What are FreeCAD users saying about the software?
Read what people like you have said about using FreeCAD software through verified user reviews
User Review Highlights
4.33
114 Reviews
Ease-of-use
out of 5Customer Support
out of 5Value for money
out of 5Functionality
out of 5"It's free, which is good for beginners at CAD or those with a low budget. It has a basic CAD drafting tools."
"Easy to use and the fuctionalities are well illustrated. User friendly and not that complex to do your work."
"User can easily sketch, constraint a geometry, draft a models from 3D into 2D. The user interface is user friendly."
"It isn't complete (e.g. there is no dimensioning readily available), and suffers from ongoing development that results in occasional crashes."
"Poor and very complicated user interface. 3D surface generation can not react that you desire."
"It has very limited functionality and is weak on 3D CAD."
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Showing 1 - 25 of 114 reviews
Andrew
Company size: 2 - 10 employees
Time used: Free Trial
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
February 2022
My thoughts on FreeCad

James
Verified reviewer
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
July 2018
CAD software provides a good opportunity for rendering different models of houses and buildings.
Pros
In comparison with other AutoCad softwares,it is one of the different version software. We can make 3 D drawing through this software at different angles of projection which is is indeed the most fantastic feature. This software is used by everyone whether students or professionals but proved to be helpful to everyone.
Cons
Sometimes when we are updating modules, at that time some of the modules are not updated. So we feel that they will update in next versions of software. The learning curve of this software is quite difficult for the new users. For this sometimes some users have to take CAD classes in order to have good command on the usage of this particular software.
Michael
Company size: 1 employee
Industry: Health, Wellness and Fitness
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
April 2020
Excellent product for free
Love it. I used Pro/ENGINEER in the early 90's and it was such a wonderful leap over AutoCAD but hugely expensive. I used my outdated copy of AutoCAD for years until I discovered FreeCAD 5 or 6 years ago. Initially it was a steep learning curve but with the abundance of videos on YouTube and perseverance I am now quite adept at using it. I have designed/built a semi-automatic machine for my production and have several 3D printed tools used in that machine. FreeCAD has been a Godsend for developing and evaluating my ideas and I would definitely recommend it if you are a small business with minimal or no budget for expensive CAD software.
Pros
Price (free), functionality: solid modeling (not just a collection of lines, arc and circles) , features, (eventual) ease of use, ability to create .stl files for 3D printer. The software is parametric meaning you can adjust dimensions and update the model, ability to create assemblies.
Cons
Steep learning curve but thankfully with YouTube... I haven't looked for awhile but the documentation was lacking when I first got into it. I haven't had to use the forum for help so I can't speak to that but in searching the forum it seems to be very active with volunteers answering questions.
Reasons for switching to FreeCAD
I had an old version of AutoCAD that was great for creating drawings but lousy for developing concepts/models.
John
Company size: 1 employee
Industry: Mechanical or Industrial Engineering
Time used: Less than 6 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
May 2022
Extraordinary 3D CAD functionality for FREE, yet you need to invest time to master it.
This is a fully functioning free download that is probably worth the effort to learn (I'm still learning it). I have over 30 years experience using various other CAD systems, yet still need to get over the learning hurdle with this system to feel comfortable using it.
Pros
Surprisingly powerful and visually similar to other 3D CAD modelers. I was able to import an IGES assembly from another mid-range system without any issues. Although I was not able to then modify the assembly. A good number of tutorials are available on YouTube.
Cons
Functions are similar to other products, yet to me, it is not intuitive and requires investing more time to learn. The icons do not look as elegant as more premium systems, yet what can you expect for a FREE program that people worked hard to create on their own dime.
Reasons for choosing FreeCAD
The price is right. It promises useful functionality without worrying about paying a software maintenance contract. The product has a "fan base" of users and many free video tutorials on YouTube.
Reasons for switching to FreeCAD
No longer will have access to other CAD system.
Marco
Company size: 51-200 employees
Industry: Mechanical or Industrial Engineering
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
May 2022
Nice free CAD and FEM software
Pros
This software is free and can be used by anyone. There are a lot of tutorials online.
Cons
