Free CAD drawing download - what to get

[duggie]

G'day swaggers,

I am in need of some advice as to what/where I can get for free as a CAD style drawing/drafting program.

I do not need something over the top , but I want to be able to design/draw drill and blasting patterns and basic trailer and house designs.

Thanks duggie

[austastar]

Hi,
    I used to use Corel Draw at work, but now use a Freeby called Inkscape which does all I need now.
Still miss Corel though.

Cheers

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

[DannyG]

Do you use windows or mac?

House design software is easy to find with a google search, there are 100's of them. I use sweet home 3d. But it is only a house specific program, easy to use etc.

As for auto cad software these guys are probably one of the leaders http://www.autodesk.com.au/ but generally their software is not free but they have free trials and the internet is full of ways to keep using those trials if your not doing it commercially.
I used 3d studio max when I was a windows user, I now use Auto Cad on mac. Both are very powerful programs.

3D Studio Max


AutoCAD


Then there is free software like google sketch up. Very basic and lots of online tutorials. But it can be very powerful too if your willing to add on to it.

[DannyG]

I should add that 3d software can seem really complicated to begin with and they are very powerful but doing a couple of basic online tutorials will get you building easy things like camper designs straight away.

Once you are doing basic square structures you can build on your knowledge and start doing more advanced tutorials. And eventually after a year or 5 you can start doing life like renders like the ones above!

I spent years learning 3d studio max by doing online tutorials yet I had a professional sit down with me for a few hours and he taught me how to do the exact same stuff I was doing but in less than a 10th of time by using more advanced techniques. There are so many ways to make 3d objects and end up with the same result, so start simple and work up from there.

[RobM]

Duggie,
If you are familiar with Autocad have a look at Draftsight. Only 2D but it is free.

FreeCAD is another 3D app that is nice to play with. Not easy to get started but there are several tutorials online.

The link below is a FreeCAD sketch of a box I drew for the Tvan drawbar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz6KGOLWq1I&feature=youtu.be
and another
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOKz0fGDVc

Cheers Rob

[Chris J]

Duggie,

I been using AutoCAD 13 but my licence has run out, I’m now using Draftsight 2d

Regards, Chris.

[Symon]

Another vote for Draftsight.  If you can drive AutoCAD most of the commands are the same.

[cardinal28]

Here at work we are using 'AutoCAD Mechanical 2015' and after having a look on YouTube at Draftsight the 2 programmes look very similar.
Is Draftsight an Autodesk programme or a 'Pirated' lookalike?? (for another word) - Just curious.

[Chris J]

Here at work we are using 'AutoCAD Mechanical 2015' and after having a look on YouTube at Draftsight the 2 programmes look very similar.
Is Draftsight an Autodesk programme or a 'Pirated' lookalike?? (for another word) - Just curious.

I’m not a professional user but AutoCAD has a lot to offer over the Draftsight program, Is it a copy I don’t think so but they are very simular, Menu driven or command line the choice is yours, AutoCAD at thousand odd dollars, my version of Draftsight was free but they do offer an upgrade to professional for about $ 160 USD.

[Symon]

Here at work we are using 'AutoCAD Mechanical 2015' and after having a look on YouTube at Draftsight the 2 programmes look very similar.
Is Draftsight an Autodesk programme or a 'Pirated' lookalike?? (for another word) - Just curious.

From memory (so take with a grain of salt) AutoCAD was originally windows only with the mac version only being a rather recent addition.

Draftsight was developed as platform independent, so it runs on mac and linux as well as windows.  At some point it was purchased by 3ds and now offers professional versions as well as the free ones.  The interface was modelled on AutoCAD, so does look and feel similar.

[GeoffA]

From memory (so take with a grain of salt) AutoCAD was originally windows only......

Actually, it was originally DOS based.....

[corndog]

There is still someone alive that remembers DOS 

[corndog]

Somewhere I still have AutoCAD on 5 1/4" disks.

[GeoffA]

Why??....

[Merts]

Somewhere I still have AutoCAD on 5 1/4" disks.

I don't still have the discs, but my first copy of AutoCAD was version 2.something, and it was running on an 8086 PC (NEC APCIII) under DOS 3.something.

[Merts]

It was fairly rudimentary compared to current software, but it beat the hell out of drawing engineering plans with drafting pens.

[DannyG]

It was fairly rudimentary compared to current software, but it beat the hell out of drawing engineering plans with drafting pens.

And yet there are some brilliant engineers who still prefer to do it the old fashioned way initially. Adrian Newey is one that springs to mind.

[Merts]

And yet there are some brilliant engineers who still prefer to do it the old fashioned way initially. Adrian Newey is one that springs to mind.

Yeah, I could see advantages in mucking around with ideas for mechanical/automotive parts on paper, but my area is civil engineering. Drawing up longitudinal and cross sections for a road construction project by hand is soul destroying.

[corndog]

Still have DOS 3.1 & 3.3 disks as well. Boy I'm showing my age.

[Merts]

Still have DOS 3.1 & 3.3 disks as well. Boy I'm showing my age.

Yeah. If I were to dig around in my study, I reckon I could find some as well. Also DR-DOS 6.0, and PC-File database installation disks.

[Merts]

Re the OP, I can suggest an AutoCAD alternative for anyone who needs a very similar and full featured option.
It's not free, but it's a lot cheaper than the Autodesk offerings.

BricsCAD, classic version is $660, Pro version which includes 3d modelling is $800.

[Bullant4x4]

Still have DOS 3.1 & 3.3 disks as well. Boy I'm showing my age.

Loved using turbo pascal

[RobM]

Somewhere I still have AutoCAD on 5 1/4" disks.

But you you have a 5 1/4" drive ?

[Bird]

But you you have a 5 1/4" drive ?

Several years back I went for a through Telstra job supporting one of the big 4 banks and they used 8inch Floppys still!

[KingBilly]

I showed my son an old floppy disc the other day and he said "Cool Dad, you 3D printed the save icon"

KB