Patrick61 Posted September 7, 2012 Posted September 7, 2012 I have a student version of AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor 2012. These programs are amazing and I am astounded that I have free access to these products as a college student. Unfortunately I do not have over 7,000 to afford a professional license for these programs. My brother is the owner of a gunstore and needs someone to CAD some of his products for prototyping purposes. His business cannot afford a license either. Are there any 3D CAD programs that are available under 200.00 dollars that can be used for commercial purposes? Quote
Dadgad Posted September 7, 2012 Posted September 7, 2012 Welcome to the forum. Is Inventor Fusion still available as a free download from Autodesk? Quote
Patrick61 Posted September 7, 2012 Author Posted September 7, 2012 Hello Dadgad. There is only a free trial and free student version of Inventor Fusion, which I currently have. Inventor Fusion enables the user to import parts and assemblies from other Autodesk products and further modify the forms. To my knowledge Inventor Fusion is not capable of creating completely new parts or assemblies; it seems to only be intended for editting of preexisting designs. I am definitely in the market for some 3D CAD software under 200.00 dollars, but I have no idea where to look and what is considered decent software for that little money. Quote
Oppie Posted September 7, 2012 Posted September 7, 2012 Inventor Fusion is now a part of AutoCAD and is capable of creating new parts on it's own and also some simple assemblies, but yes not affordable Do you also have to make drawings or only 3d models? Have you ever tried SketchUp the pro version is affordable and has layouts so you can create drawings, and Sketchup Pro can handle .dwg and lots of other files. Quote
Patrick61 Posted September 7, 2012 Author Posted September 7, 2012 Greetings Oppie. Thank you for the information on Inventor Fusion. I would like the ability to both create drawings and 3D models. I encountered SketchUp pro in my search for the most affordable 3D cad program. It's very good to know it is capable of handling .dwg file types. I will do more research on the commercial license for this product. Thank you for the reply. Quote
Patrick61 Posted September 7, 2012 Author Posted September 7, 2012 Unfortunately, SketchUp pro is almost 500.00 dollars and definitely out of my price range. It looks like a great product, but not for the firearms I need to CAD. Quote
Oppie Posted September 7, 2012 Posted September 7, 2012 I read something about Free CAD you can find it here: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/free-cad/index.php?title=Main_Page Never tried it do ! Quote
Patrick61 Posted September 7, 2012 Author Posted September 7, 2012 FreeCAD has a large number of very positive reviews and the screenshots are rather breathtaking, considering it is open source. Good find. Thank you to you and Dadgad for your replies. Quote
Patrick61 Posted September 7, 2012 Author Posted September 7, 2012 Learning the ropes in FreeCAD. Very powerful open source program and seems to so far fit the bill for what the project needs. Does any one know if it is legal in the United States to use open source software that is subject to a GNU general public license for commercial use? I am not selling or modifying the open source software, but I am using the program to create 3D renderings of products that will be shown on a website, in magazines, and used in a shop as references for prototypes. Quote
tzframpton Posted September 7, 2012 Posted September 7, 2012 DraftSight is free (you must register the application) and has 3D capabilities. Have you tried that one? Link here: http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/overview/ Quote
JD Mather Posted September 7, 2012 Posted September 7, 2012 Inventor Fusion........., but yes not affordable Inventor Fusion is free. http://labs.autodesk.com and yes you can do parts from scratch (search http://au.autodesk.com for Kevin Schneider classes from past few years. But it is very different than Inventor. Greetings Oppie. Thank you for the information on Inventor Fusion... Even though this information is wrong? Posted after you had already been given the correct information by dadgad in first response that Inventor Fusion is free! Inventor LT much cheaper than 7k. Inventor standard with AutoCAD is much cheaper than 7k. http://store.autodesk.com Quote
Cad64 Posted September 7, 2012 Posted September 7, 2012 DraftSight is free (you must register the application) and has 3D capabilities. +1 I've been using Draftsight at home for about a month now and although it is a very good free Autocad alternative for 2D drafting, 3D is very basic and limited. For 3D work, you might want to check out Bricscad which is very affordable. Just over $500 for the Pro version. Quote
f700es Posted September 8, 2012 Posted September 8, 2012 Be aware that Inventor Fusion's free availability is to April 1st, 2013. Not sure what will happen after that. Quote
f700es Posted September 8, 2012 Posted September 8, 2012 There is also ViaCAD from Punch. The ViaCAD pro is only $250 and seems to have a good tool set. Might be worth a look and download the demo. http://www.punchcad.com/p-8-viacad-pro-v7.aspx Quote
f700es Posted September 8, 2012 Posted September 8, 2012 Learning the ropes in FreeCAD. Very powerful open source program and seems to so far fit the bill for what the project needs. Does any one know if it is legal in the United States to use open source software that is subject to a GNU general public license for commercial use? I am not selling or modifying the open source software, but I am using the program to create 3D renderings of products that will be shown on a website, in magazines, and used in a shop as references for prototypes. Yes you can use open source software for profit. I have used an open source rendering engine for work for years. Quote
JD Mather Posted September 8, 2012 Posted September 8, 2012 Be aware that Inventor Fusion's free availability is to April 1st, 2013. Not sure what will happen after that. Inventor Fusion 2013 license expires April 1, 2013. It could be that there will be a free 2014 version available about that time - but Autodesk doesn't release business plan in advace. Quote
SLW210 Posted September 10, 2012 Posted September 10, 2012 Check out the opensource MCAD called FreeCad. Quote
JD Mather Posted September 10, 2012 Posted September 10, 2012 You might also check out Creo Direct. Quote
dalyca Posted September 10, 2012 Posted September 10, 2012 (edited) How about 3D Cad software by Inneo? When you're a student you can also download a free trial version... Edited April 23, 2013 by f700es Quote
JD Mather Posted September 10, 2012 Posted September 10, 2012 (edited) How about 3D Cad software by Inneo? ... Never heard of any 3d cad software from inneo. This looks like a reseller of Creo products. Creo is a Parmetric Technologies software, not an inneo software. Looks like you are trying to plug your site and services rather than your CAD software product. What is the direct link to your CAD software product? Edited April 23, 2013 by f700es Quote
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