# [SOLVED] AutoCAD alternative



## astrooptics

I want to make simple 2D industrial drawings. I have used AutoCAD but find it too expensive to buy for myself. Any open source or free alternatice is available?
Thanks
Hemang


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## 40sondacurb

The Gimp!
The Gimp is a image editing program that has been called the free photoshop. It is very powerful and has about 75% of the functions of other expensive image editors. Originally written for Linux, it is now for windows, unix, linux and mac OS.

http://www.gimp.org/ original site
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/ win32 site


Inkscape
Inkscape is a vector drawing program similar to Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw. It uses SVG (scalable vector graphics) as it's native format. Still in development phase but very usable it seems.

http://www.inkscape.org/


Sodipodi
Here is another vector drawing program like Illustrator and such. It also uses SVG as it's native file format.

http://www.sodipodi.com/


Wings3D
Wings3D is a very nice open-source sub-division 3D program. It is based on OpenGL and is very fast. It is still in development but again, very usable. It uses it's own file format but it can import .3ds, .ai (rel 8 ) and .obj files and can export .3ds, .mdl, .eps, .obj and .wrl. It can even link to a few free rendering engines such as Yafray (http://www.coala.uniovi.es/~jandro/noname/).

http://www.wings3d.com/


OpenOffice
Here is a free MS Office type suite of applications. They claim compatibility with MS Office. I tried an earlier version and it was pretty good. I guess that I am spoiled with having the real Office but this one was not bad. It has a Writer (Word), Calc (Excel), Impress (PowerPoint), Draw (Visio like I guess) and Database (Access) all inside. I would say that when I tried it, it did not have all of the functions of say MS Office 2000 but for a small business user or home user it should do most of what you want.

http://www.openoffice.org/


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## shuuhen

You could look into QCad. I know there are others available, but this is the one I thought of first.


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## BMX

www.freecad.com

check that site out for free cad software.


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## BelchFire

I don't know how much you're willing to spend, but I bought AutoCAD LT. In the $3000 range, AutoCAD is too expensive, but when I bought LT, it was regularly $650, and I caught it on sale for $599. Legal, and full function 2D capabilities. All it lacks from the full version is 3D. :grin:


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## baci2004

I use QuickCad by Autodesk. It's very powerful and it only ran me $100 CND.


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## ChaosMachine

I'm using AutoCAD for over 10 years now, and until recently i didn't think i could find something that it's simillar to it. But lately if found CADopia's IntelliCAD . It's like using AutoCAD down to the script usage and Lisp commands. I can use my pgp file also. So have a look at it, it might be the one you want. The price was about 200$ if i remember correctly.


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## heytram

*Re: AutoCAD alternative*

I am an experienced Cad user and I love Progecad 2008 (smart). I worked with Autocad , UG Nx, Solid works, an inventor. All those programms are 5 to 20 times more expensive when you buy them for professional use.This program is a very priceworthy alternative to autocad 2008. *And the best part: it's free for private use!* No limitations. The program runs under windows vista as well. Progecad 2008 has all the features of autocad 2008... and more. Almost the same procedures and commands makes it very easy to get used to the program if you have used autocad before.

The only thing I don't really like is the autosnap function.


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## design10

*Re: AutoCAD alternative*

A good list with cad software you cand find here:
www.rorise.com/design/2d-3d-cad-software/


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