Introducing
The Slant team built an AI & it’s awesome
Find the best product instantly
Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to Safari
Try it now
4.7 star rating
0
Design
Open Source
Drawing
CAD
What are the best open source CAD tools?
13
Options
Considered
455
User
Recs.
Jan 1, 2024
Last
Updated
Related Questions
Activity
Have feedback or ideas?
Join our community
on Discord
Ad
9
Options
Considered
Best open source CAD tools
Price
Dev platforms
Platforms
62
LibreCAD
Free
Windows, macOS, Unix-like
-
54
FreeCAD
Free
-
Windows, macOS, Unix-like
53
OpenSCAD
Free
Linux, OS X, Windows, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
-
--
QCad
Free
Linux, macOS, Unix-like, Windows
-
--
Solvespace
Free
Windows, Linux, Mac
-
See Full List
62
LibreCAD
My Rec
ommendation
for
LibreCAD
My Recommendation for
LibreCAD
All
5
Pros
3
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Con
•••
No 3D
No 3D like FreeCAD.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Fast and lightweight
Because of LibreCAD's focus on 2D geometry it can be fast and lightweight, the installer size is less than 30 Mb.
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows, macOS, Unix-like
Top
Pro
•••
Endorsed by FSF
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Too fast startup
Starts within 2 seconds.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
58
9
54
FreeCAD
My Rec
ommendation
for
FreeCAD
My Recommendation for
FreeCAD
All
11
Experiences
4
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful free open source parametric CAD
See More
Top
Con
•••
Hard to learn
Try https://wiki.freecadweb.org/ or www.youtube.com/c/jokoengineeringhelp for a learning source
See More
ArticulateEnbilulu's Experience
super
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Unix-like
Technology:
C++, Python, Qt
License:
LGPL
Top
Pro
•••
Awesome community
See More
Top
Con
•••
Do not read AUTOCAD 13/14 file
See More
Ganton's Experience
Is free/libre software, and useful for a lot of cases.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful addons and easy to use addon manager
See More
OptimisticSaubarag's Experience
An excellent parametric cad programme, with good facilities for producing paper 2d drawings and outputting to CAM via g code. Joko engineering have some excellent YouTube videos to speed up the learning process.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Reddit community
You can find it here.
See More
vlnux's Experience
Hard to get into, but once you understand how it works, the whole thing becomes intuitive.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
116
44
53
OpenSCAD
My Rec
ommendation
for
OpenSCAD
My Recommendation for
OpenSCAD
All
8
Pros
4
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Ideal for programmers
Because the 3D-objects will be programmed. You define basic geometric objects, scale, rotate or move them, create unions, intersections, hulls, differences, ...
See More
Top
Con
•••
Need to know scripting
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Linux, OS X, Windows, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
Top
Pro
•••
Text based description
Hence the resulting files can be easily stored/merged in version control systems.
See More
Top
Con
•••
No measurements from any area
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Parametric
Define some variables and use them in the code.
See More
Top
Con
•••
SVG exports a single big shape
It should export one shape per object, so it would be re-usable in SVG tools.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to use
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
62
6
--
QCad
My Rec
ommendation
for
QCad
My Recommendation for
QCad
All
6
Experiences
1
Pros
1
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful and has many features
If you learned AutoCad, the tools are very similar.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Commands typed in aren't the same as Autocad
See More
LikableMut's Experience
It's great
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Linux, macOS, Unix-like, Windows
Top
Con
•••
Is not available in the packages of (K)Ubuntu, unlike LibreCAD (a free/libre fork of QCAD)
See More
Top
Con
•••
No 3D like FreeCAD
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
44
10
--
Solvespace
My Rec
ommendation
for
Solvespace
My Recommendation for
Solvespace
All
13
Experiences
2
Pros
9
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Good tutorials
See More
Top
Con
•••
Slow for large number of constraints
See More
ResponsiveMehit's Experience
easy to use easy to install and light weight
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Top
Pro
•••
Extremely light-weight
The latest version 2.3 is ~6MB size, the previous one was ~1.4MB - yes, Megabyte.
See More
DecentGelos's Experience
Minimalistic and efficient workflow, which is a major advantage over some bloated CAD suites.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Open source
https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Available on Windows, Linux, OS X
Binaries are available for Windows and OS X. On Linux it needs to be built from sources.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to learn
There are easy to understand commands that really help to getting started quickly. The application itself is surprisingly simplistic with easy to learn shortcuts, but extremely powerful.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Does not require installation
The single executable can simply be launched.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Good integration of keyboard shortcuts
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Live rendering of model under given constraints
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy and fast configuration of model visibility
Hiding of parts or coloring can be configured easily.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
23
10
--
Blender
My Rec
ommendation
for
Blender
My Recommendation for
Blender
All
20
Experiences
1
Pros
14
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Free and open source
Blender is licensed under the GPL.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Difficult learning curve
Blender has a history of being unintuitive, but the 2.8 overhaul made the program far easier for beginners to pick up, and changes continue to be made to further improve the experience. However, there is still a learning curve.
