good free cad software

[diluzio91]

so i want to make up some sketches for my next mod, and im looking for a good and very easy to use modeling program with some powerfull tools... ive tried to use sketchup, cant stand it.... oh... another thing, ill be using a mac unless i cant... im working on making a 3d model of blue storm. thanks guys!

[Oneslowz28]

q cad is what all of the reprap guys use. Alibre also has a free version that does 2d and 3d quite well

[mrksem454]

Yes, When you are looking for free CAD software then, T-FLEX Student is for best and free CAD software. Its a 2D & 3D parametric CAD version's product, It includes an FE solver and dynamics simulator. Files created by the student edition cannot be opened by any other software including their own commercial version.

[Oneslowz28]

If the files created in T-FLEX student can not be opened in any other program then it is no where near the best.

Alibre enthusiast edition has 98% of the features the full edition does and can export to almost every file type out there. There are google sketchup exporters for it and even .STL exporters. It will export to every cad format you could want and even does a little bit of rendering. It does 2D and 3D and can even export to blender for advanced rendering.

[ChevronX]

Anyone know if Sketchup can print parts of the model as cutout parts to scale? I thought it could, but having problems finding the appropriate way to do it.