Free 3D cad

[loose nut]

This is a link top a new 3D cad program from Autodesk (Autocad, Inventor etc.). I haven't looked at it so I can say if it is any good, just read to description but it is a free download. It is designed to be outputted to a 3d printer if you want to have a part prototyped.

http://news.autodesk.com/news/autodesk/20110519005413/en/Manufacturing-Personal-Autodesk-123D-Free-Download

[mochinist]

looks decent from the video I watched

http://www.youtube.com/user/123D#p/u/0/A-EYcvXbfu8

[Evan]

Looks interesting but I won't be downloading it here. It's a 482 megabyte download.

[justanengineer]

I think its rather interesting that a company that has a commercial package available delves into the world of FREE...

[S_J_H]

huh?? .. what??.. Heck I thought they were all free!

Looks like a nice lite direct modeling cad.

You can still download Fusion preview but it expires in a year. Not really a big deal to get around that though.
I tried the 2011 version and it was so slow it was totally unusable. No idea if 2012 version is better.

http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/fusion/

Steve

[lazlo]

I think its rather interesting that a company that has a commercial package available delves into the world of FREE...

Like Alibre?

[loose nut]

Autocad became the most popular cad program shortly after it came out because Autodesk didn't put any copy protection in it. By having it widely used it became very popular even if it wasn't the best available. Maybe they are trying to gain some market share by making a simple 3D cad program available, hoping to get people hooked on their products and then buy Inventor. It could also be that they might as well make a program available for free because a cracked version of Inventor 2012 is widely available on the web.

[Evan]

The business model for this software is to sell you services that the program facilitates. They are selling models, 2D laser cutting and 3D printing services through affiliates. These features are built in to the software so you can order a model made with just a few mouse clicks. It's a lot like the business model for printers. They basically give away the printer and make huge profits on the supplies.

[CCWKen]

It's a Beta version. Seems you get 4.2 now even though the page says 4.1 (May 25th). I wonder how often a version is released? By the way, the 64-bit version is 520Mb. Took me about 30 minutes to download.

I viewed a few of the videos. I'm new to CAD but it looks as slick as boiled okra.

[loose nut]

it looks as slick as boiled okra.

Is that good or bad?????

[whitis]

autodesk 123D

Beware. "Free" programs like this frequently lock in your data so you can only use their manufacturing services which can be a very bad thing for users. That may or may not be the case here. Or maybe if you buy their $$$$ software you can unlock it. So check before you use.

Designs should be in a format that can be read by other programs, is documented, is preferrably machine and human readable, cross-platform, etc. so you can use your data today and tomorrow, long after the software it was designed with and the operating systems it ran on are no longer available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_obsolescence

[rotate]

I played around with 123D. The interface looks promising, but it's a dog. Even on my desktop which is pretty fast, it's too slow for use. When I check with Task manager, only one CPU was being utilized and often it was at 100% when I was rotating a simple cube.

[Evan]

That means it's not using the GPU for graphics. What GPU do you have?

[Rex]

Is that good or bad?????

Ken's a Texas boy: Okra is Good. YMMV

[lazlo]

Ken's a Texas boy: Okra is Good.

Slimy okra is bad. Or more accurately, if okra is fried correctly, it's delicious. If you boil it, you get a slimy goo. Hence the expression