

For starters, it can be used for a wide range of applications, including 2 and 3-axis milling, turning, adaptive clearing, and for FDM 3D printers. While it may not offer all the same capabilities as the paid version, the free version of Fusion 360 is still a great option for hobbyists. There’s also the option to upgrade to the full package for $60 per month which has more advanced CAD and CAM features. The free version is a bit limited compared to its full package of $60 per month.Īutodesk’s Fusion 360 is a unified CAD, CAM and PCB software that’s free for personal and hobby use.

Source: YouTubeĪnother of the advantages of using this free CAD CAM software is that it has an active user community. It’s available on Mac, Windows and Linux.

While FreeCAD offers very advanced CAD and CAM capabilities, it’s also well designed, easy-to-use and highly customizable. All shape edits are recorded, so you can easily undo or redo and keep a precise history of your models. In addition, as all the objects you can create in FreeCAD are natively parametric, their shape can be based on a range of properties like numeric values, texts and even other objects. It also offers a wide range of tools to create and edit these objects, including Boolean operations. The software uses an advanced geometry engine based on Open CASCADE Technology, meaning it can support solids, BRep objects, and NURBs curves and spines. It can even use a combination of units, enabling you to produce high realistic, full-precision models and then export them for CNC machining. For example, everything you do in FreeCAD uses real-word units, from microns and inches to feet or kilometers. This free CAD CAM software is designed for creating 3D parametric models and has some great features to help you do just that. While it may be free, it’s a very high quality software that’s ideal for hobbyists and professionals alike. FreeCAD is completely open source CAD and CAM software that’s free to all users.
