3D design interface Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

[valkonen]

Hi,

What type of CAD tools do you guys use to model your "making" FreeCAD? ...
Case in mind, a Uno with some shields & LCD displays, switch, connectors, enclosure ... "alleluia"...

Best regards
Richard

[adafruit_support_bill]

Our boards are designed using EagleCAD. They have a free download for personal use.

[valkonen]

Hi,
My guess is that the free version doesn't handle 3D models that allows manipulating, stacking of mcu boards with their shields, connectors etc...
Br, Richard

[adafruit_support_bill]

Our design and manufacturing processes do not require 3D modeling. So the 2D schematic and board layout capabilities of EagleCAD suit our processes well.

There are 3rd party packages that will take EagleCAD board files and combine them with the 3D models from component libraries to generate 3D models of entire boards. But we do not have any experience using them.

[kcl1s]

Adafruit's Ruiz brothers do a lot of their making designs in Fusion 360 (free for hobbyist). Check out their layer by layer playlist on Adafruit's Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVsMp6nKnpjsXSQ45nxfORb. They have a repository of Adafruit boards and parts they have modeled here https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CAD_Parts

Fellow hobbyist
Keith