{"slug": "cad-sketcher", "name": "CAD Sketcher", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 1, "score": 1.472, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-11-18", "latest": "2026-07-19", "why": "You may be interested in CAD Sketcher: https://www.cadsketcher.com/", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "You may be interested in CAD Sketcher: https://www.cadsketcher.com/", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "cadsketcher.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.cadsketcher.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["CAD Sketcher", "CADSketcher"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 735605936, "item_id": 45975371, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45975371", "by": "rmunn", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it was decent, but still lacking a few things", "excerpt": "There's also the https://www.cadsketcher.com/ addon for Blender, which is constraint-based. I tried it a few years ago and it was decent, but still lacking a few things. I haven't tried it recently, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't much improved from the already-pretty-good state it was in when I tried it.", "context": "", "use_case": "Constraint-based CAD in Blender", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.0"}, {"id": 735576976, "item_id": 45973561, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45973561", "by": "Teever", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You may be interested in CAD Sketcher: https://www.cadsketcher.com/", "excerpt": "You may be interested in CAD Sketcher: https://www.cadsketcher.com/ You're on point that there's a tremendous amount of money captures by Autodesk for CAD software that could be better directed at the open source community instead. Software like OpenSCAD and FreeCAD are obviously not suitable for much commercial work, and have very irritating limitations for hobbyist work, in my mind a big part of that is the UI and ", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD inside Blender", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.0"}, {"id": 735514352, "item_id": 45969647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45969647", "by": "viraptor", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "without plugins. https://www.cadsketcher.com/", "excerpt": "> Blender doesn't support any of that. ... without plugins. https://www.cadsketcher.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD sketching in Blender", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini 3"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 783500592, "item_id": 48968787, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48968787", "by": "tjoff", "date": "2026-07-19", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "probably not ready for real use", "excerpt": "CAD Sketcher add-on adds parametric design to blender. Haven't used it but probably not ready for real use.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92QmjS-xDaI https://hlorus.github.io/CAD_Sketcher/ Though people are so eager to be locked into Fusion 360 I will never understand. Especially when Freecad is so much better than it used to be.", "context": "", "use_case": "Parametric CAD in Blender", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.2 LTS"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["parametric cad in blender", "constraint-based cad in blender", "cad inside blender", "cad sketching in blender"], "compared": [{"slug": "freecad", "name": "FreeCAD", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45972519", "title": "Blender 5.0", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48911021", "title": "Blender 5.2 LTS", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45967211", "title": "Gemini 3", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 3}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"warn": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 783500592, "item_id": 48968787, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48968787", "by": "tjoff", "date": "2026-07-19", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "probably not ready for real use", "excerpt": "CAD Sketcher add-on adds parametric design to blender. Haven't used it but probably not ready for real use.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92QmjS-xDaI https://hlorus.github.io/CAD_Sketcher/ Though people are so eager to be locked into Fusion 360 I will never understand. Especially when Freecad is so much better than it used to be.", "context": "", "use_case": "Parametric CAD in Blender", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.2 LTS"}, {"id": 735605936, "item_id": 45975371, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45975371", "by": "rmunn", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it was decent, but still lacking a few things", "excerpt": "There's also the https://www.cadsketcher.com/ addon for Blender, which is constraint-based. I tried it a few years ago and it was decent, but still lacking a few things. I haven't tried it recently, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't much improved from the already-pretty-good state it was in when I tried it.", "context": "", "use_case": "Constraint-based CAD in Blender", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.0"}, {"id": 735576976, "item_id": 45973561, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45973561", "by": "Teever", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You may be interested in CAD Sketcher: https://www.cadsketcher.com/", "excerpt": "You may be interested in CAD Sketcher: https://www.cadsketcher.com/ You're on point that there's a tremendous amount of money captures by Autodesk for CAD software that could be better directed at the open source community instead. Software like OpenSCAD and FreeCAD are obviously not suitable for much commercial work, and have very irritating limitations for hobbyist work, in my mind a big part of that is the UI and ", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD inside Blender", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.0"}, {"id": 735514352, "item_id": 45969647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45969647", "by": "viraptor", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "without plugins. https://www.cadsketcher.com/", "excerpt": "> Blender doesn't support any of that. ... without plugins. https://www.cadsketcher.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD sketching in Blender", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini 3"}]}