Mechanical Drawing Software

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Design engineers require specialized software, tools, and apps to research and develop ideas for new products and their associated systems. You need to be able to create blueprints and schematics for structures, systems, machines, and equipment and work collaboratively with other engineers, drafters, and team members, and you need to be able to work productively and efficiently. This rich feature set makes Meshmixer a tool for advanced users, but if you are looking for one of the best free CAD software tools that seamlessly blends into the Autodesk product family, look no further. Tutorial: MeshMixer Tutorial for 3D Printing Beginners. Best free CAD software for: Intermediate Users who want to quickly realize their 3D.

PRODUCT DISCLOSURE $

Everyone loves to get something for free, but if that something doesn't do what it's supposed to... it's still overpriced. On the other hand, if it's free and it's just what you're looking for, it's like finding money in the street. If you're looking for basic CAD software packages and do not need highly technical functionality, you likely will find all you need, and maybe more, in one of these four quality packages that you can download for free.

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AutoCAD Student Version

What We Like

  • Part of the Autodesk family of modeling applications.

  • AutoCAD is an industry standard.

What We Don't Like

  • Watermarking on the free software editions.

  • Full-featured and more complex than other programs, not newcomer-friendly.

AutoCAD, the heavy hitter of the CAD industry, offers a free, fully functional version for download to students and faculty. The only limitation on the software is a watermark on any plots you generate, designating that the file was created with a non-professional version.

Not only does Autodesk offer its base AutoCAD package free, but it also offers free licenses for almost its entire suite of AEC vertical packages, such as Civil 3DAutoCAD Architecture, and AutoCAD Electrical.

Mechanical drawing software downloads

If you're looking to learn CAD or just do some personal design work, this is absolutely the way to go.

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Trimble SketchUp

What We Like

  • Clear features grid comparing paid-versus-free features.

  • Options for home hobbyists to industry professionals.

What We Don't Like

Drawing

  • Pricing model isn't great.

  • Free feature is web-only with many important features hobbled.

SketchUp was originally developed by Google and was one of the greatest free CAD packages ever put on the market. In 2012, Google sold the product to Trimble. Trimble has enhanced it and developed it further and now offers a slew of related products. Its free version SketchUp Make has plenty of power, but if you need additional functionality, you can buy SketchUp Pro — and pay a hefty price tag.

The interface makes it easy to master the basics. Even if you've never done any CAD work or 3D modeling before, you can pull together some really nice presentations in minutes.

Of course, if you're looking to put out detailed designs with accurate sizing and tolerances, you'll need to spend some time learning the ins and outs of the program. The SketchUp website offers a really impressive array of video and self-paced training options to help you along the way.

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FreeCAD

What We Like

  • Well-supported open source platform.

  • Ideal for engineering.

  • Well-optimized for 3D work.

What We Don't Like

  • Clunky to work with.

  • 2D features aren't great.

FreeCAD is a serious Open Source offering that supports parametric 3D modeling, which means you can modify your design by going back into your model history and changing its parameters. The target market is mostly mechanical engineers and product design, but it's got a lot of functionality and power that anyone would find attractive.

Like many open-source products, it has a loyal base of developers and can compete with some of the commercial heavy hitters because of its ability to create real 3D solids, support for meshes, 2D drafting and lots of other features. Further, it's customizable and is available on multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, and Fedora.

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LibreCAD

What We Like

  • Free and open-source.

  • Excels at 2D work.

What We Don't Like

  • Not as strong for 3D work.

  • The website focuses on stuff that matters to app developers, not to CAD users.

Another Open Source offering, LibreCAD is a high-quality, 2D-CAD modeling platform. LibreCAD grew out of QCAD, and, like FreeCAD, has a large, loyal following of designers and customers.

It includes lots of powerful features that include snap-to-grid for drawing, layers, and measurements. Its user interface and concepts are similar to AutoCAD, so if you have experience with that tool, this should be easy to master.

Creating mechanical parts and assembling them with drawing sheets may get time consuming and complex. Mechanical drawing software is designed to help the draftsman to get the mechanical draft designed efficiently within a short time. You can expect the software with pre-defined entities to get the design quickly. Following is the list of few of the best picked mechanical drawing software.

Related:

Mechanical Drawing Software

This software from Smartdraw LLC is fast, easy to use software capable of running on any device. Simply open a template, SmartDraw provides thousands of lines, shapes, and symbols, click and place them into place, lines and text. The software is web-based; you can create the mechanical schematics online using your computer, or mobile device. The key features include quick start templates, sharing your design, exhaustive symbol library, and automatic formatting.

Free 3D CAD Direct Modeling Software

This Creo elements from PTC is very simply designed yet powerful mechanical drawing software. This software if the free version of the Creo 19.0 You can create and modify your drawings in real-time. The software also allows you to directly work with cut and paste, push and pull, and drag and drop techniques. The software is perfect for engineers looking for fast, lightweight and flexible direct 3D software, plus you can upgrade to the premium software when your design challenges grow.

AutoCAD Mechanical

AutoCAD is mechanical design and drafting software from AutoDesk, with libraries of standard-based parts and tools for automating common mechanical CAD tasks for accelerating your design process. The software is free for download and use with the educational version. The key features of the software include smart centerlines and center marks, resizable dialogue boxes, enhanced PDFs, smart dimensioning, and refined interface.

AutoQ3D for Android

AutoQ3D is the mechanical design software specifically designed for the Android platform users. The software lets you create, edit and share rapid models using any android device. The key features of the software include convenient and intuitive workspace, modification tools, snapping tools, grouping tools, and misc tools. The software comes with stylus pen support, openGL and multiple devices support.

2d Mechanical Drawing Software

EazyDraw for Mac

EasyDraw is the mechanical drawing software for the Mac platform users. The software includes comprehensive support for bitmap and vector graphics format: import and un-group for pdf and EPS. You can also exchange scaled CAD drawing using DXF. EasyDraw has a large set of pre-defined geometries and also lets you create your own geometry. You can get a free demo before purchasing the software.

Mechanical Drawings for Windows

Mechanical Drawings from Delta Software International LLC is the mechanical design software developed specifically for Windows platform users. CAD Pro includes almost all the functionalities of the more priced competitors; including comprehensive libraries and tools for automating common mechanical drawing tasks. You can quickly add symbols and connect them with the snapping tools. The software offers to export the drawing to MS-Office or PDF formats.

Mechanical Drawing software, free download

Most Popular Mechanical Drawing Software – ZWCAD Mechanical

Software Mechanical Drawing For Macs

ZWCAD Mechanical is the most popular software in the mechanical design software category. The software offers abundant tools such as shaft generator, tolerance dimension, surface texture symbol, balloon and BOM and standard parts for Mechanical sheet drawings in 2D. The software has international and Enterprise standard support with ISO, ANSI, and GB drawings. ZWCAD has a huge library of predefined parts along with shafts and gear generator utility. You can also see 3D Piping Software

Mechanical Engineering Drawing Software

How to Install Mechanical Drawing Software?

Many of the Mechanical drawing software listed above offer a setup file, allowing an easy installation of the software. Few of the software in this category are web-based, giving you access from anywhere with just one requirement of internet connectivity. Mechanical design software is basically designed to give you a simple and easy GUI to create the drawing easily and quickly. 3D Drawing Software

While some software in this category offer free service for the basic need of mechanical drawing, the number of features gets limited for the free version. If you are looking for fully featured software, the paid ones are for you. Each software offering some unique feature over others, it’s the question of personal preferences for selecting one of the best software listed here.

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