User's Manual Part 2

CHAPTER 6. CAD SOFTWARE – CREATE YOUR OWN OBJECTS188
on a cloud platform, available free to students and hobbyists,
and available for Mac or PC.
Autodesk 123D Design, OnShape,andMorphi are good apps
for iPad users. Th ey have free versions (123D) or free for educa-
tion version s (OnSh ape), or free with limitations (Morphi) and
you can pay to unlock all the features. Morphi o↵ers discount
pricing for schools based on the number of seats purchased.
Blender is an open-source design package that can als o be
used for 3D animation, so time spent learning this tool means
students can do more than just cr eat e models for printing.
OpenSCAD is open -s ou r ce software for crea ti n g 3D CAD ob-
jects, with a focus on programming and engineer in g.
Sculptris is focussed on art, an d in particular, virtual sculpt-
ing.
Note that AutoDesk o↵ers several professional design soft-
ware pack ages that are for free to students and teachers. Some
have already been listed above, but to list a few more with com-
parisons:
1. Aut odesk 123D Design is a good intermediate design tool.
2. Aut odesk Fusion 360 is higher-level CAD software provided
on a cloud platform.
3. Aut odesk Maya is an animation package that can be used
for 3D modeling.
4. Aut odesk Inventor is a mechanical design and 3 D CAD
software package that o↵ers professional-grade 3D mechan-
ical design, documentation, and product simulation tools.
This is good for advanced users who need exact tolerances