Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is the creation of a 3D model of an object in computers using dedicated softwares.
In my university, I have learned solidworks and creo, I have never used any free or open source 3D design softwares. During PreFab academy, I have learned about 3 free 3D design softwares: Antimony, FreeCad and Openscad.
Antimony is a free open source CAD software developed by Matthew Keeter. The software creates 3D objects by connecting nodes. More can be found in this link
I found it very easy and simple to use, just connect the blocks together and the shape will be generated !
I have installed antimony from this , using the following commands
Install dependencies sudo apt install git build-essential libpng-dev python3-dev libboost-all-dev libgl1-mesa-dev lemon flex qt5-default ninja-build cmake
git clone https://github.com/mkeeter/antimony
cd antimony
mkdir build cd build
cmake -GNinja .. ninja ./app/antimony
A simple project I did using antimony is the design of heat gun heads holder
3D design can be found in this link
Put real photo of the holder
FreeCad is a free CAD software which looks similar to solidworks in the way of modeling. There are two versions of freeCad: stable and daily version.
I have downloaded the daily version using the commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freecad-maintainers/freecad-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install freecad-daily && sudo apt-get upgrade.
but I have encountered few problems, like I could not extrude a sketch so I have converted to the stable version and downloaded it using the commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freecad-maintainers/freecad-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install freecad freecad-doc && apt-get upgrade
More details about freeCad installion can be found in this link
I have used FreeCad to design the first iteration of my final project
At the beginning, it was difficult for me to use the program and hard to even make a cube! that was because the program has a different GUI than solidworks and Creo. For example, to make a sketch I have to switch from part to part design then back to part to apply extrude and modify the parameters of the model.
I have found Antimony way of modeling strange, also Openscad. I have never designed a 3d model by writing a program !.
Openscad has a very good documentation which includes every code and function needed to model an object.
I have downloaded openscad using the commands: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openscad/releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openscad
More about installation can be found here
