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Re: What free CAD software do you love? Teaching a CAD class and would like to hear your thoughts. [message #64690 is a reply to message #64668 ] Fri, 22 March 2013 22:34 UTC

FabMeJewelry
Messages: 83
Registered: December 2012
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Blender is a great piece of software that you can download for free, also got lots of toturials on youtube.

Wesley Günter - FabMeJewelry.com

Re: What free CAD software do you love? Teaching a CAD class and would like to hear your thoughts. [message #64712 is a reply to message #64668 ] Sat, 23 March 2013 16:25 UTC

denali3ddesign
Messages: 342
Registered: February 2011
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Senior Member

I teach Sketchup to newbies. I find they pick it up quickly and there are tons of tutorials online.

-Marcus

Re: What free CAD software do you love? Teaching a CAD class and would like to hear your thoughts. [message #64719 is a reply to message #64668 ] Sat, 23 March 2013 17:21 UTC

Keymaker
Messages: 63
Registered: February 2013
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I "teach" blender and i don't think it is good idea (maybe it is only a local problem)
And you can make model for 3d printing in blender but i never consider it as CAD software Smile

Only limit is your imagination. http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=13879&start=0&

Re: What free CAD software do you love? Teaching a CAD class and would like to hear your thoughts. [message #64729 is a reply to message #64719 ] Sat, 23 March 2013 21:26 UTC

UniverseBecoming
Messages: 379
Registered: March 2012
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Senior Member

I love Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express 4.0 This amazing software is comparable to Solidworks, but FREE!

Also, I love Truespace 7.6. For a free polygonal modeler it can't be beat. I actually started using Truespace way back when Truespace first came out. This is a commercial software that basically closed its doors and started allowing the software to be used for free.

If your students are young, then Trimble Sketchup is the choice. Sketchup was recently purchased from Google by Trimble. A person like yourself with your Solidworks background can start using Sketchup in about 5 minutes. It's extremely easy to learn. At times when I'm away from using my various 3D related software for months at a time, rather than relearn what I've forgotten, I'll usually grab Sketchup cuz I know I can pick it up and start using it in a matter of minutes. Also, it has an amazing 3D simulation plugin called Sketchyphysics.

As a side, look into MeshMixer and Sculptris too. These are used for digital sculpting and people love to play around with these just for fun.

A very popular 2D vector software is Inkscape. I normally use CorelDraw for 2D stuff, but there are times when Inkscape is more robust for certain operations.

Let us 3D print the universe. Oh wait! Maybe we already have!

James

Re: What free CAD software do you love? Teaching a CAD class and would like to hear your thoughts. [message #64731 is a reply to message #64729 ] Sun, 24 March 2013 00:06 UTC

stonysmith
Messages: 1035
Registered: August 2008
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+1 for Truespace. I still love it.
But, a close second is OpenSCAD. It's not a 'drawing' program, but rather you build models in "code".

Patience, Persistance, Politeness - the 3Ps will help us get us to Perfect Printed Products

Re: What free CAD software do you love? Teaching a CAD class and would like to hear your thoughts. [message #65315 is a reply to message #64668 ] Mon, 01 April 2013 18:33 UTC

parrleu
Messages: 15
Registered: July 2012
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Junior Member

A couple really cool free options that I don't see here yet are:

123d suite - this has a CAD program, a converter to turn 3d into 2d slices, a clay like program for tablets, and a couple of other neat pieces of software - easy to use
3dtin - super easy to use, and web based - better than TinkerCAD was for the things I've played around with in it

What a fun class to be teaching!
Heather