You can use 2D sketches as bases for your 3D models, easily switching between the two to adjust dimensions, parameters, and other aspects, and you can also extract precise design details from your 3D designs.Ī flexible CAD program, you can design all sorts of different products with FreeCAD. It provides a variety of different tools for sketching in 2D, as well as parametric modeling for 3D CAD. It’s also worth noting that TinkerCAD is owned by Autodesk, which also owns more advanced Mac CAD programs like Fusion 360 and AutoCAD, so it’s a good starting point for building up to these more complex programs.Īnother benefit is that TinkerCAD is one of the few CAD software that is available as an iPad app, so you can access your account and work on designs with great flexibility across your different Apple devices.įreeCAD – Powerful Open Source CAD for Mac Source: GithubįreeCAD is one of the most popular free CAD apps for Mac for both 2D and 3D modeling. You can bring your code to life in a 3D viewer and easily edit properties for highly customizable shapes, so it’s a great introduction to this type of design. Similar to the 3D building blocks, TinkerCAD also allows you to design using block-based code with a simple drag-and-drop method.

You can use these to create a wide variety of models, although bear in mind the 3D capabilities are limited in comparison to other CAD programs. This freeware CAD for Mac also offers intuitive 3D design tools based on building blocks, with the ability to import your own shapes as well as using TinkerCAD’s premade ones. You can then use the interactive editor to customize your designs before simulating them with 1:1 representations of popular components like Arduino and micro:bit. You can build up circuits and other electrical components from the ground up, either by starting from scratch with TinkerCAD’s wide variety of drawing tools or by using one of its template circuits. There are three main features of TinkerCAD – 2D electrical design, 3D design, and coding design.

3d cad for mac