Open source is considered a must-have for many 3D printing enthusiasts. Check out some of the best open-source 3D printers available in 2020. This open-source architecture software includes modeling, game creation, visual effects, rigging, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, video editing, and animation. You can develop your creative and technical skills to create photorealistic architectural scenes and beautiful 3D models.
Sometimes we need free Architecture or CAD software to redesign our own apartment's interior or want to decorate. Product design sketches. Or just for learning purpose, here are some free and open source software for interior or house Architecture designers.
Archimedes: An architecture open CAD
Archimedes is a free and open source CAD (Computer Aided Design) software built Eclipse's Rich Client Platform. It works on Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows but before installing it, you have need to install Java Virtual Machine. The software and its plugins are under the Eclipse Public License which means anyone can modify its source code to develop its own application without the permission of Archimedes team. It develops as an alternate option to AutoCAD.
SweetHome 3D
SweetHome 3D is an open-source software. It helps people to design the interior of their home in a very intuitive way. You can redesign your home and can see a 3-D version of how everything looks. It allows you to draw walls, rooms, windows, furniture, etc. You can create photorealistic images and videos with various light sources.
ArchiFacile
ArchiFacile is a free floor or house planner software which allows you to design them in two dimensional. This tool is very beneficial for architects as it allows to export design in PDF format. It can be used to plan floor, house, garage, wooden house, a garden shed or pool.
3D Home Design
3D Home Design has a free version of its powerful software which enables users to create 2D/3D professional plans for indoor and outdoor views. Graphics are pretty realistic and make working with this software very enjoyable.
Google SketchUp Make
Google SketchUp is a free software which allows you to create 3D models in just a few minutes. There are lots of video tutorials available online which helps newbies. You can build your own house sketch design. Also, the sketch of your living room, a piece of furniture, model your city for Google Earth and more.
BRL-CAD
BRL-CAD is an open source modeling system and cross-platform CAD software. It has ray-tracing for rendering and geometric analysis, interactive geometry editor, analysis benchmark suite, image & signal processing tools, libraries for robust geometric representation, network distributed framebuffer support and more.
LibreCAD
Libre CAD is 2D CAD application that can read DWG files. It writes DXF files and can export files to other formats also such as PNG, JPG etc. It available in 20 languages and supports all major operating systems. (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and others). It provides you layers, blocks, splines, polylines, ellipse tools, advanced tangent line & circle tools, transformation tools, an advanced snapping system and more.
FreeCAD
FreeCAD is a powerful parametric 3D modeler for CAD, CAD, MCAD, CAx, CAE, and PLM. It extremely modular Architecture software that allows customization and use of extensions. It features Open Inventor-compliant 3D scene representation model provided by the Coin 3D library and a broad Python API. It uses the interface which built with Qt. It supports Windows, MAC OSX, and Linux platforms.
nanoCAD
It is a free a Computer Aided Design (CAD) tool for Architectures. It has a user-friendly interface, drafting and design tools, native DWG compatibility, and an open API.
Blender
Blender is the free open source 3D suite for beautiful content creation. It supports all major OS platform. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. The built-in Cycles rendering engine offers GPU & CPU rendering, Real-time viewport preview, HDR lighting support and Permissive License for linking with external software.
GenoCAD
GenoCAD is a CAD software for synthetic biology. This application provides a web-based tool to design plasmids, artificial gene networks, and other synthetic genetic systems composed of standard genetic parts. It includes a parts management system, a rule-based design tool, and a simulation engine.
TinkerCell -CAD for Synthetic Biology
TinkerCell is a software for synthetic biology. The visual interface allows users to design networks using various biological 'parts'. Models can include modules and multiple cells. Users can program new functions using C or Python.
Sailcut CAD
It is a sail design and plotting software for Architectures. It allows you to design and visualize your own sail and compute the accurate development of all panels in flat sheets.
QCAD – 2D
It is easy to use, complete 2D CAD system for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It offers a complete set of general purpose CAD tools and uses the DXF format as its native file format. Additional power-user tools including DWG support and enhanced DXF support are available as QCAD Professional for Architecture through proprietary add-ons.
Also See:
If you need to work or learn how to use a CAD program, without spending too much money on a professional program like Autocad or others, you can use one of these free programs that provide all the functions of a CAD program.
Here is a list of the top 10 free programs to download for Windows PC, Mac and Linux for technical drawing in both 2D and 3D projects.
List of Free CAD Programs for technical drawing
FreeCAD
Free CAD is an open source program for Windows, Mac and Linux that directly addresses the engineering and design of products for mechanical use.
Free 3d Drawing No Downloading
It can also be used for architectural projects or other engineering sectors based on 3D modeling.
Although free, FreeCAD is considered as an alternate of other popular CAD programs thanks to its ability to create real 3D solids, support for networks, 2D drawing and many other professional features. The program is modular therefore expandable with many extensions.
NanoCAD
NanoCAD is one of the best free and unlimited solutions for creating 3D CAD drawings.
Its most important feature is the native support to the DWG format which is then that of Autocad.
This means that a DWG file created with nanoCAD can be sent to other people who can then open it with Autocad without having need to convert.
Sculptris
Sculptris is a free 3D graphic design program for Windows and Mac.
Easy to use, it's not really a technical drawing program, but a software to draw 3D models like sculptures or figures.
