{"slug": "freecad", "name": "FreeCAD", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "Open-source parametric 3D CAD modeler for mechanical and product design.", "recommenders": 14, "commenters": 36, "warners": 5, "score": 12.358, "rising": 2.05, "first": "2025-11-18", "latest": "2026-10-15", "why": "Liked as the most capable open-source CAD option, especially on Linux, with a constraint-based sketcher and Python scripting that LLMs can drive well.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 14, "neutral": 12, "compare": 6, "warn": 5}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 3, 3, 1, 0, 4], "listed": true, "loved": ["Python and LLMs", "Open-source capability"], "caveat": "Clunky UI", "short_quote": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs.", "icon": true, "domain": "freecad.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.freecad.org", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["FreeCAD"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked as the most capable open-source CAD option, especially on Linux,", "cites": [{"id": 780287313, "item_id": 48767957, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767957", "by": "IshKebab", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For complex stuff the only good open source option is FreeCAD.", "excerpt": "I would think SolveSpace would be a much better target for this. It's got its own GUI system so probably pretty trivial to get running in the browser. Oh yeah look somebody did it 4 years ago: https://github.com/TrevorDArcyEvans/solve-space-web Plus SolveSpace is actually a good CAD app, especially for simple stuff. (For complex stuff the only good open source option is FreeCAD.)", "context": "", "use_case": "complex CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "LibreCAD in the Browser"}, {"id": 801209729, "item_id": 50075608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075608", "by": "rspeele", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "poor UI, tendency to crash", "excerpt": "Thanks for your work on Solvespace. I have been using it for years. When I no longer had access to commercial CAD programs I tried all the open source stuff. My conclusions were: * OpenSCAD -- cool idea, good for a few types of highly procedural parts, but most of the time I'd rather a parametric sketch-based interface over pure code. * FreeCAD -- the most features of any open source CAD, but poor UI, tendency to cra", "context": "long-time user without access to commercial CAD", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: SolidCraft \u2013 Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)"}, {"id": 760395840, "item_id": 47524740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524740", "by": "eblanshey", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs. Every release seems to fix more and more UX issues. I have very high hopes for it to eventually start attracting more commercial usage, much like KiCad and Blender did in their spaces. We need more open software like that.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "CAD on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}]}, {"text": " with a constraint-based sketcher and Python scripting that LLMs can drive well.", "cites": [{"id": 780419600, "item_id": 48776225, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48776225", "by": "felooboolooomba", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly recommend using a CAD with constrains support, like the sketcher in FreeCAD. Once get the hang of it, you'll never, ever go back.", "excerpt": "I highly recommend using a CAD with constrains support, like the sketcher in FreeCAD. Once get the hang of it, you'll never, ever go back.", "context": "", "use_case": "constraint-based CAD sketching", "switched_from": "", "story": "LibreCAD in the Browser"}, {"id": 760395840, "item_id": 47524740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524740", "by": "eblanshey", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs. Every release seems to fix more and more UX issues. I have very high hopes for it to eventually start attracting more commercial usage, much like KiCad and Blender did in their spaces. We need more open software like that.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "CAD on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 801621842, "item_id": 50101365, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50101365", "by": "edg5000", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Astra in Codex CLI is good with FreeCAD", "excerpt": "Astra in Codex CLI is good with FreeCAD if you let it use the FreeCAD Python runtime in a headless session. It is good at relying purely on natural language to design and revise. To follow specific CAD techniques you need additional prompting. Highly recommend. Uses quite a lot of tokens.", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD for woodworking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?"}, {"id": 801571794, "item_id": 50098237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50098237", "by": "artyom", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "doing FreeCAD+Python or OpenSCAD code, usually one-shots things", "excerpt": "Second this. Since Opus 4.6 there's been a very noticeable bump in accuracy at just doing FreeCAD+Python or OpenSCAD code, usually one-shots things with basically described geometry. Recently, Sonnet 5.5 got quite good, too, but not at the level of Opus/Fable for complex geometry Disclaimer: I use it for very precise 3D printing, not woodwork.", "context": "", "use_case": "3D printing models", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?"