ALLYCAD 3.6 FREEWARE Full Version
Roseanne Devon
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AllyCAD is a powerful and user-friendly 2D CAD package that has established itself as the best of its breed. A wide range of Engineers, Surveyors, Contractors, Architects, Designers, Manufacturers, Event Management Consultants, Property Developers and even Air-conditioning companies rely on its strength and renowned ease-of-use. AllyCAD places all the draughting functionality that you need at your fingertips, allowing you to design the way you want to! In short, we have designed the program to work the way you do, intuitively and naturally.
The freeware version allows users to experience the ease-of-use as well as the advanced functionality of AllyCAD. As mentioned, it is a full working version of highly acclaimed AllyCAD Professional and is limited only in terms of its CAD drawing size (150 KB) - this limitation excludes hatching, bitmaps and images. AllyCAD Freeware is popular among users that have smaller drawing requirements and has further become increasingly popular among various academic institutions as a CAD student version. When it comes to compatibility, AllyCAD fully supports the reading and writing of AutoCAD's DWG format, DXF, Caddie CEX, Arcview SHP and ASCII files. This gives you the flexibility to move between drawings without having to worry about incompatibilities and data exchange problems. In addition to this, AllyCAD handles JPG, TIFF and BMP files and also supports TFW, LOG and HGR geo-referenced bitmaps.
The software offers a tailored collection of professional tools that allow architects and engineers to design, draft, and model everything from small architectural projects to civil engineering structures.
With AllyCAD Freeware, users can generate and edit 2D drawings, such as floor plans, site plans, sections, and elevations. The software comes with a comprehensive set of CAD tools including line, arc, circle, polyline, hatch, text, block, and dimensioning tools.
The freeware version of AllyCAD has limitations on some features compared to the professional version. However, users can still enjoy the full functionality related to drawing creation and editing while using AllyCAD Freeware.
Update March 2015: Apologies for recent neglect of this site. I hope soon to have more time for it, and I'll also be looking at moving to a more modern platform on this website. For now, I'm mostly using the old version of Alibre I bought some time ago for CAD (I'm starting to dabble in home-built CNC machines and slowly getting round to the telescope mount above...) For now, though, this page is maintained purely by reader-submitted updates - please email me (to peter atsignthingy eland dotty org diespammersdot uk) with your experiences of the software listed. Please do also suggest new ones I've missed - I'll include them if they are free or cheap (a few hundred pounds/dollars/Euros) and useful for engineering CAD rather than just as 'visual effects' modelling. To keep this page useful I want stuff that is free or cheap long-term - not just free 30-day trials. I'll try to download and play with the ones suggested, but alas I may just not get round to it, so this page relies on your comments. Most recently added or updated stuff is at the top of the list.
NOTE:. Please do not bother asking me to help you locate illegal copies of commercial CAD software. The whole point of this page is to help people who want to use CAD software legally - but want it cheap or free. There is plenty of good stuff listed here - use it!
ALSO NOTE: There's also not much point in contacting me asking for a recommendation for your particular needs. All I know is written here. Just download some of the free ones and see if they work for you!
OnShape
March 2015 A free cloud-based CAD system is about to be launched, it seems: www.onshape.com. According to this blog post and the feature list, there's a completely free and fully featured personal edition that looks very promising. Apparently from the original founder of SolidWorks so should be top class. After some playing on the beta version I'm quite impressed - although as forum discussions are making clear there's a long way to go before it could be called fully featured (e.g. 2D drawings are a big missing element just now). But really promising - and free! - and I'll be keeping a close eye on it.
Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express
Dec 2011 Dunno about the less than snappy name but Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express looks good (and free!). Christopher K writes "Pro/ENGINEER FREE!!! limitations - 60 elements? That seems pretty good for a lot of uses, and it's Pro/E!" He's referring to Pro/Engineer, a serious industrial system (though it seems to have now been replaced/rebranded as 'Creo')... if there's a free version that's all good! However, a closer look at the FAQ and data sheet PDF suggests that it saves only in its own format, with limited export (VRML, STL only). But could be a great way to learn a professional CAD system even so. The 'Direct' bit of the name refers to the type of modelling actions used - see here on Wikipedia for a brief explanation.
