The following are some free alternative 3D CAD design programs:
BRL-CAD (Windows, Linux, Mac)
Type: Open Source by U.S. Army Research Laboratory
BRL-CAD is a powerful cross-platform
open source solid modeling system that
includes interactive geometry editing,
high-performance ray-tracing for
rendering and geometric analysis,
image and signal-processing tools, a
system performance analysis benchmark
suite, libraries for robust geometric
representation, with more than 20
years of active development.
FreeCAD (Windows, Linux, Mac)
Type: Open Source by Juergen Riegel, Werner Mayer
FreeCAD is a general purpose Open
Source 3D CAD/MCAD/CAx/CAE/PLM
modeler, aimed directly at mechanical
engineering and product design but
also fits in a wider range of uses
around engineering, such as
architecture or other engineering
specialties. It is a feature-based
parametric modeler with a modular
software architecture which makes it
easy to provide additional
functionality without modifying the
core system.
FreeCAD is based on OpenCasCade,
a powerful geometry kernel, features
an Open Inventor-compliant 3D scene
representation model provided by the
Coin 3D library, and a broad python
API. The interface is built with Qt.
FreeCAD runs exactly the same way on
Windows, Mac OSX and Linux platforms.
Archimedes (Windows, Linux, Mac)
Type: Open Source by Archimedes Project, University of São Paulo
Archimedes is a free and open source
CAD (Computer Aided Design) software.
It is a robust system built over
Eclipse’s Rich Client Java Platform
fully based on plug ins. This means it
is easily extensible but also has a
pretty thin core that allows you to
select the features you need and drop
the other ones easily.
HeeksCAD (Windows, Linux)
Type: Open Source by code.google.com
HeeksCAD is a free, open source, CAD
application - Imports solid models
from STEP and IGES files. Draws
construction geometry and lines and
arcs. Creates new primitive solids, or
make solids by extruding a sketch or
by making a lofted solid between
sketches. Modify solids using
blending, or boolean operations. Saves
IGES, STEP and STL. Printer plot the
2D geometry or to HPGL. Imports and
export dxf files; lines, arcs,
ellipses, splines and polylines are
supported.
