In an effort to find a good 2D cad program I found a list

Software
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Here is a list of programs I came across.

Thank you

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I always battle with the term ‘free’ in the english language.

All of these programs are Gratis (without a price tag)
BUT

Many of them try to lock people in (as in taking away their freedom) to buy the very expensive bigger version. Or to become a ‘pirate’ by making a copy without stealing anything but still be criminalised by the copyright crooks.

Now I don’t want to say that you should not use those programs, just be aware of being fishbait. make sure you can afford the pain of the expensive hook.

The real Free programs FreeCAD LibreCAD Blender and OpenSCAD come without hooks, but with an educative learning curve.

Then there are the affordable but open programs like QCAD that offer a gratis and a pro version

Gratis but closed programs like sketchup.

Gratis online programs that need an internet connection. (so that could be a challenge when you are sitting on a train and want to do some drawing)

I’d like to add that FreeCAD may look daunting but you don’t need to learn all the workbenches. Only 3 or 4 that apply to what you need for your ideas. And between those workbenches are many cross overs. But you really need to take some time to figure out what basics you need for your situation.

There seems to be no real best option that works for everyone. But i hope this helps to make a more educated choice between these programs.

This list seems to be the most complete list that i’ve seen at this point.
It would be good if it also had the type of software licence listed in the table. As that makes a big difference on it’s own.

On top of that it’s good to see that there are many cross platform options.
If you are thinking of making the jump to another OS then it’s good to know that you don’t need to learn another package all over again.

And as last note i’d like to mention Inkscape. This is no real CAD program but in some cases this is a good tool to have in your toolbox.

Now i need to have a closer look at the ones i didn’t know already… Thanks Bee!

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Thanks for helpful article!

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