If you could have one proprietary package/software released as Free Software, which would it be and why?
RMS: I have not made an effort to study the possible candidates, since unless a genie offers me a wish of that kind, the results wouldn’t enable me do anything constructive. Thus, I can only respond based on the few proprietary programs I happen by chance to know about.
Of the programs I know of, I think freeing Autocad would give the biggest boost to the free software community. It is used in a wide range of activities, and our CAD software lags quite a bit,
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!
Join over 38,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord
CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org
New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — New Products 11/15/2024 Featuring Adafruit bq25185 USB / DC / Solar Charger with 3.3V Buck Board! (Video)
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython 2025 Wraps, Focus on Using Python, Open Source and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
Adafruit IoT Monthly — The 2024 Recap Issue!
Maker Business – Adafruit Daily — Apple to build another chip at TSMC Arizona
Electronics – Adafruit Daily — Low power?
Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !
9 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Well I like Kicad a Free and open source Electronic design automation software with video tutorials and better than eagle in my opinion. I tried eagle and made a board with it.
Mechanical CAD Google sketchup free but not open source…
blender3d.com some used it for 3d modeling for hardware but not as good as others…
BRL-CAD great free and open source but a little difficult but solid modeling…
There are some script based things…
FPGA Graphical design of digital circuits and simulation I was told about last night the site looks good and is easly installed in ubuntu.
http://www.tkgate.org/
You can do a lot with Sketchup, and it’s not difficult to learn.
If freeing a professional CAD package were an option, I’d vote for Inventor. And the free version of Sketchup is nice, but still leaves a lot to be desired. Manipulating objects in 3D using Inventor is intuitive, working with Sketchup can be quite painful.
These are pretty high end packages:
BRL-Cad – http://brlcad.org/
Blender – http://www.blender.org/
I keep hearing that Sketchup or Blender are “good” MCAD packages. Is there some F/OS plugin that I’m missing to parametric modeling in these? I’ve been using ProE and NX for a while so trying to make models without being able to define a minimum set of dimensions and have the tool work out the rest seems to be way too much work for me (it takes forever to make any model, and even longer to change things). Also I’ve not seen a 2D-with-dimensions output mode for either of them which is essential for when you want to fire up the Bridgeport and actually build something.
Try OpenSCAD (http://openscad.org/). It is like programming a 3D object.
@Adam, no you are not missing anything. SketchUp simply does not have very good dimensioning capabilities — that is one of the things which drives me nuts about it too. You can get precise dimensions by entering them during drawing, but it’s kind of a pain.
I came form a SolidWorks, and though I love the openness of SU, I really hate that lack of precision.
Solidworks has just released a free 2D program similar to Autocad called Draftsight. Get it here:
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/free_2d_tools.htm
HeeksCAD is built on OpenCascade with a solidworks-ish look/feel:
http://www.opencascade.org/
and
http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/