A lot of bugs could occur during FEM simulations and software often crashes.
Fabian
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Construction
Time used: Less than 12 months
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
February 2022
FreeCAD is a specialist Parametric, 2D and 3D Modeler, ideal for professionals, students and hobbyis
In general terms, FreeCAD is the SoftWare that optimizes time and saves money, without having to hire experts to carry out designs and layouts for different types of projects; functional, easy to use, despite its interface with few or minimal difficulties that compensates it with other qualities that make it the ideal cause for the development of multiple designs and projects, loved by professionals, teachers, students and amateurs of this important activity. what is design.
Pros
FreeCAD is a customized open source SoftWare, ideal for experts, students and beginners. The easy, efficient and cross-platform tool such as Linux, Windows and Mac, with modules for the most complex 2 and 3D design representations, with import and export options, as well as allowing general accessible coded integration with SoftWare Python, making it a complementary tool when it comes to solutions and extreme designs. We simply have a formidable SoftWare that is complemented by the varieties of its functionalities that make work become a hobby or pastime when designing. it's great...
Cons
The Interface can generate brief difficulty when navigating without representing major inconveniences. You may experience some unstable installation especially on Mac. Difficulty anchoring 3D objects, so rotation could move them to another location on the screen.
Darell
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Computer & Network Security
Time used: Less than 6 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
April 2021
FREECAD
The most powerful features of Free CAD is the scripting environment. It was easy to create objects in the 3D scene and access and also modify your projects in the FreeCAD interface of the software.
Pros
The most attractive feature is that it is free to use I am not very good at designing 3D projects but Free Cad seems to be for me a good platform to teach myself. There are other free design software out there but this one seems to have a lot of features for a free version I like the ease of use for a free open source program the menu items are well layed out
Cons
There are some limited features but for free open source it is not bad. Python scripting I think takes a little patience getting used to but once you catch on it goes pretty smooth for a beginner.
Reasons for choosing FreeCAD
Allowing me to learn on open source makes sense.
Reasons for switching to FreeCAD
I am a beginner creating 3D designs Free Cad allows me to learn while Fusion 360 is very good software Autodesk has opted not to make Fusion 360 free to use. Free Cad has very good open software option that keeps a beginner busy.
Marius
Company size: 1 employee
Industry: Information Services
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
July 2021
The only viable solution if you want free and offline cad package
It's a powerfull CAD tool, and the best part it's totally free.
Pros
Can create any part you can imagine, exports to 3d printing friendly formats, sketching and part design workbenches are relatively easy to learn.
Cons
There are some software quirks on of them is you can not attach sketch to surface and modify the body that the sketch is attached it will mess up the part, while there are ways around that I wish they would fix it in the next iteration of the software. Also if downloading official release the UI is outdated.
Reasons for choosing FreeCAD
You can not beat Open source price offering which is 0 bucks.
Reasons for switching to FreeCAD
They have changed how they treat the hobbyist license, also every year one needs to renew the license, while it's free, it's limited on how one can use their models as per their copyright.
Matthew
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Retail
Time used: Less than 6 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
July 2020
Great Service to Learn CAD
I've only been using FreeCAD for a short time, so I'm by no means an expert, but I've seen that this is a great software and I donated to its development because of that. The community that uses FreeCAD is always helpful and the resources available for learning are plentiful. I feel like more was available for this than some other professional products simply because of the wide community adopment.
Pros
FREE Opensource and well documented for those who like to tinker stl file generation for 3d printing powerful for a free software and not limited to simply the basics abundance of learning material between youtube and forums many users to bounce questions of off
Cons
Very steep learning curve for a beginner UI is clunky, but once you get used to it its not so bad Users need to watch tutorials on how to use it for about the same amount of time they work on a project to use the software
Reasons for switching to FreeCAD
Free trial ended and I wanted to see what permanently free looked like

