Support and documentation

Getting started requires studying documents and tutorials.

Even if you have experience with CAD software, it is essential to practise methodically, exploring the different methods and tools available. We will now look at how much training is needed to get the hang of each program in our roundup. The quality of a program’s documentation is also important but it is not a practical way to get started: tutorials are much faster. LibreCAD has moderate but clear documentation, the tutorials are usually clear and useful. Many are in French, German and Spanish but all the basics are covered by English speakers. FreeCAD has a brilliant solution where you can view their web based documentation in a FreeCAD tab, eliminating the need to swap to your browser for help. The tutorials on YouTube cover everything from the basics to making meshes for the complicated FEM functionality. SolveSpace is very easy to get used to: work through one or two of the available tutorials and keep a scrap of paper to remind you of the keyboard shortcuts and you should be off in less than 30 minutes.

OpenSCAD has a huge library of documentation and there are many tutorials, but be prepared to brush up on your maths skills. Starting with this software will be a bit harder and take a bit longer but you will have great support from documents and tutorials.

The QCAD manual is short and concise, using the tutorials is a must.