If your needs are a little more specific and you really need a dedicated CAD program, here are great open source choices to consider: SALOME And for the relatively simple task of planning out my home landscaping projects, Sweet Home 3D has been an excellent open source alternative. But that alone didn't make AutoCAD the best choice.Īs I've strived to replace more and more software in my life with open source options, Blender turned out to be just as good for my 3D modeling needs, whether I was playing with models created for a 3D printer or looking at landscapes exported from other programs. I worked with AutoCAD briefly in grad school, so when I wanted to play with drawing three-dimensional plans for something, it was pretty much all I knew. My personal journey through open source CAD programs was no different. Whether it has all of the bells and whistles of the original is irrelevant if those features sit paid for but unused. The situation is no different than discovering that the person who insists that they 'need' Photoshop is just using it to draw a few geometric shapes and remove red-eye from photos what they really need is a graphics editing tool that can replace those specific functions. The trick for deciding whether a replacement piece of software, whether open or closed, is a good choice for you is to tease out exactly what your needs are.

But I would argue that the reason for your disappointment has nothing to do with the licensing of the product-drop-in replacements for complex programs with long-time users who have specific needs and expectations for their software are hard. Let's start by being honest and upfront about something: If you're looking for a drop-in replacement for your existing CAD program that will provide identical functionality and workflow without making any changes to your processes, you're going to be disappointed.

So how do the open source alternatives to AutoCAD stack up? The answer depends on how you plan to use them.

Free online course: RHEL technical overviewĪmong the best-known CAD programs is AutoDesk's AutoCAD, but there are many others, proprietary and open source, out there.

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