Robson
Verified reviewer
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Architecture & Planning
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
July 2021
A free CAD for drawings and modeling
There are too many tutorials in their website to know how to use it, but still was hard to me to work with this CAD.
Pros
It has a lot of features to make a 2D drawing or plans, to model in 3D or even use BIM in your workflow.
Cons
Because of its complexity, it is confusing at the beggining.
Anonymous
Company size: 5,001-10,000 employees
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
October 2019
Free CAD software
Pros
can be oriented by user script and easy to implement automatic CAD generation.
Cons
poor and very complicated user interface. 3D surface generation can not react that you desire.
Juan
Company size: 11-50 employees
Industry: Information Technology and Services
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
May 2020
Que es FreeCad
Pros
es totalmente gratis no se debe pagar nada por su licencia ya que la misma es GPL 2 soy parte del equipo de FreeCad en latinoamerica y estoy en desacuerdo con la publicación de venta de esta software por este medio por lo cual me dirijo ente ustedes para que comuniquen con el publicador y sea retirada esta oferta ya que una ves mas les replico este software es totalmente gratis
Cons
ninguna es muy bueno y ademas gratis de por vida
Reasons for choosing FreeCAD
porque es gratis
Daniel
Company size: 1,001-5,000 employees
Industry: Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
January 2022
Ever improving, and capable of many things
Pros
Free, parametric design. Valuable mesh to solid features. Scripting and programmatic interfaces are useful
Cons
Feature references regularly break (fixed in 0.19)

Rahul
Verified reviewer
Company size: 1,001-5,000 employees
Industry: Higher Education
Time used: Less than 12 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
July 2018
Best 3D editing and visualization tool
Was able to see the drawings for my Project and edit them and again render them to the 3D images.
Pros
Digital drawing has been made very easy with the use of the extensive features of the software. It helps students like me to understand the 3D drawings and their meaning in a very subtle way. One can easily learn the software and could try creating 3D images in the very first week.
Cons
The recent software that I used, requires some minimal hardware configurations to render the images. So, buy a new system or else it is not for you. The snap options sometimes is adamant and won't let you decide what point you may want to take. One of the 3D functions I think is irrelevant.
Anonymous
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
April 2018
Such a nice feeling after the use of it...!
Work on this software seems to be great..!
Pros
A different version of software compared to other softwares such as AutoCAD and its very nice 3D drawing in different angles of projections. I am blessed to see my great work in this software.
Cons
some modules isn't it updated and It seems they are going to update in next versions of software updates.

Laura
Verified reviewer
Time used: Less than 12 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
July 2018
In my experience it's the best 2D/3D CAD software. I use this software to design electrical circuits
Pros
Its very user-friendly and on top of all its free, and also does not use too much system memory. With an average PC you can easily run multiple tasks while working on this software, without worrying about usage of system memory. The program is simple and not too much complicated and has all the great tools, so many people can take advantage and use it with more ease.
Cons
The features of this software are too limited and selection of add-ons can also be improved. But as its for free so one can live with these little flaws. But if new features can be added, it will make this software perfect for work.

