Seeking suggestions on CAD/CAM programs

Communities Science, Engineering, & Security
1

I’ve been using FreeCAD, LibreCAD and Qcad (Qcad is pretty good) to make metal part designs for things like fan brackets and extruded heatsink drill plans. When I visited my local machine shop, they were all on Macs and appeared to be invested in SolidWorks.

I’m not excited about the prospect of paying kilodollars per year for just the occasional design. Please let me know if there is a more affordable program that would give me better usability than Qcad to help interchange drawings/models with my local machine shop.

2

SolidWorks for Makers is only $48 a year.

I was trained on Parametric Technologies Corp: Creo. (It’s like SolidWorks)
PTC has a free cloud based CAD tier called OnShape.

OnShape is free as long as you save your files online for others to share for free.
You have to pay $1,500 to have private storage.

3 Likes
3

these are really interesting options, thank you!

1 Like
4

Update:
I took the plunge and I am liking my transition to Onshape a lot! The user interface is a bit different compared to Creo I learned in univ, but it has all the functionality as the expensive CAD software.

.
.
I have been having fun with the be quiet! LightBase custom 3D printed feet contest.

5

Nice that you liked it!

FWIW, solidworks maker is $24 for the year with a coupon until 10th if January.

1 Like