Recommendation on free CAD software?

[For Science!]

I would like some recommendations on free CAD software to design some very easy things that can be 3D printed.

[manikyath]

sketchup 2017 "can" be nice, depending on what you want to make and how you like the software to work. it's got a faily low learning curve, but trying to make something more complex is like bashing your toe on the corner of a door, repatedly, for hours.

 

past that, forthe more complex stuff Fusion360 is pretty nice, but their "forcing you to save in the cloud" thing REALLY infuriates me.

[akio123008]

There's something I use called "Freecad" and it works OK. I'm no expert in CAD but I've used it for a few things and it seemed all right.

[Hackentosher]

Fusion 360 if you're not commercial and can work around the free version limitations. If you can get a student license (haven't had to apply for a student account in a while, usually they don't look too close), definitely do it.

 

Otherwise, FreeCAD is kinda taking the maker world by storm after the licensing change with Fusion because it is FOSS. If you're new to CAD and just learning, I would probably start there, but in my experience (and bias) Fusion is more intuitive.

[H713]

Fusion 360 is OK for 3D work, though now that I have access to SolidWorks, I mostly use it instead. I haven't found any free software that really touches it.

 

It's different in the PCB Layout world... KiCAD is 90% as good as most of the paid solutions (and in many cases, a good deal better), and there's no licensing crap to put up with. 

[12345678]

many paid software let you use stuff for free if you're a student or provide free trials

like autodesk (it does have different lineups, like, alianss fusion, autocad)

rhino3d (it allows you to do neet parametric stuff)

 

 

[ColinLTT]

Fusion360 is a much better user experience than FreeCAD, but does have some limitations. OpenSCAD is another good option. 

[H713]

10 hours ago, 12345678 said:

many paid software let you use stuff for free if you're a student or provide free trials

like autodesk (it does have different lineups, like, alianss fusion, autocad)

rhino3d (it allows you to do neat parametric stuff)

 

 

That is one thing that AutoDesk does better than SolidWorks. SolidWorks charges something like $500 for a student license. 

[For Science!]

Thank you all, as a non-student and non-professional with only casual use for very VERY simple objects at the moment (a bit of extrusion here and there with a chamfering here and there), Fusion 360 seems to be a good fit for me. In fact I remember using it when I was still in high school, so brings me back to good old days, I had just forgotten that it is what I had used backed then (or some previous version of it).