Free Online CAD Symbols, Models and AutoCAD Blocks

There are many places available for downloading free CAD symbols and AutoCAD DWG DXF blocks from the Internet. Ready-made CAD symbols can be inserted into CAD drawings instead of creating them from scratch, therefore saving a designer time and making their job easier.

CBEN (http://www.cben.net/) home to one of the largest communities for continually updating large free AutoCAD DWG block libraries of anything from construction and architecture to vegetation, people, 3D models and more. All downloads are free. If you work a lot in AutoCAD and don't know about this site, you probably should.

Polantis has just launched a new but extensive visual website for 3D designs of mostly IKEA furniture - lots of IKEA furniture. This library already offers a good selection of their build-it-yourself virtual furnishings.


Archibase offers many free CAD models and patters, but this website seems to want users first to install a free "Archibase Toolbar" on their browser before downloading any blocks. We didn't care to, but I guess you can if you want...

Designers might also try http://cad.3dmodelfree.com. This site offers a visual library of drawings containing numerous blocks and templates for interior design, room and building drawings, furniture, shopping centers, elevation plans - even some Chinese symbols. The drawings come mostly RAR compressed, and some use passwords but the password is normally displayed on the web page for downloading that drawing as far as I can see...

Engineers looking for free 3D mechanical parts can try Dassault's http://www.3dcontentcentral.com. At first glance this site appears to go beyond offering simple CAD model downloads by trying to tie users and vendors (the model contributors) together with what appears to be an almost WEB 2.0 approach. I remember our first try with one of the listed suppliers (for a 3D stepper motor model I think) kept returning an error that the model wasn't found or couldn't be downloaded. But usually it works rather well I guess - offering all kinds of free 3D mechanical industrial vendor models in various formats like STEP IGES ACIS .SAT (for AutoCAD) and much more...

http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/cadfiles/index.html offers a small list of free CAD libraries and links to more libraries for wood working.

Of course, there are also many downloadable CAD symbols libraries as well. progeCAD Professional design CAD includes a free library manager with about 11,000 AutoCAD blocks called ALE. CP-System takes 2D CAD blocks a step further, giving users the ability to add, insert and modify new CAD blocks parametrically.

If you have a good link to free online CAD block or model resources you would like to see added to the list, feel free to post it in the comment section below.