https://web.archive.org/web/20211126210706/https://wiki.shap...
(trying to get that back into shape at: https://old.reddit.com/r/shapeoko/wiki/cad ob. discl., I work for Carbide 3D)
and FreeCAD seemed simultaneously the most ambitious, and the most promising --- hopefully v1.0 will pay off on that, and result in a tool which can be used widely --- but it will eventually need some sort of commercial support. Ondsel seemed a good fit for that, and it's unfortunate that they didn't make it.
Notable other options include:
- Solvespace --- a venerable and simple tool, it is barebones to the extent that many folks won't be able to accept it
- Dune 3D --- this is an incredibly elegant and usable tool, which I hope FreeCAD will look to in terms of UI, previously discussed here previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37979758 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40228068
- BRL-CAD --- _the_ venerable choice, but the interface is so old school and programming-like, most folks won't even consider it
- OpenSCAD --- 3D modeling for programmers --- the great thing about it is, anything which one can describe mathematically can be modeled --- the awful thing about it is, what one can model is limited by one's mathematical knowledge. A further concern is that DXFs from it are just polylines, no arcs --- I've been working to address that using OpenPythonSCAD at: https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview
LibreCAD is workable for 2D, though I only use it for file conversion.
The other notable options are OnShape (free for public designs), Alibre (quite affordable), Solidworks for Makers (for values which include non-commercial usage watermarking).