See More
JoyfulRosmerta's Experience
Just getting started, but I am finding it a workable integrated solution. i've seen that it supports 3d printing, which is one of the tasks i find important
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD
Technology:
C, Python
3D:
Yes
2D:
Yes (as of 2.8)
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Python extensibility
Blender embeds Python 3, which can be used to write add-ons, tools, extend the interface, rig characters and automate tasks.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Bad vertex normal after boolean operations
Does not handle well polygon intersections. And need tweaking by hand points or adding average vertex normals via modifiers.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful animation suite
Blender provides a full rigging system, and automates animation by interpolating between keyframe positions.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Not good for Industrial Design because it uses average vertex normals
You can not create a hard surface with a radius continuity degree along a surface using a specific radius value.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Has a large community
There's a huge community to help you get started immediately.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Not really a CAD tool
Really bad for CAD. It is mainly a 3D modeling, animation, VFX software, not a CAD software. Can do limited small CAD works, through various tricks.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Sculpting and 3D painting features
Although Blender's 3d painting and sculpting tools (mostly painting) are not at par with specialized software like Substance Painter, ZBrush, or Mari, it is more than capable of getting most jobs done if the user takes the time to learn and understand it.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Has a powerful rendering engine
Blender runs the Cycles path tracing engine under the hood. Cycles is a very powerful rendering engine capable of full path tracing (light fall off, caustics, volumetrics). It is mostly compatible with OpenCL and CUDA rendering, and is implementing mycropolygon displacement features. The upcoming release has a viewport engine called EEVEE whereby you can see and interact with your work in render mode in real time!
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Keyboard shortcuts
Good keyboard shortcuts for everything. Keep your left hand on the keyboard and your right hand on the mouse.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very versatile
You don't have to switch between software when you want to do different things. Modeling, sculpting, compositing, video editing, etc. can all be done in Blender.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Many videos, books and courses available online
I have seen many books and courses available online, though the courses are usually not free. There are Many YouTube videos which are free.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Regular release schedule
Releases are made every ~3 months.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very useful for a freelancer
It offers a round solution (it covers many areas and professional fields) for a freelancer, for free, constantly updated, very polished, and allowing high quality results that clients do require. After some learning, it becomes very useful for professional work.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Node based modeling support
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Supports both low-poly and hi-poly modeling
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Wide import and export format support
Support lots of modern 3D formats including DAE and FBX - ideal for game developers.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
13
7
--
BRL-CAD
My Rec
ommendation
for
BRL-CAD
My Recommendation for
BRL-CAD
All
1
Specs
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD, IRIX, Solaris
Technology:
C++, TCL
Hide
Get it
here
Recommend
17
--
Varkon
My Rec
ommendation
for
Varkon
My Recommendation for
Varkon
All
1
Specs
Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows, BSD, Linux
Hide
free
Recommend
15
--
ImplicitCAD
My Rec
ommendation
for
ImplicitCAD
My Recommendation for
ImplicitCAD
All
1
Pros
1
Top
Pro
•••
Almost as easy as OpenSCAD
See More
Hide
Get it
here
Recommend
9
Don't see your favorite option? Add it.
--
ActCAD 2021 Software
My Rec
ommendation
for
ActCAD 2021 Software
My Recommendation for
ActCAD 2021 Software
$199
Recommend
3
--
ActCAD 2021 Standard Software
My Rec
ommendation
for
ActCAD 2021 Standard Software
My Recommendation for
ActCAD 2021 Standard Software
$199
Recommend
5
--
Wikifactory
My Rec
ommendation
for
Wikifactory
My Recommendation for
Wikifactory
$0-45/MONTH
Recommend
1
--
TrueCAD 2021 Software
My Rec
ommendation
for
TrueCAD 2021 Software
My Recommendation for
TrueCAD 2021 Software
$149
Recommend
2
1
See flagged products
Hide flagged products
Built By the Slant team
Find the best product instantly.
4.7 star rating
Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to Safari
Try it now - it's free
One sec!
Are you sure that you want to abandon your hard work?
Delete Work
Continue working
{}
undefined
url next
price drop