCAD, the all-in-one CAD design solution in.dwg that answers all your needs; 2D drafting, 3D modeling, mechanical design, and BIM. Learn more about BricsCAD Add to Compare. Create 3D from 2D & back. FreeCAD allows you to sketch geometry constrained 2D shapes and use them as a base to build other objects. It contains many components to adjust dimensions or extract design details from 3D models to create high quality production ready drawings.
Mechanical engineering encompasses industrial design, biomedical engineering and automotive design. Planning as well as designing mechanical pieces is what mechanical engineers do. Whether they're producing motor or engine parts or concepting devices such as robots and refrigerators, they at some point need to use a CAD software.
CAD (short for Computer-Aided Design) is a methodology focusing primarily on the use of computer software to design real world objects. Since the inception of computers, CAD has been used in various engineering fields; In particular mechanical engineering relies mostly on this kind of software to hugely facilitate a task that was once extremely diffcult to accomplish by hand : Mechanical Design.
Premium CAD software package such as CATIA help mechanical engineers complete their tasks by assisting them in creating preliminary designs and spotting the faults prior to production, saving resources and time, however such type of software is very costly and not accessible to everyone in the field, that's why we tried to compile the best 10 free alternatives you can download and use to accomplish your mechanical design tasks (visualization, simulation, 3D printing and much more).
- Best Free CAD Software for Mechanical Engineers
Best Free CAD Software for Mechanical Engineers
#1. SelfCAD
SelfCAD is a self-proclaimed leader in the world of online 3D slicing and modeling software'. Certainly, this 3D CAD software has the complete design-to-print workflow in a smartly presented package. At its core the SelfCAD offers a strong 3D CAD modeling and app that enables the users to design complex as well as 3D printable designs and objects.
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#2. TinkerCAD
TinkerCAD is well known browser-based CAD software for mechanical engineers. You can start using the software and get started to build 3D modeling projects. TinkerCAD is an excellent preface to 3D software, which just perfect for educational purposes. If you don't have any 3D modeling experience then this is for you as it put life to your great ideas.
You can place the blocks separately to build any object that you need to finish your project. The user-friendly interface of the software makes it easier and simple use of 3D tools and creates your 3D modeling project.
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#3. Fusion 360
Fusion 360 is a fantastic CAD software for mechanical engineers. Students, hobbyists, and startups can use this software for free. It offers a range of motion studies, simulation, and assembly modeling tools. You will love using the robust collaboration tools.
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#4. FreeCAD
It is 100% open source and is specially designed for product design and mechanical engineering design uses, yet it could also be used for engineering industry that depends on a number on parametric 3D modeler.
Even though it is free and open-source, FreeCAD is keeping pace with other well-known CAD software because of its ability to build real 3D solids, 2D drafting, support for meshes, and right-hand coordinate framework in addition to a lot more amazing features.
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#5. OpenSCAD
OpenSCAD is free software program for producing solid 3D models. Unlike TinkerCAD or Blender, OpenSCAD mainly focuses particularly on mechanical dimensions as well as the properties of CAD models rather than their creative properties. It's perfect for creating detailed mechanical models and machine parts.
OpenSCAD allows the user to create models by compositing solid geometry or from 2D outlines, as in a number of premium software. You can export the files in common file formats as well as it supports STL for the 3D printing process.
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#6. SketchUp
SketchUp is free 3D design software. It has a library full of free 3D models which any person could use and to which any person could contribute. The Layout feature of SketchUp allows you to convert 3D models into realistic drawings in no time. After that these can be exported in a range of different file types.
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#7. QCAD
QCAD is free CAD software that mechanical engineers should use in case you are planning to build technical drawings be it for mechanical parts, structures or even diagrams and schematics. Since it's open-source software, it focuses on extensibility, portability, and modularity.
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#8. NanoCAD
Here is another free CAD software for experienced users. It is a free drafting software giving advanced CAD tools. It has a powerful table editor offering a ton of new possible outcomes. This 2D CAD software is available for windows. If you want to enjoy advanced features of the software, then you should download NanoCAD plus or NanoCAD pro version; however this free version is the right choice.
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#9. LeoCAD
LeoCAD is a simple and easy to use CAD software which could be valuable for educational reason for mechanical engineering students. It is appropriate for huge models with different parts.
