Last Updated on April 16, 2022
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software company that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. It bills itself as a “… leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software”.
The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, who was a joint developer of the first versions of AutoCAD, the company’s best known software application. Autodesk is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, it has over 11,000 employees, and is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.
While Autodesk develops many high quality applications they are proprietary software. And the vast majority of their products are not available for Linux. This series looks at the best free and open source alternatives.
Autodesk Sketchbook is a raster graphics software app intended for expressive drawing and concept sketching. It’s also useful for making animations.
Sketchbook is not available for Linux and it’s proprietary software. What are the best free and open source alternatives?
1. GIMP
GIMP stands for the GNU Image Manipulation Program, a freely distributed program for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
GIMP offers artists the features and flexibility to create truly original artwork.
The software sports a large feature set. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, and much more.
2. Inkscape
Inkscape is an excellent tool for illustrators, designers, artists, and web designers.
It offers a great range of drawing tools, a powerful text tool, bezier and spiro curves, all combined with a wide file format compatibility.
Inkscape sports capabilities similar to Abode Illustrator. Unlike Illustrator, Inkscape is free and open source software. Say goodbye to subscription software.
3. sK1
sK1 is an open source cross-platform vector graphics editor. The major feature of sK1 is a professional precise printing and prepress ready PDF output.
Sadly the lead developer of sK1 recently passed away from COVID-19.
4. Krita
Krita is a professional free and open source painting program. It’s made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.
Krita is really sublime open source software. It’s very easy to use, intuitive, and offers features and tools for a wide range of digital painting.
We particularly admire its excellent support for displaying brushes, its highly customizable user interface, and easy editing.
| Alternatives to Autodesk's Products | |
|---|---|
 | 3ds Max is a 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. |
 | Arnold is software for rendering three-dimensional, computer-generated scenes using unbiased, physically-based, Monte Carlo path tracing techniques. |
 | AutoCAD is computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software. It's used in industry, by architects, project managers, engineers, graphic designers, city planners and others. |
 | EAGLE is a scriptable electronic design automation (EDA) application with schematic capture, printed circuit board (PCB) layout, auto-router and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) features. |
 | Flame is 3D visual effects (VFX), finishing, and color grading software. It includes AI-powered tools and remote solutions. |
 | Maya creates assets for interactive 3D applications (including video games), animated films, TV series, and visual effects. |
 | MotionBuilder is 3D character animation software. The software is designed for virtual cinematography, motion capture, and traditional keyframe animation. Capture, edit, and play back complex animations. |
 | Mudbox is 3D digital painting and sculpting software. Sculpt and paint highly detailed 3D geometry and textures. |
 | ReCap lets you create rich and accurate digital models of existing conditions. Capture high-quality, detailed models of real-world assets. |
 | ShotGrid is project management software used for visual effects and animation project management in television shows and movie production and video game development. |
| Sketchbook is a raster graphics software app intended for expressive drawing and concept sketching. It's also useful for making animations. |
 | Tinkercad is an online 3D modeling program that runs in a web browser. Tinkercad uses a simplified constructive solid geometry method of constructing models. |