Tag Archives: free cad software

BabaCAD 2018 – much more than CAD

Posted on by
3

After over 6 years being freeware CAD software, here comes first commercial BabaCAD version, BabaCAD 2018 Home/Enterprise editions. Old versions are still available for download at many freeware download sites and of course, there are still free as in beer.

Older 32-bit freeware versions of BabaCAD will have no further updates and support for freeware versions ended by February 2018.

Main reason for users to upgrade to BabaCAD 2018 (Home or Enterprise) is .DWG compatibility. BabaCAD 2018 can open any AutoCAD .DWG drawing from R12 up to R2019 version. Only licensed users will have this feature enabled (trial version can’t open newer .DWG file versions).

There are many other features available in BabaCAD 2018. Linewidth in mm/inch/feets (use UNITS command to change units), custom line types (user can define any line type in babacad.lin config file in support folder). Construct circle with two/three points or between two tangents and radius specified. Autosave feature, few more modify tools and many bugs fixed since last version.

BabaCAD 2018 Enterprise now can be extended by programming in C# and using .NET Framework and it’s huge classes library. Code your own command in just few minutes and writing only few lines of code. Connect to cloud, web service or database using .NET built-in interfaces. You can use any Microsoft Visual Studio (even free community version) to develop your custom BabaCAD AddOn application (.DLL). Compile it and copy your .DLL to NetModules folder (name your .dll like BabaCADYourAppName.dll) and start BabaCAD. Your AddOn module will be automatically loaded at startup so you can start type and using your own CAD command.

Go to http://www.babacad.com to download free time-unlimited trial.

Free CAD Software for Windows 10

Posted on by
11

BabaCAD 2017 is released on April 2th 2017. More advanced version of professional free CAD software which is now 64-bit with multi-document-interface with ribbon bar and optimized for Windows 10, but also works for other 64-bit Windows OS like Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

Improvements and features that are added in this version are:

* 64-bit version with MDI (multiple-document-interface)
* modern designed with ribbon bar and large buttons
* different line types loads from bcad.lin
* user can update bcad.lin with custom linetypes
* auto-save with recovery (default 5 min)
* type AUTOSAVEINTERVAL in command window to change
* dynamic input (can be turned off – statusbar)
* easy start commands with auto-complete input
* type line/polyline length/angle using DynInput
* grid lines (F7 or status bar to turn on/off)
* anti-aliased smooth rendering (LW)
* new objects like SPLINE, 3D POLYLINE, ELLIPSE…
* join polylines, break polyline, break spline
* new modify tools: array, mirror
* copy objects and blocks between multiple documents
* LISP enabled, use APPLOAD or update bcad.mnu to load lisps
* 3D ready version (3D Modeling coming soon) with 3D objects
* LINE, 3D POLYLINE, POINT are 3D objects in BabaCAD 2017
* update Z coordinate in Properties window
* use 3DORBIT or VIEW to navigate in 3D or projection planes
* image (raster) save is working now (saved with path ref.)

BabaCAD 2017  has everything that every professional CAD software must have. That means you can draw lines, polylines, points, point clouds, circle, ellipse, spline, hatch, block. You can insert annotations or dimensions using smart dimensioning, insert text, images and even georeferenced raster images (tif, geotiff).

Hatch and line types can be customized by editing bcad.pat and bcad.lin files or you can replace them with already prepared files from other CAD platform, as these are standard formatted files for hatch patterns and line types.

Dynamic input allows you to directly type length and angle when drawing line segments, and auto-complete helps you to type commands quickly with just typing command starting letters.

BabaCAD is compatible with AutoCAD and other commercial CAD software cause it’s native file format is DXF and it opens DWG also (dwg version < R2007).

Users can make and insert blocks using block explorer window, then there is capability of organize objects in layers, change colors, line types…

BabaCAD 2017 has LISP interpreter included, so users can load .lsp (AutoLISP) scripts to run user defined commands and functions. There are some LISP examples included for beginners to see how it’s easy to automate some drafting tasks very easy using LISP programming.

