CAD Software CAD software recommendations, for Mac?

[georgegassaway]

I'm seriously thinking of getting a 3D printer by the end of the year, if finances allow. Leaning towards a Creality CR-10S.

Anyway..... I need to find some suitable 3D software to use for creating 3D files. My past experience has been using 2D, specifically MacDraw and it's successor ClarisDraw (20-30 year old Mac Software). There has not even been any good modern 2D drawing software I have liked, so when I need to do drawings I go back to my old G5 desktop Mac running "Classic OS" on System 10.4 and run Clarisdraw or MacDraw Pro again.

I am looking for some Mac-compatible 3D program. I can't afford multi-hundred dollar software, so my scope is pretty much limited to free 3D software.

So, what may be the most practical of the free software packages? Something I can learn easily enough, not something so complex it has a crazy-steep learning curve that I might give up on. Something that has a good resource base for learning how to use it.

Any good 3D drawing software forums?

Same goes for slicer software.

 

[BEC]

I'm interested in these answers as well.

 

[spigalau]

https://sunglass.io/2019-best-free-cad-design-software-for-mac-everything-to-know/

 

[Andrew_ASC]

Don’t know of anything Mac based off the top of my head. Mostly in engineering it’s a Microsoft world lol. I do know most free CAD softwares I’ve tried were absolute dogsh*t in “capabilities” precision wise and even in basic shape modeling context feature wise compared to professional Autodesk inventor I have access to at work and also Solidworks educational packages I’ve used in the past.

I mean some of those free programs failed to let the users convert units within the program. Failed to let users define material properties for calculating mass off of volume based on density for complex shapes. Failed to let user define equations for curves (Revolving your own f-ing nosecone around an axis for example based on math equations not art duh). Failed to let user import airfoils off of coordinates. Failed to loft complex geometry. Failed to change save file formats of 3D models to easily printable file types. Model structure trees were borked and over complex. Editing features to complex after model already generated.

By comparison Autodesk and Solidworks feel like Porsche of software and does whatever the **** I want it to... Yes the learning curve is steep. A few weeks to months depending on how serious you try. It’s worthwhile in my opinion. Drafting and engineering doors open. Once you experience a professional grade cad package you don’t want a free variant because you understand the limitations of free is mostly rubbish. Basically these higher prices softwares also make your job Way freaking easier as far as number of steps from sketch mode to actual part is significantly reduced. I tried picking up FreeCAD and rage quit after being spoiled on Solidworks and AutoCAD. It simply wouldn’t do a tenth of what the other programs do. AND doing simple tasks took longer. I was spoiled and ruined on nicer stuff.

Not to mention the professional software packages offer powerful upgrades to do CFD,FEA, sheet metal fab, and thermal analysis. Basically a virtual wind tunnel, mechanics materials lab, and thermal lab. The physical lab testing equipment would cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to do all the capabilities of an engineering software does on a pc.
The coolest thing is once you learn one like Solidworks or Autodesk inventor picking up the other program only takes like three days or less of screwing with it.

But hey I’m biased and use Autodesk inventor daily at work to do conveyor design as mech eng. I get loads of sheet metal tools options the company has lol. Even the work software won’t do airfoils by coordinates from
Texts as Solidworks did at university.

So my approach and answer to this is I’m saving my money about $5k towards a professional package like Solidworks.

 

[memcbride]

OpenSCAD is free, multi platform, and runs on a Mac. A quick search will find rocket related OpenSCAD files. OpenSCAD has an old style feel to it as you “program” the object in a language, which I like personally. Mainly though I’ve been using Fusion 360 on my Mac and there use to be a non-commercial free license for it, but I don’t know if that’s still true (I have a full license).

 

[jlabrasca]

I'm seriously thinking of getting a 3D printer by the end of the year, if finances allow. Leaning towards a Creality CR-10S.

>snip<

I am looking for some Mac-compatible 3D program. I can't afford multi-hundred dollar software, so my scope is pretty much limited to free 3D software.

