# Is there any alternative for Inventor or AutoCAD?



## Handy92 (Feb 29, 2016)

Like a title. I search any alternative for Inventor and AutoCAD, is available something like that?


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## SirDice (Feb 29, 2016)

There's a whole ports category devoted to CAD: http://www.freshports.org/cad/

I don't have experience with it but cad/qcad looks like a decent alternative.


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## bart (Feb 29, 2016)

There was a precedent discussion on this topic: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/52999/#post-297428
QCad and LibreCad are good (I prefer LibreCad). If you need some 3D and CAM, go to OpenCascade/Salome/BRLCAD.


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## Handy92 (Mar 1, 2016)

Yes I need some 3D. I use now Inventor in VirtualBox but is little slow...


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## SirDice (Mar 1, 2016)

The only other alternative I could find was cad/freecad but it's been removed from the ports tree 7 years ago because it was broken. Not sure what the state of the upstream is either, the developer's website appears to be "under construction" for quite some time.


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## sossego (Mar 1, 2016)

Blender should be able to export to CAD and AutoCAD. Hmmm. You would need to ask someone in the Blender community if there is a Python plugin for such or if they could develop a python plugin to create an "AutoCAD" type of environment. It would need the exact measurements for such. There exists a Linux CAD type for pipes from the Norse. 
The reference is difficult to find at the moment. The individual was working at a pipeline in the Scandinavian area around 2010. At the same time, I remember him liking to have fun with being an annoying hacker for reasons not always explained.


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## srobert (Mar 2, 2016)

I had good luck for very limited usage with cad/librecad from the ports tree.


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## Phishfry (Mar 12, 2016)

Not in the class of AutoCAD

Not to be rude but I use it Acad-R2012 almost daily and dabbled recently in the open source CAD pool. My opinion is there are no equal open source alternatives to AutoCAD. It is a program that has been in development since 1982. It is leading edge in manufacturing..


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## dekloper (May 25, 2016)

Handy92 said:


> Yes I need some 3D. I use now Inventor in VirtualBox but is little slow...


use opencascade. it exist in ports:

```
Port:   opencascade-6.9.1_1
Path:   /usr/ports/cad/opencascade
Info:   Open CASCADE Technology, 3D modeling & numerical simulation
Maint:   thierry@FreeBSD.org
```

and... try using for virtualization xen as alternative virtualbox..


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## Phishfry (May 25, 2016)

I do agree with your Xen vs. virtualbox recommendation.

/graphics/blender has been at it a while too.
https://www.blender.org/


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## Phishfry (May 25, 2016)

SGI Open Inventor exists in ports as well.


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## Phishfry (May 29, 2016)

I tried the cad/librecad port and it is usable. It should work for small projects.

Many commands similar to Autocad but nowhere near as smooth acting.

I imported in some dxf work and it did not fall over.

It is compact at 130MiB compared to cad/qcad which drags in bunches of QT at over 450MiB.


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