Comments on: 14 Top Free CAD Packages to Download

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 13:05:34 +0000

In reply to ALAN MELANSON. That's very niche. I would suggest learning which premium CAD package is used for this requirement. Then you can look for free a free alternative to that CAD package. E.g. See our AutoCAD alternatives, Solidworks Alternatives, Vectorworks alternatives etc. You can ask more questions like these to the community at CAD Answers.

By: ALAN MELANSON

ALAN MELANSON — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 21:16:59 +0000

I need to layout a production line what free CAD programs would work best for this.

By: Cesar

Cesar — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 21:35:38 +0000

Just wanted to correct that Fusion 360 is not only free to students. It is also free to hobbyists (non-commercial use): https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 12 May 2020 13:09:40 +0000

In reply to John. Personally I would say that Sketchup is still your best bet but you could post the question on CAD Answers and get the advice of the community there.

By: John

John — Mon, 11 May 2020 23:11:26 +0000

Hi Luke – I would like to find a suitable (free) CAD package for designing household products (eg. lighting, furniture etc).
My priorities include:- Good quality rendering, features which allow construction of curved surfaces / organic shapes, compatibility with 3D printing & availability of decent tutorials / forums.
I have previously experimented with Sketch-up but I understand that conversion of files to STL format can be problematic for printing.
What would you recommend?

By: JUSTIN BUNCH

JUSTIN BUNCH — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 04:37:56 +0000

Hey i am a fabricator looking for a program to draft and draw blueprints of custom builds. What program could one recommend for both auto beds, fences, tables, vehicles, etc, etc.

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 21:02:16 +0000

In reply to Curt. So you need to draw these drawings from scratch? Are you experienced in CAD already?

By: Curt

Curt — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 20:51:40 +0000

Your information is great. I often do inspections at bot residential and commercial projects and must provide clear sketches of rafters, joists, foundations, etc. with sizes of members/blocks, etc. Which of these programs would you recommend?

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 14:02:59 +0000

In reply to Roy.

How would the software know the size of the building? For example, is there a unit of measurement in the drawing?

Are the drawings to-scale and scanned using a known DPI?

In both these cases, you could easily input the scaling using Scan2CAD.

By: Roy

Roy — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 08:41:26 +0000

Good morning Luke

I need a basic package that can trace around an existing PDF drawing to determine the size of a given building, as you know not all plans show building size and cant always get hold of the Cad drawings.

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 16:01:56 +0000

In reply to Rex Rich.

I can’t think of anything that would be less confusing than Inkscape TBH.

Inkscape isn’t really designed for the CAD market and tends to have a much lower learning curve than a true CAD app.

By: Rex Rich

Rex Rich — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 02:13:44 +0000

I have a cnc plasma set up i am looking for a simple cad software that is easy to learn. I have tried Qcad and inkscape have found them to be confusing

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 20:24:50 +0000

In reply to Mark M. Sounds like SketchUp is what you're looking for.

By: Mark M

Mark M — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 19:31:37 +0000

Hey Luke, I am an x-architect (practiced 22 years) when cad was just rolling into the profession. I used a program called “Datacad” which I loved and was simple for architecture as that is what it was solely designed for. Today I wish to help my son renovate a home and I need a simple 2D drawing program with easy to use 3D modelling. I have autocad architecture free version, but I am finding it to be very complicated. Is there another you can recommend that is less complex? I

By: Zarna

Zarna — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 12:15:55 +0000

Hey Luke, This blog is really very much informative. Thank you. I bookmarked it a long time ago and have been reading today to get some knowledge. Thanks

By: Robert Khamis

Robert Khamis — Sat, 14 Sep 2019 10:30:46 +0000

Many thanks for this great work of listing all these valuable information.
Robert.

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 07:22:30 +0000

In reply to The Fashion Archaeologist. TBH, the things you've mentioned 'like page printing/edge alignment marks, page numbers' wouldn't require a CAD program. Seems like you could do that with any free graphic design software. Or, indeed any free CAD drafting software. They are not CAD-specific features.

By: The Fashion Archaeologist

The Fashion Archaeologist — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 18:23:37 +0000

I’m an independent designer of sewing patterns (historical garments). I currently hand-draft my own master patterns, then have them scanned to PDF. I’d like to be able to include things like page printing/edge alignment marks, page numbers, or other guides as an overlay on the pattern itself, to help users print and assemble the full-size patterns at home on standard letter-sized paper. Would a CAD programme accomplish this, and which one would you recommend? I need a reliable, free programme, can’t afford anything else.

By: Luke

Luke — Sun, 05 May 2019 11:41:39 +0000

In reply to Leland Whitlock. Thanks for letting us know about the change in Draftsight pricing, Leland. I have updated the post to let readers know!

By: Leland Whitlock

Leland Whitlock — Sat, 04 May 2019 00:19:55 +0000

You might want to include Solid Edge 2D Drafting which I just discovered. It is made by Siemens and can be found at https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/plmapp/education/solid-edge/en_us/free-software/free-2d-cad

Also of not DraftSight is no longer free though if you have an older version you can use it until the end of 2019 after which it will stop working.