Faith
Verified reviewer
Company size: 11-50 employees
Industry: Retail
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
January 2019
FreeCAD
Nice some extra features that are unique but they should work on its complexity
Pros
I like the requirements for using this softwares , not too much they don't over work my PC. Building different models to come up with desired 3D/2D plans with its features is also a plus, cosidering its a free s/w this is great.
Cons
Honestly if you don't have prior experience with design s/w this one is not for beginners. Its a bit complex for beginners
Anonymous
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
July 2018
If you want a free CAD program this is by far the best option. Free and simple it just works.
This software has been used to create hundreds of drawings for mocking up ideas.
Pros
This free software does not skimp on features. Everything you could even need it there for you. This software can be used by professionals, hobbiests, and students. With on going development new features are always being added and it easily runs on any system no matter old or new the system.
Cons
The interface can have a bit of a challenging learning curve. This is not the fault of this software but of all CAD software. Often times people take classes to learn CAD. This software can be easily learned but be prepared to invest some time.
David
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Computer Software
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
August 2020
Low Cost Parametric CAD and Blueprinting
Very satisfied. It did what I needed it to do for a super reasonable price.
Pros
I was doing some quick prototyping of a new product and needed a CAD/drafting package. I started with the free version of FreeCAD and found it fully functional, with all the features and options that I needed. Once I learned the system upgrade was the logical choice.
Cons
I found the environment difficult to learn and not intuitive, however, I am not experienced in this area, being a chemical engineer not a mechanical engineer which I am sure would have been much more comfortable. I needed to generate the drawing for some manifolds that we needed to import into Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Reasons for choosing FreeCAD
Feature set and value for the money.

Hiran
Verified reviewer
Company size: 10,000+ employees
Industry: Oil & Energy
Time used: Less than 12 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
January 2021
A free CAD tool sufficient for learner.
Pros
Free CAD is open source software. User can easily sketch, constraint a geometry, draft a models from 3D into 2D. The user interface is user friendly. Easy to install and run the software.
Cons
The open privacy for free versions make visible of a user project to all. Free version have limited features. Not suggesting for professional designers.
dave
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Design
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
February 2020
Best Free 3D Tool Available
I use this software to review 3D data created by mechanical designers on commercial platforms.
Pros
Very good 3D tool and perfect for anyone who needs to review 3D models and does not own a commercially available solution. Backed by a dedicated group of skilled knowledgeable developers.
Cons
The tool has capabilities far beyond what I am currently using it for. It is somewhat difficult to learn how to perform new tasks as more focus is placed on functionality improvements at the expense of how-to documentation.
blake
Time used: Less than 12 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
April 2018
Great program for any designer or architect!
Pros
I was skeptical about this program at first but it really grew on me. I had a bit of a learning curve learning the macros and functions, but once you re-program yourself to acclimate to this program it's really a breeze.
Cons
Only con would be that there are other programs that are performing at a little higher rate with a bit more exposure. I had to do some searching for reviews and tutorials on this product to get myself in tune with it.

Brent
Verified reviewer
Time used: Less than 12 months
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
July 2018
Awesome product and easy, had to research a few things but there is so much information out there
Was able to recreate my backyard and modify it and create a new kitchen awesome software would recommend to anyone
Pros
Love that I can create a visual for my bosses at work to see using this software, was very impressed how easy it was to pick up and go, lots of videos and help on the internet.
Cons
That not all the tools are that easy to find, but alot of videos and posts out there help me accomplish what I was after

Julio A
Verified reviewer
Time used: Less than 6 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
February 2018
Great CAD software for training
The benefit is that you can work with a free license program, train your staff in the CAD environment and improve to a level that allows you to make plans and 3D models in the same way as with the CAD programs of license
Pros
What I like the most is that it has the ability to recognize the CAD environment and learn the commands. You can make a plan and complete a 3D model, for a better visualization. Additionally, new complements can be adapted, through the programming to generate added value to the works to be delivered
Cons
Because I have several years working with CAD programs, editing the elements of the drawings are not very polished and differentiation of the layers is a must because it can emphasize certain aspects more than others, especially for the plans and final 3D models

ROSA YURAIMA
Verified reviewer
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
May 2018
Modelling in 3D and for free
Pros
This is a software that I can use it in any computer without restriction and without paying anything, because is free and do many things that do a private software, for me is very useful because I can modeling the pipelines and see them in 3D to know if exist a trouble or mistake with the design, or we just have to implement it.
Cons
It needs to implement a set of tutorials in the official website, because in the beginning was very difficult to me to understand the processes of modeling with this software, but once I manage them everything was very easy.