}, {"id": 758554193, "item_id": 47409637, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47409637", "by": "bambax", "date": "2026-03-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "connecting the two by creating a loft using the GUI in FreeCAD results in a wrong and ugly abomination.", "excerpt": "Just yesterday I used Claude to great effect in FreeCAD to model a church tower. The tower has a square base and an octagonal top, but connecting the two by creating a loft using the GUI in FreeCAD results in a wrong and ugly abomination. Claude understood the problem and produced elegant Python code that worked perfectly the first time. So I continued and described the other features of the tower to Claude, who code", "context": "", "use_case": "3D modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Tips for 3D Work"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is a clunky, hard-to-learn UI,", "cites": [{"id": 760398656, "item_id": 47524916, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524916", "by": "rcarmo", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "feels infinitely more polished than FreeCad's clunky panel", "excerpt": "TL;DR: I wish they'd just align with Blender on UX, TBH. I wish they settled on a nicer UX with less visual clutter. I use Blender and it is a _massively_ more complex application in every regard, yet its right-aligned panel and progressive exposure of toolbars feels infinitely more polished than FreeCad's clunky panel (which is often rendered with huge, oversized fields and buttons) and their legendary five-stacked ", "context": "Blender user", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 801209729, "item_id": 50075608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075608", "by": "rspeele", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "poor UI, tendency to crash", "excerpt": "Thanks for your work on Solvespace. I have been using it for years. When I no longer had access to commercial CAD programs I tried all the open source stuff. My conclusions were: * OpenSCAD -- cool idea, good for a few types of highly procedural parts, but most of the time I'd rather a parametric sketch-based interface over pure code. * FreeCAD -- the most features of any open source CAD, but poor UI, tendency to cra", "context": "long-time user without access to commercial CAD", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: SolidCraft \u2013 Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)"}, {"id": 760444320, "item_id": 47527770, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47527770", "by": "sgt", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I like FreeCAD but I use it so rarely that I forget how to use it by the time I need it again.", "excerpt": "I like FreeCAD but I use it so rarely that I forget how to use it by the time I need it again. So I returned to Fusion 360 (for the time being). Maybe this new FreeCAD version is easier to use?", "context": "occasional CAD user", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 735576977, "item_id": 45973561, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45973561", "by": "Teever", "date": "2025-11-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Software like OpenSCAD and FreeCAD are obviously not suitable for much commercial work, and have very irritating limitations for hobbyist work", "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", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.0"}]}, {"text": " along with crashes and broken models on complex designs.", "cites": [{"id": 760588240, "item_id": 47536765, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47536765", "by": "fileoffset", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "any time I tried a complex model I get performance issues, lock ups and crashes pretty consistently.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is great for small things but any time I tried a complex model I get performance issues, lock ups and crashes pretty consistently. There are still a lot of hard edges. I switched to Solid Edge free community edition, much more stable and the workflow is less bespoke.", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 801209729, "item_id": 50075608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075608", "by": "rspeele", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "poor UI, tendency to crash", "excerpt": "Thanks for your work on Solvespace. I have been using it for years. When I no longer had access to commercial CAD programs I tried all the open source stuff. My conclusions were: * OpenSCAD -- cool idea, good for a few types of highly procedural parts, but most of the time I'd rather a parametric sketch-based interface over pure code. * FreeCAD -- the most features of any open source CAD, but poor UI, tendency to cra", "context": "long-time user without access to commercial CAD", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: SolidCraft \u2013 Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)"}, {"id": 736590032, "item_id": 46036877, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46036877", "by": "naasking", "date": "2025-11-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "FreeCAD is pretty good overall, but these tiny nuisances will continue to hold it back until they're sorted.", "excerpt": "I will be posting a minimal example on the forums about this soon once I actually finish the project. Here [1] is the last issue that I had. The issue of getting the needed cutout on that forum post was one problem, but the much deeper issue was how a later operation broke the model in an unrecoverable way once it was removed. To me, that speaks to something deeply broken in FreeCAD's core use of Open Cascade, and I'", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "\u00b5cad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Python and LLMs", "summary": "Scriptable through Python, which lets LLM agents design and revise models from plain-language descriptions.", "quotes": [{"id": 801621842, "item_id": 50101365, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50101365", "by": "edg5000", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Astra in Codex CLI is good with FreeCAD", "excerpt": "Astra in Codex CLI is good with FreeCAD if you let it use the FreeCAD Python runtime in a headless session. It is good at relying purely on natural language to design and revise. To follow specific CAD techniques you need additional prompting. Highly recommend. Uses quite a lot of tokens.", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD for woodworking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?"