QCAD — The Complete Guide: Mature, Free 2D Drafting With the Community Edition
QCAD from RibbonSoft is a long-established 2D drafting program — LibreCAD was originally forked from it. The interface is clean, the tools feel familiar to anyone who has used AutoCAD, and it suits part drawings, floor plans and diagrams.
QCAD Community Edition
RibbonSoft
Mature 2D drafting. The Community Edition is free; DWG and the parts library browser are reserved for the paid version.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Full drafting tools — lines, arcs, offsets, trims and arrays.
- Layers and blocks — organising a drawing as in commercial programs.
- Dimensions and text — linear, radial and angular dimensions.
- Parts library — thousands of ready-made components to reuse.
- Three operating systems — Windows, macOS and Linux.
What is free and what is limited
The Community Edition is open source (GPLv3) and free for any use, commercial included. However, DWG read and write, PDF import, some polyline tools, the parts library browser and other features exist only in the paid QCAD Professional. The free edition works with DXF, so if clients send you DWG files, check on the official site what is included before relying on it.
Related tools
For fully open 2D drafting that can read DWG — LibreCAD. For 3D modelling — FreeCAD. For electrical schematics — QElectroTech.
LibreCAD
LibreCAD Project
Lightweight 2D drafting with layers, blocks and dimensions, built around the DXF format.
Get it from the vendor
FreeCAD
FreeCAD Project
Open-source parametric 3D modeller with workbenches for solid modelling, FEM, drafting and BIM.
Get it from the vendor
QElectroTech
QElectroTech Project
Draws electrical panel and control diagrams from standard symbol libraries.
Get it from the vendor
Inkscape
Inkscape project
Vector graphics editor — schematics, technical illustrations, report figures and SVG, PDF and DXF editing.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
If most of your work is 2D drafting in DXF, QCAD is one of the most mature free options. If you live in DWG, consider the commercial version.