DraftSight
Dec 2011 Many people have emailed with news of DraftSight. Larry B writes: "It is pretty much an AutoCAD 10/11 clone. It's really nice for ex-drafters like me that know the AutoCAD cli [command line interface], and are too lazy to learn a new interface.". David L writes: "I noticed that you're missing one of my favorites, Draftsight by Dassault Systems (makers of CATIA) It's available for free. I've used it quite a bit myself and find it to be very similar to AutoCAD LT. It's 2d only but has some great functionality at an IDEAL price!". Looks good! I liked the command line too way back in my AutoCAD using days - a bit 'old school' for those used to mouse-driven work but very fast once you're used to it!
Autodesk 123DDec 2011: There's now a '123D Catch' add-on which lets you create 3D models automagically from a series of pictures. Discussed e.g. here.
June 2011: Autodesk 123D appears to be a new, free 3D system from the same people who make AutoCAD, one of the longest-established industrial CAD packages. According to the press release it appears they want to make it pay by linking it to manufacturing services, and being poised to take advantage of the growing 3D printer market too. Some details of its import and export capabilities are here on the support forum. See also a HSM forum thread and this video.
APM Design LV and APM Structure 3D LVSept 2010: Clayton Macdonald writes: "APM Design LV and APM Structure 3D LV are available free for institutional, student and non-commercial use from APM Research and Devlopment. They are said to be full versions lacking only the databases of standard Russian parts. Some of the translations to English are a little imperfect, but I found the simpler APM Design to be pretty quick to learn. I think both are only for Microsoft OSs. Here's the website: www.apmwm.com/eng/free/"
That could be very useful, especially the 'Structure' one - I don't recall seeing free 3D finite element analysis software before. There's a more detailed page here about the full version, which may give an idea of the free version's capabilities.
CoCreate Modeling Personal EditionDec 2011: See "Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express" a few sections up - it seems to have replaced CoCreate.
Sept 2010: this has moved to www.ptc.com/offers/tryout/pe3.htm and offers "3D CAD Software for free lifetime use". Still looks impressive.
Update April 2008: note received from Co-Create: "We have now launched an update to our Modeling Personal Edition. And besides that we are now part of PTC." The new 2.0 edition seems to have pretty much the same limitations as mentioned below, but it does appear to export STL and VRML and can go up to 72 hours offline. They also now call it an "explicit' system rather than 'dynamic'. Useful user forums in various languages are now available, too. Link: -Ed
Jan 2007: Press release from Co-Create:
"CoCreate OneSpace Modeling Personal Edition (PE) is the world's first free Dynamic Modeling based 3D CAD software. This software stands apart from any other CAD system you may have tried or are currently using. Built on a history-free foundation, this Dynamic Modeling based 3D CAD software helps you design products, create associative drawings and analyze design ideas quickly - it's like getting Microsoft Office-like productivity from a CAD system. Download a FREE version of OneSpace Modeling PE today and see the "dynamic difference" yourself."
Not tried it yet but looks like a rather professional package, going by the website, and the paid-for version appears to be an industrial-strength 3D CAD system. The free version is free with no expiry but check the FAQ page for details of the limitations - principally a 60-part limit for assemblies, no photo-realistic rendering, requires an internet connection for use and saves only in its own file format, which could be a severe limitation for some. -Ed
Sketchup 3D
September 2010 Several people have noted that Sketchup is now available (still free, though they also sell a 'pro' version) at sketchup.google.com and it's developed some way since we last mentioned it here. As this posting on an engineering forum mentions, there are also a huge number of plug-ins and extensions to add more specific engineering functionality.
Dec 2007: JWCraig notes that this is now free via Google at www.sketchup.com. Architecture-oriented but easy to use.