Users can develop their own functions using BabaCAD API for .bem (BabaCAD extension modules). BabaCAD API is included in installation (header and lib files can be found in API folder under the installation folder).

Free CAD for dwg files

Posted on by
3

BabaCAD 1.2 is released out with dwg read support up to R2007 (R2007 not included). Dwg file format is widely used for sharing CAD drawings and CAD blocks. Special thanks to my friend Haris Hasanbegovic who helped me with dwg support. There are also many new usefull features in new version. Snap to nearest, intersection, perpendicular are now available (end-point osnap already was there). Text objects are now filled and curved with Arial font default. Ritght-to-left rectangular selection is precise for touch selection. Arc draw is now with three points input mode as default (center-start-end angle input is option in command window). Polyline includes bulges (arc segments) with smart input and editing feature. New modify commands: offset, trim and extend. Offset command very usefull for cnc offseting of 2D lightweight polylines with arc segments. Undo/redo up to 100 commands. More right-click menu commands. Mouse right-click can replace enter key in command window. Select as you click, esc or mouse rclick + Deselect all to deselect. File formats supported in BabaCAD are *.dwg, *.dxf for  open, and *.dxf for save. New release are coming soon with more new features, so check it out at http://www.babacad.com

Free drawing software

Posted on by
1

I want to bring this matter to people who are not familiar with computer aided design (CAD). CAD is mainly used for detailed engineering, but there are many situations when you will need to draw something with high precision and not expecting it to be an engineering project. It’s not economical to buy expensive CAD software for such situtations. There are many free cad solutions out there. One has just to choose the suitable one for his need and here are some directions you can follow:

- try to find free CAD software, where ‘free’ means no registration, no limited features
- there are many AutoCAD clones (maybe 90% of all free cad softwares today) based on intellicad platform, and I don’t like ‘based on some platform’ fact, cause of many reasons (will talk in another post about this)
- number of usefull commands and functions
- complexity
- speed (must use OpenGL or DirectDraw graphics acceleration)
- download size

BabaCAD is still in development phase and many new features are coming soon. Just finishing plot command and plot layouts with model/paper modes. Check for new release at http://www.babacad.com.

 

BabaCAD has been awarded “Editor’s Pick” award by Brothersoft

Posted on by
Reply

I’m pleased to announce that BabaCAD awarded “Editor’s Pick” award from Brothersoft for the last month (Jun-2012).
BrotherSoft is one of the leading software download sites providing a huge collection of software for free download to over 20 million unique English visitors each month.

Download this free CAD and start drafting http://www.babacad.com

At first, when I was informed by the Brothersoft’s editor that BabaCAD is great CAD software and awarded “Editor’s Pick”, I thought, “ok, it must be they pick every new software release for such award”. Then, I was surprised after I searched google to see what is all about. I found this award is very respectable and here are some informations about criteria for getting “Editor’s Pick” from brothersoft’s site ( http://author.brothersoft.com/pickaward.html ):

<citation>
BrotherSoft Review Staff give one product a Pick Award because this product is easy to use, it has a professional-looking interface, it is excellent compared to other programs in this section and so on.

About Evaluation
We evaluate the software based on our established evaluation criteria, which is submitted by developer. And we will give the software developer an honest opinion. Our original intention is that our evaluation could help the software developer provide a better one for their customers.

About Pick Guide
The following ratings guides lead to our review staff give one software a rating 3 or other.
1. More popular, as well as higher utilization of the software or add-in.
2. This program is an excellent software between the similar software, easy to use and professional-looking interface.
3. No Spyware, not mandatory modify the registry, adds uninstall feature and removes all traces of itself from the hard drive.
4. The software author provides help built in to the program, technical support is provided by e-mail and is clearly displayed within the program interface.
5. This program has a professional-looking home page and contains download links, brief program information, contact information and help.
<end of citation>

Thanks to Brothersoft for awarding BabaCAD. I hope that I will make this software even better and more useful for worldwide users.