Extra modules
Beyond the core object creation, what facilities does the app offer?
This is an area where FreeCAD is the leader, and it calls its various editors workbenches. As well as 3D solid modelling, it has built-in workbenches for things like 3D architectural design. The different workbenches interact with each other, and you move between them on a single project. The TechDraw workbench produces impressive-looking schematic drawings. The Mesh workbench is mainly used for importing 3D models and turning them into viable CAD objects, and the Spreadsheet module is a handy way of managing the parameters of an object. FreeCAD can load external, unofficial workbenches, and there are a lot of these on the website. These cover areas as diverse as importing geographical data, electrical design and rocket design.
The Shaper module is just one part of Salome. However, the other modules are largely concerned with some high-end, scientific simulation tasks that most 3D CAD modellers won’t have much use for. You can use it to design a nuclear power station, and that’s what EDF, a largely French government-owned electricity provider, uses it for.
SolveSpace doesn’t offer many ways of working outside of the core features of 3D solid modelling. Similarly, with OpenSCAD, the core functionality makes up the bulk of what the program can do. However, OpenSCAD and CadQuery do have an advantage when it comes to extra functionality as they’re based around programming languages. This means they can process the output of another program or be persuaded to work in a customised way. CadQuery is ahead here because it uses Python, so can be plugged into tools that involve that language.