FreeCAD
An open-source parametric 3D modeler
What is FreeCAD?
FreeCAD is a general purpose parametric 3D CAD modeler. The development is completely Open Source (LGPL License). FreeCAD is aimed directly at mechanical engineering and product design but also fits in a wider range of uses around engineering, such as architecture or other engineering specialties.
FreeCAD features tools similar to Catia, SolidWorks or Solid Edge, and therefore also falls into the category of MCAD, PLM, CAx and CAE. It is a feature based parametric modeler with a modular software architecture which makes it easy to provide additional functionality without modifying the core system.
As with many modern 3D CAD modelers it has many 2D components in order to sketch 2D shapes or extract design details from the 3D model to create 2D production drawings, but direct 2D drawing (like AutoCAD LT) is not the focus, neither are animation or organic shapes (like Maya, 3ds Max, Blender or Cinema 4D), although, thanks to its wide adaptability, FreeCAD might become useful in a much broader area than its current focus.
FreeCAD makes heavy use of all the great open-source libraries that exist out there in the field of Scientific Computing. Among them are OpenCascade, a powerful CAD kernel, Coin3D, an incarnation of Open Inventor, Qt, the world-famous UI framework, and Python, one of the best scripting languages available. FreeCAD itself can also be used as a library by other programs.
FreeCAD is also fully multi-platform, and currently runs flawlessly on Windows and Linux/Unix and Mac OSX systems, with the exact same look and functionality on all platforms.
FreeCAD Screenshots
FreeCAD Features
FreeCAD information
- Developed byJuergen Riegel, Werner Mayer
- LicensingOpen Source and Free product.
- Written in
- RatingAverage rating of 4.4
- Alternatives103 alternatives listed
Supported Languages
- English
- Russian
- Spanish
GitHub repository
- 14,176 Stars
- 3,246 Forks
- 952 Open Issues
- Updated
Comments and Reviews
Tags
- 3D Modeler
- CAD
- Web Browser
- programmatic-cad
- 3d-engine
- dxf
- cad-environment
- 3d-engineering
FreeCAD is a bit tricky to learn. However, once you start to overcome the challenge of the less than intuitive setup, you'll find the software is really not that bad.
Mostly I use it to create solid models for 3D printing. I export an STL file from FreeCAD and this works great.
Personally, I'll continue to invest the time and effort to try and learn to use FreeCAD because the bit that I have accomplished so far indicates this may be a very powerful program.
I will agree with the other comment, the shortcomings are a pain, but YouTube videos and some serious effort to experiment will get you off the starting line.
Took a while to grasp the full scope of the program. Now all I can say is WOW!
The capability of FreeCAD is already very good. I use it at home and at work for 3D modelling, usually to create STL files for our 3D printers. For this task I love it.
I have convinced several colleagues to try it, and they are equally impressed. We have a few seats of Solid Works at the office, but with FreeCAD we now can have additional solid modelling capability without added cost (of course there is the learning curve factor, but as more guys in the office are using it, we are getting better and better).
The team developing FreeCAD should be commended for the awesome job so far. This is really a great software and I look forward to seeing it mature. I love it.
totally not beginner friendly, where is all the creative tools? it looks like just a viewing software i can't do anything with it
The fact that it's free and open source is reason enough to use it. User-friendly.
I'm a hobbyist 3D designer and model maker I was using Fusion 360 on the free license for a year, and after watching the great "Fusion 360 or Die" series on Youtube I was pretty comfortable with it. Then after a year AutoDesk asked me to pay $495 per year to continue using it. So I switched over to FreeCAD 0.19 and within an evening of watching Flowwie's "FreeCAD 0.19 Basic Course" on Youtube I can do everything I was able to do in Fusion 360. Also, from what I've seen so far, FreeCAD is actually better designed and better organized than Fusion 360. I highly recommend you make the switch.
Follows principles of parametric modelling. Still in beta, but very powerful. Perhaps not as slick as some commercial offerings, but fully-featured out of the box and well supported
It definitely has its own of doing things and will take you time to get used to its ways but after say 6 months, it is on par with the paid proprietary softwares.