Choosing a (free) CAD package
Feb. 25th, 2017 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleyI've been using OpenSCAD for years, exclusively. As a programmer and someone generating exclusively mechanical parts to be 3D printed it's been OK for me. But I feel like I really need an interactive CAD program to work with.
Since I have always and intend to continue to release everything I design into public domain, I feel like I should be using a CAD program that's at least free beer if not free speech.
For free beer, I guess the choice would be Fusion 360. Plenty of makers are using it, but it's not entirely free - commercial users would be required to pay up.
So for now I'm thinking I should at least give FreeCAD a try.
One thing I'll have to be able to do is export in a format that Solidworks can import because that's what the robotics students use (they get it for free). As a mentor and a maker doing free work, I could get a copy of Solidworks for free also, but see above.
Any opinions on free CAD programs? I'm sure FreeCAD has warts, but I figure I'll draw a few things and see how it goes. I also like the fact that at least one friggin' piece of software is entirely local on my PC.
Since I have always and intend to continue to release everything I design into public domain, I feel like I should be using a CAD program that's at least free beer if not free speech.
For free beer, I guess the choice would be Fusion 360. Plenty of makers are using it, but it's not entirely free - commercial users would be required to pay up.
So for now I'm thinking I should at least give FreeCAD a try.
One thing I'll have to be able to do is export in a format that Solidworks can import because that's what the robotics students use (they get it for free). As a mentor and a maker doing free work, I could get a copy of Solidworks for free also, but see above.
Any opinions on free CAD programs? I'm sure FreeCAD has warts, but I figure I'll draw a few things and see how it goes. I also like the fact that at least one friggin' piece of software is entirely local on my PC.
