Free CAD program ?

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Is there a kind of good free CAD program for windows ?
I would need a CAD program only occasionally and therfore don’t want to pay much. In principle I only need it to make blueprints of some simple blender models.
bCAD is no option because it doesn’t allow dxf import :o in the trail version.

Thanks in advance

2

2d or 3d CAD?

3

A program to make 2D blueprints out of 3D blender models.

Suppose it has to be a 3D CAD. %|

4

turbocad 4 is free

http://www.imsisoft.com/free/

cheers

lilo

5

You might try QCad
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1219
It imports DXF.

6

Thanks lilo, thanks MaceG

Downloaded, will give it a try after some hours of sleep.

7

You can also try Pro/Desktop express:
http://www.ptc.com/appserver/it/icm/cda/icm01_list.jsp?group=201&num=1&show=y&keyword=355
It is a free, scaled down version of Pro/Engineer

import DXF and export VRML

8

Try using blender?

https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11890 How to do “Sketch” rendering.

–
Brian

9

check out turbocad le

http://nct.digitalriver.com/fulfill/0002.16

10

CADStd Light imports 3d DXF’s as 2d DXF’s in top view. This could help.
http://www.cadstd.com/lite.php

11

Thanks to all

Now I have QCAD and TurboCAD Le (both are 2D, right ?). Though, I prefer TurboCAD after first trail I thought it would be more easy. Probably I have misunderstood something concerning CAD.

Blender is no option, because I need all the distances and angles transfered to the real world. But the link is worth a look. :slight_smile:

Now I’ll go for Pro/Desktop and CADStd to see what I can do with it.
(Probably not much :-?)

12

I think thats a feature that could be easily added to Blender…without a doubt.

13

I’ve been very impressed with Pro/Desktop Express. If you are used to other CAD software you will probably want to look at the tutorials in the online help as the workflow is different to what you’re probably used to. Having said that it is easy to work with once you understand it.

For blender users it has the advantage of excellent model export to vrml.

14

look for the intelliCAD organization: many different CADs using the same core, which is an extremely powerful imitation of AutoCAD.
One or two of the producers gives away a free light edition, but I would not call it light: 3D CAD with polylines, nurbs, hatches, boolean operations, all kinds of snap, dimensionb tools, etc.
Once I had it and it was a full replacement for AutoCAD in my works, and I really appreciated also the DWG and DXF native support.

15

hm, never seen a 3D program with real measurements (at least, not being used very often)

Roel

16

Depending on where you are, I would check at your local BestBuy store. I just picked up a copy of IntelliCad 2000 there for 5 usd.