What are one's options?
Second this. The online tutorials are solid too. Great for parts design for 3d printing too
Seconding FreeCAD, but also wanted to say that the realthunder branch has a lot of improvements over the mainline branch, so this is probably the version people would want to download.
Hell yeah - I'm not electrically inclined but this looks like an awesome project
I use Fusion360. It's not entirely free (some features locked behind paywall), but I can do everything I need to model shapes to 3d print using the free version. There are also tons of tutorials for it online.
Blender is an incredible project. amazing that it can be used in most cases in lieu of something as expensive as Autodesk 3ds Max and it's entirely free
OnShape is free for anyone who doesn't mind their files being public, which is pretty cool tbh. Feature-wise you get everything the paid version does except rendering capabilities and of course, the ability to make private models.
It's pretty full featured, too and I really enjoy their documentation. Feels like a modern approach to CAD that isn't stuck in the past.
As I mentioned elsewhere, FreeCAD realthunder branch is a good choice, but you can also replicate a lot of CAD functionality in Blender with add-ons like this one. That same youtube channel has a whole playlist on Blender precision modeling as well as a FreeCAD series that might also be worth checking out.
I started out using designspark mechanical (free), but it's kind of weird and also also a crippled version of spaceclaim. You can easily make stl's for 3D printing, but the "real" cad formats require you to pay an exorbitant amount to export as them.
I'm just a hobbyist but it seems like fusion is the best value right now if you need a commercial-style cad cam product. I am constantly kicking myself for not focusing on it more than I did
I use Inkscape for laser stuff, good for vectors
