An excellent free 2D cad

[weldtoride]

I searched long and hard, hi and low for a free or open-sourced cad several years ago, and I stumbled finally upon this by the makers of SolidWorks:

http://www.3ds.com/products-services...-cad-software/

Totally free, and supported as well. You can also find you-tube content and forums to help you. For those desiring a more robust 2D cad, you can buy the pro version. I find the free version does all I want from a 2D cad.

For those familiar with older AutoCad 2D products, the interface will be surprisingly familiar.

[KKroger]

Draftsight from Dassault Systems is a very very good 2D CAD... works great... Pretty powerful, I use the Pro version every day here at the shop...

[toreadorxlt]

a Way more powerful, 3D/2D/surfacing/CAM tool for free for makers and hobbyists. I run my CNC mill with it. and its a very powerful 3d modeler.



https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/f...-for-hobbyists

[Reno]

Steve, everything I see for Fusion 360 has either one year for hobbiests or 3 year for students, after that $400+ per year. Am I missing something, or are you just passing on the maintenance?
I am a legacy Alibre purchaser from the 90's and have started sampling some of the less complicted CAM programs. Alibre's add on is too expensive for how seldom I use it.
I just end up using Mach3 Wizzards for most of my CNC.