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Evidloyesterday at 9:05 PM10 repliesview on HN

Some other open source 3D CAD tools:

Code-based

- CadQuery - https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery/

- build123d - https://github.com/gumyr/build123d

- OpenSCAD - https://openscad.cloud/openscad/

GUI (browser-based)

- Cadmium (abandoned, cool idea) - https://mattferraro.dev/posts/cadmium


Replies

gmuecklyesterday at 9:45 PM

FreeCAD: https://freecad.org

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intersticetoday at 11:44 AM

This thread has turned into a great resource! build123d has been my favourite conceptually so far (it's just Python) but vcad looks very clean too. I like the abuse of + and - in both of these for booleans.

kennywinkeryesterday at 9:49 PM

JSCAD (formerly OpenJSCAD) https://openjscad.xyz/

Awesome because you can build a model, expose the parameters, and allow web users to generate a model to fit their parameters.

autumn-antlersyesterday at 10:42 PM

libfive - https://libfive.com

guile scheme, bindings in Rust and Python

personally exited to check it out for real constructive-solid modeling, as opposed to emulating that workflow over OpenCascade's (fickle but otherwise lovely) BREP modeling (ie. edges & faces) via build123d (which has been great but is increasingly vibe-coded :/)

discussed previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12319406

a real constructive solid library (as opposed to emulation via modeling), with

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bauta-steentoday at 1:08 AM

Truck (Rust CAD Kernel) - https://github.com/ricosjp/truck

RobotToasteryesterday at 9:07 PM

Brl-cad https://brlcad.org/

dr_winyesterday at 9:50 PM

vcad was started in 2026 and has great ambitions: https://docs.vcad.io

fortran77yesterday at 11:02 PM

I've been "vibe coding" with OpenSCAD with good results! OpenSCAD will automatically detect changes in the current open file and reload it, so I can use VS Code (with the OpenSCAD extension) to vibe code with Claude, and watch the changes appear on the OpenSCAD screen

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tostiyesterday at 10:45 PM

KiCad - https://www.kicad.org/

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