Its main selling point is its abilities for rapid prototyping and reverse engineering of physical objects. This application is a free CAD software developed solely for the engineering niche and has been hailed for its ability to help engineers move from concept to design with ease. DesignSpark Mechanical is one such software that falls into this category. One of these spin-off industries is the current creation of 3D modeling tools that can be used to design printable digital 3D models. The rise of 3D printing has led to the creation of supporting technologies developed to simplify the task of using a printer. These factors make it a great alternative to the established 3D modeling tools out there due to its features and cost DesignSpark Mechanical Therefore, you can download and make use of FreeCAD on Windows, Linux/Unix and Mac OSX powered systems. This CAD software application is fully multi-platform in its use. This means you can make use of CSG techniques when modeling as well as import designs from other CAD software applications for use or modification on your FreeCAD workspace. Also, FreeCAD provides support for all the open-source libraries that you know in the field of scientific computing. This means that it comes with all the features and design techniques needed to develop mechanical components.įreeCAD like most of its competitors uses 2D extrusion techniques to carry out the modeling of solid 3D characters. It is a general-purpose parametric 3D CAD modeling tool built for the mechanical engineering niche. The push to demystify CAD application development and eliminate the need to pay for design suites has been led by indie developers and the good people at FreeCAD fall into this category. Here, 7 free CAD tools that can be used to carry out high-end 3D modeling projects and execute rendering tasks will be outlined in the coming paragraphs.

In today’s post, we will be looking at alternatives to purchasing SolidWorks.

Yet still, not every student can afford its products. To help student’s use its products, SolidWorks opened an online student store that provides its merchandise at a very subsidized rate. The full package of SolidWorks 2017 costs approximately $2,000 and expecting students, hobbyists, and designers at the beginner level to be able to afford this package is a tall order.

But despite its versatility, one factor still puts it out of the reach of the average designer and this factor is its price. SolidWorks does its job so well that most designers will include it in their top 3 list of CAD applications to use.

Solidworks for hobbyist