Open source CAD?

I've done for far too long without a good drawing program. But I'm not ready to spend hundreds on a fully licensed professional piece of software, especially one that's far in excess of what I'll ever need or use. But with the popularity of open sourcing these days, there have got to be open source drafting programs out there, right? Maybe there might even be something decent or useful?

I'm not really interested in something that will generate code for CNC machines- just something that will do nicely drawn and dimensioned diagrams to use for designing parts. And of course having these diagrams drawn will make it much easier to share designs designs here (trying to describe and dimension a part in text just doesn't work! :grinno:).

So, anybody tried any? Got a favorite? I've downloaded one called AvoCADo (http://avocado-cad.sourceforge.net/), but it appears that it's not very mature yet. Granted, it may just be because I'm a bit of a slow learner with new software. Wiki helpfully has a list of free programs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_computer-aided_design_software)- but as yet I know nothing of any of them.

If anyone has any experiences they can share with any of these (or even with the licensed pro stuff), I'm sure it would be very much appreciated. And if you have no experience but are willing to try playing with some programs, it seems like a terrific opportunity to get something useful for this hobby for free!

Andy, I have noticed that AutoCad shows up on some file sharing websites and may be worth checking out. I have a copy but I am not anywhere near knowing how to use it. I would really like to learn and will watch this space to see if someone could give us all a crash course to get us stared.

Mike

I used Blender for a while, a great 3D motion generator but lacks what you would want.
You can also find older versions of AutoCad for free. I use AutoCad 14, works great but is time consuming when designing parts.

I too have seen AutoCad on some file sharing sites. ;)

Here is one that you don't have on you list, it is called Delta Cad and is worth trying the free version. http://www.deltacad.com/index.html

The have a professional version that is $29.95 and adds many additional features.

Best regards,

Larry

mprw

You might want to give ProgeCAD (http://www.progesoft.com) a try. It's free for personal use and very close to AutoCAD.

Personally I enjoy Alibre or Solidworks, but both are expensive for the home hobbiest.

Thanks
Jim