The title says it all…
I am looking for an inexpensive Computer Aided Design (CAD) program. Can anyone suggest one? I am using draftsight right now, but it lacks 3d capability… I would like a full blown copy of AutoCAD 2018, but that is waaaayyyy too expensive for me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
You can get a free (and completely legit) licence for Fusion 360 if it’s for personal or ‘small business’ (under $100k turnover I think) usage.
I believe it presents itself as a free 12 month trial, but at the end of that trial period, you just say that you want to continue using it, and that’s all fine and permitted.
Depending on what you are planning to do with it, SketchUp may work. It is not a mechanical CAD program and it isn’t intended for doing diagrams or 2D layouts, but it is pretty decent for architectural CAD and for doing simple things like carpentry design it is adequate. As with all 3D CAD systems there is a learning curve but the limited function set means it is less than most, especially compared to parametic modelers.
If you are looking for a mechanical CAD software that is quick to learn and at the low end (although still several thousand dollars), IronCAD would be my recommendation. There are no really cheap or freeware 3D CAD systems that are really worth the time and effort it takes to make them do anything more than the most simple models.
Stranger
I think I am going to have to get creative with my old (ancient) cad program. It won’t work on 64bit systems. So, I think I will have to try making a dual boot system, for now.
I’ve piddled around with FreeCAD. it works similarly enough to CATIA where I can find my way around it pretty easily. It’s certainly capable of doing “more than the most simple models.”
Some alternative programs:
https://alternativeto.net/software/autocad/
Draftsight is a very powerful cad program for free. You can buy it and get more features but the base is plenty strong for most.
If you have pretty much any connection to an educational institution, and you aren’t planning on selling any of the things you design, you can get a free license for AutoCAD.
Having used FreeCAD, I have to disagree. Once you start doing things that are more complex than shaped cut out of plate or other geometry that can be produced by boolean operations on basic solid shapes it becomes cumbersome. And if you need to make dramatic feature changes or reallocate references it rapidly becomes an exercise in frustration. Having worked on at least half of the major 3D solid modeling packages availble in the last 25 years from I-DEAS and the original CATIA V3 to Pro/ENGINEER, Unigraphics/UG/NX, and SolidWorks, I wouldn’t recommend FreeCAD for anything more complex than plate and tube structures. Yes, their website shows gears and guitars, but the effort to produce that geometry in comparison to what one can do in a modern solid parametric CAD system is an order of magnitude of difference.
Stranger
If you are a student or have kids who are, I would highly recommend snagging an Educational version of Rhinoceros 3d. You can use the Educational version for commercial use and it can read and write AutoCAD 2018 files natively. A great for around $195. www.rhino3d.com
I agree with Stranger that FeeCAD is very limited.
Fusion 360 is the best free 3D modeling software I’ve found so far. (Free for personal use, but not open source.)