}, {"id": 801571794, "item_id": 50098237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50098237", "by": "artyom", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "doing FreeCAD+Python or OpenSCAD code, usually one-shots things", "excerpt": "Second this. Since Opus 4.6 there's been a very noticeable bump in accuracy at just doing FreeCAD+Python or OpenSCAD code, usually one-shots things with basically described geometry. Recently, Sonnet 5.5 got quite good, too, but not at the level of Opus/Fable for complex geometry Disclaimer: I use it for very precise 3D printing, not woodwork.", "context": "", "use_case": "3D printing models", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?"}, {"id": 758554193, "item_id": 47409637, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47409637", "by": "bambax", "date": "2026-03-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "connecting the two by creating a loft using the GUI in FreeCAD results in a wrong and ugly abomination.", "excerpt": "Just yesterday I used Claude to great effect in FreeCAD to model a church tower. The tower has a square base and an octagonal top, but connecting the two by creating a loft using the GUI in FreeCAD results in a wrong and ugly abomination. Claude understood the problem and produced elegant Python code that worked perfectly the first time. So I continued and described the other features of the tower to Claude, who code", "context": "", "use_case": "3D modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Tips for 3D Work"}]}, {"label": "Open-source capability", "summary": "Seen as the most fully featured open-source CAD and the only good open option for complex work.", "quotes": [{"id": 780287313, "item_id": 48767957, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767957", "by": "IshKebab", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For complex stuff the only good open source option is FreeCAD.", "excerpt": "I would think SolveSpace would be a much better target for this. It's got its own GUI system so probably pretty trivial to get running in the browser. Oh yeah look somebody did it 4 years ago: https://github.com/TrevorDArcyEvans/solve-space-web Plus SolveSpace is actually a good CAD app, especially for simple stuff. (For complex stuff the only good open source option is FreeCAD.)", "context": "", "use_case": "complex CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "LibreCAD in the Browser"}, {"id": 801209729, "item_id": 50075608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075608", "by": "rspeele", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "poor UI, tendency to crash", "excerpt": "Thanks for your work on Solvespace. I have been using it for years. When I no longer had access to commercial CAD programs I tried all the open source stuff. My conclusions were: * OpenSCAD -- cool idea, good for a few types of highly procedural parts, but most of the time I'd rather a parametric sketch-based interface over pure code. * FreeCAD -- the most features of any open source CAD, but poor UI, tendency to cra", "context": "long-time user without access to commercial CAD", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: SolidCraft \u2013 Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)"}, {"id": 760395840, "item_id": 47524740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524740", "by": "eblanshey", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs. Every release seems to fix more and more UX issues. I have very high hopes for it to eventually start attracting more commercial usage, much like KiCad and Blender did in their spaces. We need more open software like that.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "CAD on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}]}, {"label": "3D printing parts", "summary": "Used to model functional parts for 3D printing.", "quotes": [{"id": 783473824, "item_id": 48967114, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48967114", "by": "cheschire", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "FreeCAD is great if someone mainly wants to print functional, usable parts.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is great if someone mainly wants to print functional, usable parts. That\u2019s totally valid and honestly even more powerful than Blender for that use case. Autodesk Fusion (prev. Fusion 360) is also a popular option. I use blender because I also like to do a lot of 3d printed art, and as you mentioned, that sculpt tooling is one of many fantastic tools for that purpose. Also LLMs know a lot about Blender, making", "context": "3D printing hobbyist", "use_case": "functional 3D printed parts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.2 LTS"}, {"id": 753463024, "item_id": 47091439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47091439", "by": "_whiteCaps_", "date": "2026-02-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you are going to experiment with FreeCAD, I highly, highly recommend starting by learning about parametric modelling.", "excerpt": "I have no formal CAD experience, I just wanted to build some stuff with my 3D printer. If you are