LibreCAD

LibreCAD is a software application that provides users with a free and simple method of designing CAD drawings, import and export items, and take advantage of the integrated templates.

The installation process runs quite smoothly, yet if you are interested in bypassing this process altogether, you should know that a portable edition is available for download, called Portable LibreCAD.

The interface you come by might seem a bit too cluttered at first, yet it just requires some getting used to it, especially seeing the comprehensive Help documentation it comes bundled with. It encloses a menu bar, a pretty large number of buttons so that you can add elements with ease and a few panes to help you view your on-going project, logs and a list with all added layers.

This program supports a pretty long list of formats at import, including DXF, LFF, CXF, JWW, BMP, GIF, ICO, JPG, PNG, PPM, SVG, TIFF, WBMP, XBM and TGA, while export is possible using DXF, LFF, CXF, DDS, ICNS, PBM, PNG, ICO, BMP, SVG, TIFF, ICO and PDF extensions.

In addition to that, it is possible to add plenty of items in your drawings, such as lines, points, circles, ellipses, splines, polylines and text boxes, while you can also zoom in and out with ease. You can move, copy, align, rotate, mirror, scale and trim elements, as well as lengthen, bevel, divide, stretch, delete and explode text into letters.

The utility can help you to calculate the distance between two points or from a point to an entity, the angle between two lines and the total length of a selected element. You can show or hide layers, as well as add, remove, edit or lock them with just a click of the button.

The computer’s performance is not going to be hampered, as the amount of resources required are low at all times. The interface requires some getting used to, while the response time is quite good.

Taking all of this into consideration, we can safely say LibreCAD is a useful tool for generating 2D CAD drawings that did not pop any kind of errors, freeze or hang in our tests.