

It’s a subsidiary project of OpenCascade, and, as mentioned before, has accumulated a significant userbase. Salome excels in the post-processing of numerical simulations and works great for industrial designs.
BEST FREE CAD FOR MAC SOFTWARE
The reason we picked SALOME as the third mention on the list is because of its unmatched capabilities and portability as an open-source, free CAD software with a widely increasing community. QCAD genuinely offers a ton of functionality, and we can assume why it has become exceedingly well-known over the years. Besides, you get a comprehensive collection of modeling and design tools that bring nonpareil convenience to users.

It’s easy to use but a very powerful software at your disposal, excelling in designing simple to more complex plans without a worry. It has an intuitive interface that’s always striving to make usage undemanding for you. You will have quite a profound experience using QCAD as you venture on to design plans for buildings, mechanical parts, schematics, diagrams, and more. A highly stable version was released on April 12, 2018, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since then. QCAD is a multi-platform software and works great on Linux, Mac, Windows, Unix-like operating systems, and more.

It falls under the GPLv3 license, which is a famous open-source license, along with some other exclusive plug-ins. It’s ECMAScript (JavaScript) interface allows it to be thoroughly customized and attributes to extensions in the CAD program itself. Anyway, this software application is written in C++ while being based on the Qt framework. The developer behind this system is RibbonSoft, who began forming QCAD back in 1999. The second pick on the list is QCAD- an open-source and free 2D CAD software that’s become very popular over the years. It’s a multi-platform application and runs painlessly on macOS, Linux, Windows, and other platforms without a hassle. Its Graphical User Interface (GUI) is based on the Qt framework, and the 3D viewer option works following Open Inventor- a 3D graphics designing toolkit. What makes FreeCAD genuinely worthy of a free-of-cost software is the fact that all FreeCAD objects within are natively parametric, meaning that FreeCAD is entirely parametric from the ground up. Compatibility begins from as simple as Python to as tricky as C++. More modules to be highlighted in FreeCAD are Technical Drawing, Architecture, Rendering, and a Path module. Moreover, one of the key features includes a geometry kernel that’s based on Open Cascade Technology, allowing the most complicated 3D operations to be performed effortlessly.įor a CAD software that comes without costing you anything, FreeCAD has to be one of the most high-performing mentions in the list that even includes a Robot Simulation mode, where you can examine robotic movements in graphical surroundings. For instance, import and export options are available in different formats like STEP, IGES, OBJ, STL, DXF, SVG, and STL. I haven’t had to look further after using this parametric 3D modeler.įreeCAD is jam-packed with features, making it one of the best open-source software out there in this regard. It’s fast, efficient, and truly reliable. As the name does it justice, the software is free, and you’re not going to spend anything using FreeCAD. It’s a top-of-the-line CAD software loved by beginners and experts alike. Kicking off this list is the brilliant FreeCAD that has been making lives more comfortable since 2001. The following are ten of the best open-source CAD software that doesn’t cost a dime. Also, they have proven to be quicker, more user-friendly, inexpensive, especially for large-scale projects, and upright better. This automated method of drafting has lent immense convenience in comparison with the more traditional approach.
