Searching for a easy free CAD

As has been said in a different thread, the "free" in opensource projects is about more than cost. You are free to use it and do with it as you please. They can't take it back. Not wishing ill on anyone, but I"ve seen too many free online services go away to trust my work to them. Think free photo hosting by Photobucket, free DNS hosting by Dyn (burned me good) free chat group hosting by Yahoo....
 
Yes, can't say it's "easy" but if you want a free CAD then check out FreeCAD.

John
 
I use FreeCAD, or at least, a small part of it. There are parts which are specialist, and just too powerful - such as thermal dynamics, finite element analysis, mesh generation, etc.

I agree absolutely with @RandyWilson. Whether it be PCB layout tools, "Free" CAD packages for students, or individual home use, unless it is open source, there will come a time when the squeeze is applied, prefereably if you have a number of designs you want to access/rescue. Open source comes with some disadvantages, and some advantages. The advantages easily outweigh the cons. A true bug is fixed in hours. Your work remains your own - not "shared" or used as a vehicle to profile you. However pretty it be, I would never invest my hours in Google's Sketchup.

I needed simple modeling and assembly with the ability to make drawings. I did not expect it delivers a 3D printing tool, animated fly-thru for architects, constraint mechanics, and the like. If I want a ready drawn correct fixing for a particular thread - I just use the toolbox to select it. All I have to do is aim it.

Like all of these software with real power, you have to learn it at your pace, and like (say) Excel, there is a whole bunch of stuff you will never use.

I assisted a friend who is a amateur radio enthusiast (ham radio), constructing a kW linear amplifier. Being able to move the bits around to find a way to fit them all together is exactly what this stuff is good for.
Like this transmitter vacuum tube, and high voltage selector switch. These were created from scratch, with the old cheapo eBay vernier-style digital caliper, and the parts plonked on the desk. This except the tapped coil, where we modeled it first, to get the drill drawing for the acrylic support.

3CX1500A-CAD.png Band-Selector-SwitchCAD.png

And this tank coil inductor set.

L1&L2.png

There is stable FreeCADto 0.16, and FreeCAD daily to 0.19. The thing is constantly evolving. The power guys go at it with Python scripts. If you pick up a shared model, it draws itself from a script.

I am a very long way from being any kind of "expert". I am not even so much of an enthusiast of driving CAD when a sketch with a pencil, and some help from colour pencils on 5mm squares school paper will do.

But - for those who are curious..

View attachment LinearAmp.mp4



















My apologies for the pause at the end - I was fumbling to find the "stop recording" thing.
The appearance is at it's most stark, boring, no theme, default.

Modeling vacuum capacitors that have transparent glass parts was interesting, and come to that, you can see how I made all sorts of surfaces semi-transparent to help see in. None of this is anything special. YouTube, and the FreeCAD website lets you see the really good stuff from clever guys who do stuff like call up standard involute gears to automatically generate, and then place on a shaft and slide on a constraint axis.

My default PC is Linux Mint (Mate), so install is as simple as using the package manager, selecting it, and a click, and after the download, and other minute or so, and it is good to go.

I don't know what is the install experience with the Windows version, but I know there are thousands using it.

For me, the key thing is that it is really free. Also ultra secure, guaranteed no adware, spyware, profiling, bait-&-switch, kickback crapware and the like, if only because you can look at the source code, and you know others have - every day.

The download SHA checksum and digital signatures have to be right. Like for HM, I donate and support if I use. I only use a tiny fraction of what it can do, mostly because the other stuff it can do takes more serious application to learn, and I have been dabbling only so far as I need to.

I understand it is not the only "free" one out there, but this one is completely open source. It will not "dissappear" into a renamed product, where you have to pay for updates, and can only get the functionality from being online.
 
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Minor correction. Current stable release is 0.18. Current beta is 0.19. 0.16 is the old interface, don't expend any time learning that one.


There are other CAD programs in the opensource world. OpenCAD, :ibreCAD, QCad, Cad that specializes in electronics, even one that is Lego specific. I looked them all over a while ago, and chose FreeCAD.
 
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