A number of video tutorials on YouTube can help you familiarize yourself with FreeCAD, and the FreeCAD website directs you to a number of offsite tutorial providers.

This program runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, and a portable release even works on a Windows system with restricted rights. When it came time to test FreeCAD, things clicked right away. During the course of my research, I tested a number of CAD applications on various systems, including AutoSketch, Blender, 3DScratch, Tinkercad, and others however, I couldn't get excited about any of these programs. For the practice test described in this article, I developed a case for the Raspberry Pi with a display, and I had a 3D printing provider print the design.īefore embarking on the test, I had professional experience with 2D CAD programs and only rudimentary exposure to 3D CAD, dating back to my days as a mechanical engineering student in the early 1990s. In today's world, a Raspberry Pi and the open source software FreeCAD are all you need. In the not-too-distant past, 3D modeling applications required powerful workstations and expensive programs. To model and produce 3D objects, you need a 3D printer and, most importantly, a 3D CAD (computer-aided design) program, which lets you construct an object down to the last detail.

Freecad tutorial 3d printing