GCAD3D
Version: 2.26 Web: www.gcad3d.org
This is a 3D CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing) application for GNU/Linux, which enables users to prepare, create, visualise and analyse data, and easily interact with call models, such as HTML and HREF. You can also use gCAD3D to interact easily with call programs, change model parameter, change the viewport, display 3D models and images (bitmaps), as well as 2D draftings. The crucial development, however, is gCAD3D being released under GPL 3 and the source code is on https://github. com/gcad3d (which is why we can include it in HotPicks now).
The gCAD3D interface contains lots of controls but doesn’t feel cluttered. The left pane stores all the browser values, points, lines, curves, planes and surfaces. After selecting the desired element there you can change it in the area below.
The top bar has plenty of options that affect view mode and rendering parameters. All this surrounds the main area where the model is being created, zoomed and rotated.
Some basic CAD skills are required to get started, but the obvious entry point is learning to construct wireframes and putting surfaces on them. To help with the first steps, very user-friendly documentation is hosted on the official website. Each section is a small lesson where you’ll discover how to operate the program’s interface, then create simple shapes and steadily progress towards more complex constructions. Finally, you can either save the results in one of a number of CAD formats, such as DXF, IGES, STEP, VRML or export to BITMAP.
The application offers binary Debs for 32- and 64-bit Ubuntu and Debian family, but we couldn’t find any packages for other Linux distros, so you may have to build the application from source. The readme file on gCAD3D GitHub page has the instructions.
“The gCAD3D interface has lots of controls but doesn’t feel cluttered.”