going to experiment with FreeCAD, I highly, highly recommend starting by learning about parametric modelling. Define everything in the spreadsheet, and relate all of the sizes to each other. If you don't, it will be a very frustrating experience when you realize halfway into your design that some earlier piece needs to b", "context": "no formal CAD experience, 3D printer hobbyist", "use_case": "3D printing designs", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler"}, {"id": 746434737, "item_id": 46652171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46652171", "by": "anfractuosity", "date": "2026-01-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "which I imported to FreeCAD to make a model that I 3D printed in plastic", "excerpt": "Very fun project :) Not seen this type of robot before that uses wires to push the pins. I got a little set of cheap transparent locks and tried placing the key in a flatbed scanner to image and think I used inkscape to generate an SVG, which I imported to FreeCAD to make a model that I 3D printed in plastic, which worked after a little filing.", "context": "", "use_case": "3D modeling for printing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lock-Picking Robot"}]}, {"label": "Steady improvement", "summary": "Users say it has become noticeably better and more usable over recent releases.", "quotes": [{"id": 786294033, "item_id": 49143377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49143377", "by": "fho", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I can use FreeCAD sufficiently well to be productive (it really has become better over the years).", "excerpt": "Version 10-12 is 10-ish years ago. They switched to yearmonth (e.g. 2604) release names long ago. Let's just say things changed since then. There is also a difference between intuitive and familiar. I learned to CAD on Fusion 360 with no formal education and it just worked. I can use FreeCAD sufficiently well to be productive (it really has become better over the years). I tried OnShape and just started working. I li", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built"}, {"id": 760395840, "item_id": 47524740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524740", "by": "eblanshey", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs. Every release seems to fix more and more UX issues. I have very high hopes for it to eventually start attracting more commercial usage, much like KiCad and Blender did in their spaces. We need more open software like that.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "CAD on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 801426628, "item_id": 50089164, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50089164", "by": "dofm", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "why the recent improvements to FreeCAD are just _obviously_ nicer", "excerpt": "> Maybe the agents know this so don't bother putting too much effort in? Perhaps it is much more basic: the words to describe really good user interfaces are inadequate to the task, and they are often emotional/psychological in nature. For example, look at how Mac enthusiasts talk about interfaces, talking about \"delight\", \"surprise\", \"subtlety\" on the positive side, \"janky\", \"crass\", etc. on the negative. Even if an", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI coding agents generate more code, but not more software"}]}, {"label": "Constraint sketcher", "summary": "Its constraint-based, parametric sketching is strongly recommended once learned.", "quotes": [{"id": 780419600, "item_id": 48776225, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48776225", "by": "felooboolooomba", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly recommend using a CAD with constrains support, like the sketcher in FreeCAD. Once get the hang of it, you'll never, ever go back.", "excerpt": "I highly recommend using a CAD with constrains support, like the sketcher in FreeCAD. Once get the hang of it, you'll never, ever go back.", "context": "", "use_case": "constraint-based CAD sketching", "switched_from": "", "story": "LibreCAD in the Browser"}, {"id": 753463024, "item_id": 47091439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47091439", "by": "_whiteCaps_", "date": "2026-02-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you are going to experiment with FreeCAD, I highly, highly recommend starting by learning about parametric modelling.", "excerpt": "I have no formal CAD experience, I just wanted to build some stuff with my 3D printer. If you are going to experiment with FreeCAD, I highly, highly recommend starting by learning about parametric modelling. Define everything in the spreadsheet, and relate all of the sizes to each other. If you don't, it will be a very frustrating experience when you realize halfway into your design that some earlier piece needs to b", "context": "no formal CAD experience, 3D printer hobbyist", "use_case": "3D printing designs", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler"}]}, {"label": "Graphical modeling", "summary": "Some find its graphical tools faster and more intuitive than code-based CAD.", "quotes": [{"id": 801612737, "item_id": 50100796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50100796", "by": "cladopa", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I used Freecad in the end that is way more intuitive and fast with graphical tools.", "excerpt": "OpensCAD and FreeCAD. I learned OpensCAD manually but it was so painful because you needed to take into account the most minimal and ridiculous thing using code, so I used Freecad in the end that is way more intuitive and fast with graphical tools. With code like OpenScad it was just too exhausting just to have to think rationally every single detail. And you spent hours doing the most minimal project. Then LLMs appe", "context": "hobbyist furniture maker", "use_case": "CAD for woodworking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?"