So, what may be the most practical of the free software packages? Something I can learn easily enough, not something so complex it has a crazy-steep learning curve that I might give up on. Something that has a good resource base for learning how to use it.

Any good 3D drawing software forums?

Same goes for slicer software.

... Fusion 360 on my Mac and there use to be a non-commercial free license for it, but I don’t know if that’s still true (I have a full license).

Free Fusion 360 (CAD/CAM software)

https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/fusion-360-for-hobbyists

Tutorials

https://www.nyccnc.com/fusion-360/

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL40d7srwyc_Ob77ioP5314_klrB4E0W7x

 

[caveduck]

Hey George, for me the top two no-cost options are the startup/hobbyist license for Fusion360 (an installable app), and OnShape (a web app). Neither is crippleware, they both have full functionality. I run them both on MacBooks. Amazingly enough, OnShape is quite a bit snappier in the UI. A limitation common to both is that you can't use them when you are disconnected from the net. F360 has CAM features; OnShape does not, which matters for me for CNC milling but doesn't affect 3D printing. I like OnShape a lot because I can literally go anywhere and use it on any computer with a browser. It will work well on a much lower-spec computer than Fusion360.

 

[cwbullet]

Fusion 360 is best, but Blender is free. Tinkercad is online.

I would mess around with tinkercad and graduate from there.

 

[jlabrasca]

Fusion 360 is best, but Blender is free. Tinkercad is online.

Fusion 360 is available for free to hobbyists and small businesses.

https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/fusion-360-for-hobbyists

Blender will export to .stl, but it is a 3D modeling and animation suite -- not a CAD application. And the learning curve for Blender is very steep.

 

[georgegassaway]

Thanks everyone for the input.

Has anyone using Fusion 360's free hobbyist/start-up license, been using it free for more than a year? I note it's good for a year, a renewal every 12 months. Have concerns about learning it, getting hooked on it, then they yank it 12 months later... I could never justify the cost of $500 software, even as a one-shot, never mind annually.

That's the reason why I may not try that route until I am close to actually getting the printer (months away). So if the free license is not renewed after 12 months, I'll not have "wasted" a few months of that 12 (I have some other irons in the fire to get to this fall, anyway).

 

[jlabrasca]

Thanks everyone for the input.

Has anyone using Fusion 360's free hobbyist/start-up license, been using it free for more than a year? I note it's good for a year,

Yes. I blush to admit that I have been using it as a hobbyist for about 30 months (I really should be much better with it by now). I have never had to do anything to renew, that I can recall. If I did, it was so quick and painless a process that it did not make an impression on me.

As others have noted, it is cloud-based. You can work off-line, and you can save your files locally, but F360 does call home frequently. The updates get pushed, and there does not seem to be a way to opt out -- which is a little annoying when they change the UI. That said, they have -- so far -- given advance notice, and run parallel versions, before "deprecating" the legacy stuff away. They have not (yet) taken away a feature upon which I depended.

 

[Yukon@K-9 Rocket Tech]

Thanks everyone for the input.

Has anyone using Fusion 360's free hobbyist/start-up license, been using it free for more than a year? I note it's good for a year, a renewal every 12 months. Have concerns about learning it, getting hooked on it, then they yank it 12 months later... I could never justify the cost of $500 software, even as a one-shot, never mind annually.

That's the reason why I may not try that route until I am close to actually getting the printer (months away). So if the free license is not renewed after 12 months, I'll not have "wasted" a few months of that 12 (I have some other irons in the fire to get to this fall, anyway).

The startup one has more features for engineering applications, but the hobbyist version is plenty. I think the startup licenses had something like a 2 year limit, while i believe the hobbyist version is limitless. I may be wrong, but all my friends who had the free version for a few years now are still using it fine, and even if it expires, you can always easily renew it if you retain your auto desk account.

 

[cwbullet]

Fusion 360 and Tinkercad. One has a learning curve and the other is easy peasy.