It is open-source CAD software, which means that anybody can add to it and include new features.
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#10. LibreCAD
LibreCAD is an excellent CAD modeling software for mechanical engineers. It is easy and simple to use software which offers impressive features. Some of the features that LibreCAD is offering to its users include: usage of layers, snap to grid for drawing, measurements within the drawing, and several other features to make your life hell a lot easier when you are completing your task on this CAD software.
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Sometimes we need free Architecture or CAD software to redesign our own apartment's interior or want to decorate. Or just for learning purpose, here are some free and open source software for interior or house Architecture designers.
Archimedes: An architecture open CAD
Archimedes is a free and open source CAD (Computer Aided Design) software built Eclipse's Rich Client Platform. It works on Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows but before installing it, you have need to install Java Virtual Machine. The software and its plugins are under the Eclipse Public License which means anyone can modify its source code to develop its own application without the permission of Archimedes team. It develops as an alternate option to AutoCAD.
SweetHome 3D
SweetHome 3D is an open-source software. It helps people to design the interior of their home in a very intuitive way. You can redesign your home and can see a 3-D version of how everything looks. It allows you to draw walls, rooms, windows, furniture, etc. You can create photorealistic images and videos with various light sources.
ArchiFacile
ArchiFacile is a free floor or house planner software which allows you to design them in two dimensional. This tool is very beneficial for architects as it allows to export design in PDF format. It can be used to plan floor, house, garage, wooden house, a garden shed or pool.
3D Home Design
Best Software For 3d Design
3D Home Design has a free version of its powerful software which enables users to create 2D/3D professional plans for indoor and outdoor views. Graphics are pretty realistic and make working with this software very enjoyable.
Google SketchUp Make
Google SketchUp is a free software which allows you to create 3D models in just a few minutes. There are lots of video tutorials available online which helps newbies. You can build your own house sketch design. Also, the sketch of your living room, a piece of furniture, model your city for Google Earth and more.
BRL-CAD
BRL-CAD is an open source modeling system and cross-platform CAD software. It has ray-tracing for rendering and geometric analysis, interactive geometry editor, analysis benchmark suite, image & signal processing tools, libraries for robust geometric representation, network distributed framebuffer support and more.
LibreCAD
Libre CAD is 2D CAD application that can read DWG files. It writes DXF files and can export files to other formats also such as PNG, JPG etc. It available in 20 languages and supports all major operating systems. (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and others). It provides you layers, blocks, splines, polylines, ellipse tools, advanced tangent line & circle tools, transformation tools, an advanced snapping system and more.
FreeCAD
FreeCAD is a powerful parametric 3D modeler for CAD, CAD, MCAD, CAx, CAE, and PLM. It extremely modular Architecture software that allows customization and use of extensions. It features Open Inventor-compliant 3D scene representation model provided by the Coin 3D library and a broad Python API. It uses the interface which built with Qt. It supports Windows, MAC OSX, and Linux platforms.
nanoCAD
It is a free a Computer Aided Design (CAD) tool for Architectures. It has a user-friendly interface, drafting and design tools, native DWG compatibility, and an open API.
Blender
Blender is the free open source 3D suite for beautiful content creation. It supports all major OS platform. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. The built-in Cycles rendering engine offers GPU & CPU rendering, Real-time viewport preview, HDR lighting support and Permissive License for linking with external software.
GenoCAD
Latest operating system for macbook air. GenoCAD is a CAD software for synthetic biology. This application provides a web-based tool to design plasmids, artificial gene networks, and other synthetic genetic systems composed of standard genetic parts. It includes a parts management system, a rule-based design tool, and a simulation engine.
TinkerCell -CAD for Synthetic Biology
TinkerCell is a software for synthetic biology. The visual interface allows users to design networks using various biological 'parts'. Models can include modules and multiple cells. Users can program new functions using C or Python.
Best Free 3d Cad Design Software Tutorial
Sailcut CAD
It is a sail design and plotting software for Architectures. It allows you to design and visualize your own sail and compute the accurate development of all panels in flat sheets.
QCAD – 2D
It is easy to use, complete 2D CAD system for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It offers a complete set of general purpose CAD tools and uses the DXF format as its native file format. Additional power-user tools including DWG support and enhanced DXF support are available as QCAD Professional for Architecture through proprietary add-ons.
3d Design Software Free
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