Top 5 FREE CAD applications for BEGINNERS

In this video, I offer up my top 5 Free CAD applications for beginners.
Starting out in CAD can be a bit confusing, however knowing what you are likely to use it for in the future can help you make the right choice from the beginning.

Many factors can influence our choices regarding what tool to use, however in my experience it can be condensed into 3 points:-

- Features
- Usability
- Cost

00:00 Which CAD program to choose
00:10 OpenSCAD
00:52 Sketchup
01:40 TinkerCAD
02:19 FreeCAD
02:49 Fusion360

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[Greguk]

Great review! Thank you. I have used tinkercad and was wondering what was the next step up, so you have given me lots to check out

[guidomersmann]

For me it was FreeCAD. When I started 3D Printing (6?? years ago), I forced myself to learn CAD, since I wanted to use the 3D Printer as a tool and not a gimmick to print predesigned stuff. Semi free stuff like Fusion360 were not an option. The lack of linux support and having a closed source solution in the hand of a company claiming it will be free forever was not trustworthy. TinkerCad wasn't an option due to the overall add/sub a shape method. So i ended up with FreeCAD, which had a ton of issues back then. These days it works more or less perfect, when using the RealThunder edition and avoid the official branch, which looks like to be ahead, but is years behind due to the lack of the TNP fix.

[davehrcfpv]

FUSION 360 free license is crippled and the first tier paid license is ludicrously expensive for a *hobbyist* to even consider using, so Fusion 360 is a non-starter, however good it is.

[henrikwikstrom]

Have you tried soidedge? I just installed their hobbyist version and it looks ok, but is still eveluating.

[CMKOGAMING]

is there any good cad software for android?

[Hello_there_obi]

cant find the link for fusion 360 that's free. All you have is a 30 day trial as far as I can see...