List of 3D MCAD Software

[Sebastian Finke]

A question often asked, "Which software should I use?". Listed are 3D MCAD design softwares. Take your pick...

FREE:
123D Design PC Mac
Openscad PC Mac Linux
Onshape Online
FreeCAD PC Mac Linux
DesignSpark Mechanical PC
TinkerCAD Online
BRL-CAD PC Mac Linux Solaris IRIX BSD
SolveSpace PC Mac Linux
Creo Elements PC
Selfcad Online BETA

PROPRIETRY:
Fusion 360 PC Mac
Catia PC
Creo PC
NX PC Linux
Geomagic Design PC
Solidworks PC
SolidEdge PC
Moi3D PC Mac Linux
Rhinoceros PC Mac
ZW3D PC
Top Solid PC
SolidFace PC
VariCAD PC Linux
Autodesk Inventor PC
Spaceclaim PC
TurboCAD PC Mac
Powershape PC
Kompas-3D

[curious aardvark]

what's the 'M' stand for ?

[Sebastian Finke]

Mechanical. Differentiates it from graphic design software. Or other 3D modellers that do organic shapes like sculpting software.

[Sebastian Finke]

Btw CA: You might enjoy BRL-CAD. It is also command line based. That's your thing, isn't it?

[Sebastian Finke]

As it is I am currently locked into software but would still like to make the switch to Linux. If/when I do that I will move to a VariCAD/Moi combination.

Currently the bulk of my work is done with Geomagic Design with a bit of Powershape and Catia.

[jeffmorris]

Is there freeware software that works like Solidworks?

[curious aardvark]

looked at brl-cad a while back - it's totally unusable as well as being horrendous and glacial slow.
Apart from that - I liked it ;-)

[Sebastian Finke]

Is there freeware software that works like Solidworks?

Depends what you mean by 'like Solidworks' but short answer, no. Closest you'll get are direct-editing solid modellers like Creo Elements and Design Spark. 123D is supposedly quite good too. Fully parametric with multiple feature creation tools? No.

[jeffmorris]

Many tutorials use Solidworks. I want to do the tutorial on creating a v12 engine shown at https://grabcad.com/questions/tutori...-engine-part-1 but I have Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Fusion, and Design Spark Mechanical. I tried to download Solidworks demo but they won't send me download the demo.

[Sebastian Finke]

Why do you need Solidworks if you already have Inventor? Just to do the tutorial?