Design and CAD
FreeCAD
Free parametric CAD under the LGPL-2.1 licence, for Windows, macOS and Linux. The no-strings alternative to Fusion, with no commercial-use limit.
FreeCAD is an open-source parametric CAD published under the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1. Official installers are distributed for Windows, macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux (AppImage for x86_64 and aarch64). Against Fusion it has two decisive advantages: no commercial-use restriction and no licence expiry, and files live on your disk rather than in anyone's cloud. In exchange the learning curve is rougher and the interface is organised into workbenches you have to learn to tell apart. For a Mexican workshop selling prints, it is the legally cleanest way to design without paying a subscription.
Best for
- Designing parts you intend to sell, with no licence restriction
- Offline work with files stored on your own computer
- Parametric modelling with a full history
- Workshops that do not want to depend on a vendor's cloud
Limitations
- A steep learning curve and a workbench layout that is unintuitive at first
- Rendering and some operations are slower than in commercial programs
- Spanish-language documentation is uneven
- Fewer video tutorials than Fusion or Tinkercad
Sources
- [1]FreeCAD/FreeCAD — licencia LGPL-2.1, binarios para Windows, macOS y Linux (v1.1.3)FreeCAD · Manufacturer · accessed July 27, 2026