Whats the best free cad program?

Whats the best free cad program?

Work wants me to keep doing engineering work. Mostly benches and tables, some work fixtures etc. But they don't want to pay for another soild work Lic.

Up till now i've been struggling with MS PAINT converting to PDF, e-mailing to the other engineers they redraw it, send it back i mark it up tresend they make changes send it back i send it off to the place to cut the stock up. Waste loads of time...

So whats out there thats good and free or realy cheap?

Thanks 44

there was a thread recently that dealt with this. do some searching for it.

I use sketchup (google it) for dimensionally accurate drawings. its not as powerful as CAD and cant export code, but it is 3D and is pretty easy to get started using right away.

I also sent away for a free trial version of progeCAD. Now it looks like you can just download a trial. Not sure if its gonna do what you want or not though.

And then theres this.

Are the engineers using their seats for 40 hours a week? If not, get in on some of their unused time.

I just downloaded this free-cad for Linux 32. I am only modeling a few simple things as an attempt to familiarize myself with the tools. Since you are an experienced pilot - what do you think of it before I go investing too much time.

SketchUp plus LayOut will create and plot scale drawings with dimensions, and its easy to use. SketchUp is free, dunno about LayOut, which might require the paid-for version of SketchUp Pro. However, at about $300 for a seat, that's a pretty powerful tool, and lets you work right in 3D really easily.

DraftSight by SolidWorks is brand new and free.