OpenSCAD » SolveSpace » CADQuery » FreeCAD » Salome
This month, we turn our attention to the creation of 3D objects by evaluating five CAD packages. They all use what’s called constructive 3D solid modelling, a technique that builds up complex objects by adding and subtracting simpler ones. Applications like these can be used to make 3D objects that can be exported for rendering or 3D printing.
FreeCAD is the most comprehensive open source 3D CAD package that Linux has to offer. It’s bristling with features and has many different modules that can be used for different areas of design and simulation. Salome is an application that shares some code with FreeCAD but streamlines the design workflow.
Like FreeCAD, SolveSpace is primarily a 3D CAD package, but it’s easier to learn and to use, even if it can’t be applied to quite as many different design situations.
Two of the CAD apps work differently as they’re based around a programming language rather than using the sort of mouse input we associate with graphical programs. OpenSCAD is a CAD app with a custom language that’s extremely easy to pick up, while CadQuery is more complicated to learn, but it has the advantage of using the well-known Python as its scripting language.
