FreeCad
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@escapeartist said:
Nice find! Downloading...
BTW, don't forget about Doublecad XT, also free: http://www.doublecad.com/Products/DoubleCADXTv3/tabid/1100/Default.aspx
Downloaded that and in the recommended section these showed up:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/arquimedes/?source=recommended for architects, CAD.
http://brlcad.org/ open source solid modeling.The internet rocks, all these folks creating great stuff.
A couple of years ago I spent a week or two researching all available free and inexpensive CAD programs. What I found is that programs, such as Doublecad XT are frequently old versions of AutoCAD with some elements removed. I assume that enough elements are removed to get around copyright issues, but I do not know for sure. Anyway, what I ended up doing, and what I recommend others do, is make a list of the CAD features you use the most. Especially the commands you use every day. Make sure they are still in the CAD you are considering. You will probably have to download the trials to check. When I did all that, I found there were no substitutes that would work for me, waited for a sale, and bought AutoCAD LT. I, of course, use SU for 3D. On the other hand, I am checking this FreeCAD out asap. thanks.
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WOW !
This is the exactly what I was looking for (an OpenSource 3D CAD with a Python engine,) when I found SketchUp and got distracted with Ruby.
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It even runs on AMD64 and ARM (but that's still barely used in computers other than mobile devices).
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"What I found is that programs, such as Doublecad XT are frequently old versions of AutoCAD with some elements removed".
Sorry but that is rubbish. Doublecad is actually produced from the Turbocad engine and nothing to do with autodesk or its products.
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And DoubleCAD XT has quasi nothing to see with FreeCad
Double CAD is 2D, Free CAD is 3D
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I descovered nanoCAD - allmoste same as AutoCadLT but free.
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@mike amos said:
"What I found is that programs, such as Doublecad XT are frequently old versions of AutoCAD with some elements removed".
Sorry but that is rubbish. Doublecad is actually produced from the Turbocad engine and nothing to do with autodesk or its products.
Ok, well, I am not a developer. Nonetheless, my investigations did show that the programs I investigated (all the free and cheap autocad substitutes available at the time) had some but not all of the commands of AutoCAD, and also most had UIs indistinguishable from AutoCAD. The important point, from my perspective, was that I am trained in and use AutoCAD every day, so a substitute had to do what I needed doing. And these cheap/free programs frequently had missing some of the most useful commands, (also from my perspective). I looked for my notes just now in order to document my comments here. Alas, I am one of the people who throws things out.....
Donna
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"And DoubleCAD XT has quasi nothing to see with FreeCad
Double CAD is 2D, Free CAD is 3D".Doublecad can deal with 3d models too.
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This topic thread is about a specific modeling application named FreeCAD, ... not about all free CAD applications in general.
I am sure there are other threads for that (as I have posted in them.)
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