Cheap basic CAD software?

[anonymous-user]

Morning All,

I'm looking for some basic software to draw up a couple of simple components to give to my local machine shop. I was tempted to draw it by hand but it looks like my board has been disposed off in the 3 house moves since I last used it

Don't really fancy paying Autocad £3500 a year either to do 3 drawings!!

Thanks

[chrisch77]

Try OnShape - available online in the cloud on pretty much any device and offers a free account option if you don't mind your parts being 'public'.

Edit - OnShape is not very basic and offers full 3D CAD functionality akin to industry competitors, so if you are not an experienced CAD user it could be a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Edited by chrisch77 on Thursday 11th February 10:23

[Robb F]

ProgeCAD is the best Autocad clone I've used. 30 day free trial then £192 for a perpetual licence.

https://www.progesoft.com/products/progecad-profes...

You could also use sketchup I think, but I've not got any experience with that

Edited by Robb F on Thursday 11th February 10:36

[Mr Pointy]

How fast can you draw? Bricscad has a 30 day free trial:

https://www.bricsys.com/download.do

I'm not sure if it has any limitations.

[CustardOnChips]

Try Fusion 360. It uswd to be free for personal/hobby use.

[TopCAD]

What is it you want? If its simple and you sketch something i'll knock it up for you.

Let me know what format you want it output in - dwg/dxf/dgn/etc.?

[anonymous-user]

TopCAD said:

What is it you want? If its simple and you sketch something i'll knock it up for you.

Let me know what format you want it output in - dwg/dxf/dgn/etc.?

Username checks out.

[CustardOnChips]

OpulentBob said:

TopCAD said:

What is it you want? If its simple and you sketch something i'll knock it up for you.

Let me know what format you want it output in - dwg/dxf/dgn/etc.?

Username checks out.

Occupation also checks out.

[eps]

Sketchup or possibly librecad?

Both free, but slightly different..

[105.4]

TopCAD said:

What is it you want? If its simple and you sketch something i'll knock it up for you.

Let me know what format you want it output in - dwg/dxf/dgn/etc.?

Bookmarked for future reference

[The_Jackal]

As far as I know Fusion 360 is still free for hobby use.
It seems to be the go to software for creating scale model parts and the FPV hobby for all kinds of customs fittings and attachments.

[paulrockliffe]

The_Jackal said:

As far as I know Fusion 360 is still free for hobby use.
It seems to be the go to software for creating scale model parts and the FPV hobby for all kinds of customs fittings and attachments.

It was certainly still free for non-profit when I installed it earlier in the week.

I've not used many of the alternatives, other than Sketchup, which was a total pain to learn and I was proficient in AutoCAD 2000 a long time ago, but I really like Fusion. If you make things your brain tends to think in terms of how you would make it and Fusion works the same way. I really like the history feature that lets you modify previous steps without having to redo everything you did afterwards.

[ARHarh]

Fusion 360 all day long. Professionally I used SDRC ideas and then moved to CATIA many years ago. Now for hobby use I prefer fusion 360. And its free with a few limitations.

[anonymous-user]

TopCAD said:

What is it you want? If its simple and you sketch something i'll knock it up for you.

Let me know what format you want it output in - dwg/dxf/dgn/etc.?

Thank you very much for your kind offer! I'm just awaiting delivery of my new digital verniers to take some measurements and I will PM you if you don't mind?

To everyone else, thank you very much for your suggestions. I will do some investigations.

[PiesAreGreat]

A few years ago Draft sight was free to use, but it looks like now they charge, but you can get a 30 day trial. I used to after accepting a job that needed a little CAD just to get my sharpen my skills a bit, when I hadn't done any CAD in years...

Nice and easy introduction, but it was 2D only

Edited by PiesAreGreat on Thursday 18th February 23:29

[mojitomax]

Fusion 360 is free and very powerful

[Sportidge]

If you want really basic and free, then give Tinkercad a try.

I've used it for some basic stuff for 3D printing and it works just fine

Otherwise, I'd agree with Fusion360

[Deangtv]

Sign up as a student, its free and they dont ask for evidence. I believe its a years access, well it used to be anyway