As the name of this small software recalls, it serves to create virtual sculptures. In practical terms, it means that with Sculptris you can draw three-dimensional figures but not animations as you can do with the more complicated Blender.
SketchUp
SketchUp is one of the most popular 3D modeling programs used primarily for architectural works and other niches in the 3D project industry.
Open Source 3d Drawing Program
The program for Windows and Mac is complete and professional with all the tools included for free. You can also see the galleries of works done to understand that there are no limits of using this program.
LibreCAD
3d Drawing Open Source Word Processor
LibreCAD is a free, open source CAD drawing program for Windows, Mac and Linux.
A complete tool that is proposed as an alternative to Autocad. LibreCAD can be used for all 2D architectural engineering drawings, to design mechanical parts, for construction, simulation, interior design, creative design and diagramming.
DraftSight
DraftSight is another free 2D CAD editor for professional CAD users, students and teachers, to work on DWG files.
The program is perfect for those who prefer minimal and simple CAD software. DraftSight can be downloaded for Windows, Mac and Linux.
OpenSCAD
OpenSCAD is a 3D modeling platform ideal for engineers, to design parts of machines using script programming. So there is no button interface and it is only for programmers.
Kicad
KiCAD is a free design tool for drawing printed circuit boards (PCBs), for Windows, Mac and Linux.
QCAD
QCAD is available for all computers to create technical drawings of buildings, mechanical parts or even diagrams.
Since it is open source, QCAD is modular and extensible. Its 2D CAD platform is powerful yet easy to use even for a beginner who has little or no experience.
3DCrafter
Sailcut CAD
It is a sail design and plotting software for Architectures. It allows you to design and visualize your own sail and compute the accurate development of all panels in flat sheets.
QCAD – 2D
It is easy to use, complete 2D CAD system for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It offers a complete set of general purpose CAD tools and uses the DXF format as its native file format. Additional power-user tools including DWG support and enhanced DXF support are available as QCAD Professional for Architecture through proprietary add-ons.
Also See:
If you need to work or learn how to use a CAD program, without spending too much money on a professional program like Autocad or others, you can use one of these free programs that provide all the functions of a CAD program.
Here is a list of the top 10 free programs to download for Windows PC, Mac and Linux for technical drawing in both 2D and 3D projects.
List of Free CAD Programs for technical drawing
FreeCAD
Free CAD is an open source program for Windows, Mac and Linux that directly addresses the engineering and design of products for mechanical use.
Free 3d Drawing No Downloading
It can also be used for architectural projects or other engineering sectors based on 3D modeling.
Although free, FreeCAD is considered as an alternate of other popular CAD programs thanks to its ability to create real 3D solids, support for networks, 2D drawing and many other professional features. The program is modular therefore expandable with many extensions.
NanoCAD
NanoCAD is one of the best free and unlimited solutions for creating 3D CAD drawings.
Its most important feature is the native support to the DWG format which is then that of Autocad.
This means that a DWG file created with nanoCAD can be sent to other people who can then open it with Autocad without having need to convert.
Sculptris
Sculptris is a free 3D graphic design program for Windows and Mac.
Easy to use, it's not really a technical drawing program, but a software to draw 3D models like sculptures or figures.
As the name of this small software recalls, it serves to create virtual sculptures. In practical terms, it means that with Sculptris you can draw three-dimensional figures but not animations as you can do with the more complicated Blender.
SketchUp
SketchUp is one of the most popular 3D modeling programs used primarily for architectural works and other niches in the 3D project industry.
Open Source 3d Drawing Program
The program for Windows and Mac is complete and professional with all the tools included for free. You can also see the galleries of works done to understand that there are no limits of using this program.
LibreCAD
3d Drawing Open Source Word Processor
LibreCAD is a free, open source CAD drawing program for Windows, Mac and Linux.
A complete tool that is proposed as an alternative to Autocad. LibreCAD can be used for all 2D architectural engineering drawings, to design mechanical parts, for construction, simulation, interior design, creative design and diagramming.
DraftSight
DraftSight is another free 2D CAD editor for professional CAD users, students and teachers, to work on DWG files.
The program is perfect for those who prefer minimal and simple CAD software. DraftSight can be downloaded for Windows, Mac and Linux.
OpenSCAD
OpenSCAD is a 3D modeling platform ideal for engineers, to design parts of machines using script programming. So there is no button interface and it is only for programmers.
Kicad
KiCAD is a free design tool for drawing printed circuit boards (PCBs), for Windows, Mac and Linux.
QCAD
QCAD is available for all computers to create technical drawings of buildings, mechanical parts or even diagrams.
Since it is open source, QCAD is modular and extensible. Its 2D CAD platform is powerful yet easy to use even for a beginner who has little or no experience.
3DCrafter
3DCrafter is a simple 3D modeling program that works simply through drag and drop. It is used to create animated models by drawing scenes in real time.
Cloud Citrix VDI
Get an easy and handy access your CAD software anytime on any device by loading it onto high performance Cloud Citrix VDI powered by Apps4Rent with excellent support.
Other guides on CAD:
Conclusions
For an engineer or architect AutoCAD is essential, since it is the main work tool. But if you are still at university or have multiple computers to work on, you can very well install one of the programs recommended in this guide, so that we can still work on 2D technical drawings and 3D projects without spending much on the various AutoCAD licenses.