}, {"id": 741418082, "item_id": 46338630, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46338630", "by": "Ccecil", "date": "2025-12-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I personally do better with CAD software such as fusion or freecad", "excerpt": "If you are a programmer OpenSCAD is likely for you. It certainly has benefits in things that are repeating patterns (gears and such)...and if your mind is good at visualizing things in \"code\" things will likely go a lot faster. I personally do better with CAD software such as fusion or freecad since my mind doesn't work in the code realm since I have more of a hardware mindset. Translating the picture in my head to c", "context": "hardware mindset", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenSCAD is kinda neat"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Clunky UI", "summary": "The interface is called cluttered, clunky and hard to learn or remember, and some users keep giving up on it.", "quotes": [{"id": 760398656, "item_id": 47524916, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524916", "by": "rcarmo", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "feels infinitely more polished than FreeCad's clunky panel", "excerpt": "TL;DR: I wish they'd just align with Blender on UX, TBH. I wish they settled on a nicer UX with less visual clutter. I use Blender and it is a _massively_ more complex application in every regard, yet its right-aligned panel and progressive exposure of toolbars feels infinitely more polished than FreeCad's clunky panel (which is often rendered with huge, oversized fields and buttons) and their legendary five-stacked ", "context": "Blender user", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 801209729, "item_id": 50075608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075608", "by": "rspeele", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "poor UI, tendency to crash", "excerpt": "Thanks for your work on Solvespace. I have been using it for years. When I no longer had access to commercial CAD programs I tried all the open source stuff. My conclusions were: * OpenSCAD -- cool idea, good for a few types of highly procedural parts, but most of the time I'd rather a parametric sketch-based interface over pure code. * FreeCAD -- the most features of any open source CAD, but poor UI, tendency to cra", "context": "long-time user without access to commercial CAD", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: SolidCraft \u2013 Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)"}, {"id": 760444320, "item_id": 47527770, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47527770", "by": "sgt", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I like FreeCAD but I use it so rarely that I forget how to use it by the time I need it again.", "excerpt": "I like FreeCAD but I use it so rarely that I forget how to use it by the time I need it again. So I returned to Fusion 360 (for the time being). Maybe this new FreeCAD version is easier to use?", "context": "occasional CAD user", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}]}, {"label": "Crashes, stability", "summary": "Complex models can cause slowdowns, lock-ups, crashes and models that break beyond recovery.", "quotes": [{"id": 760588240, "item_id": 47536765, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47536765", "by": "fileoffset", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "any time I tried a complex model I get performance issues, lock ups and crashes pretty consistently.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is great for small things but any time I tried a complex model I get performance issues, lock ups and crashes pretty consistently. There are still a lot of hard edges. I switched to Solid Edge free community edition, much more stable and the workflow is less bespoke.", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 801209729, "item_id": 50075608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075608", "by": "rspeele", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "poor UI, tendency to crash", "excerpt": "Thanks for your work on Solvespace. I have been using it for years. When I no longer had access to commercial CAD programs I tried all the open source stuff. My conclusions were: * OpenSCAD -- cool idea, good for a few types of highly procedural parts, but most of the time I'd rather a parametric sketch-based interface over pure code. * FreeCAD -- the most features of any open source CAD, but poor UI, tendency to cra", "context": "long-time user without access to commercial CAD", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: SolidCraft \u2013 Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)"}, {"id": 736590032, "item_id": 46036877, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46036877", "by": "naasking", "date": "2025-11-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "FreeCAD is pretty good overall, but these tiny nuisances will continue to hold it back until they're sorted.", "excerpt": "I will be posting a minimal example on the forums about this soon once I actually finish the project. Here [1] is the last issue that I had. The issue of getting the needed cutout on that forum post was one problem, but the much deeper issue was how a later operation broke the model in an unrecoverable way once it was removed. To me, that speaks to something deeply broken in FreeCAD's core use of Open Cascade, and I'", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "\u00b5cad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D"}]}, {"label": "Weak advanced features", "summary": "Advanced features like loft fall short of commercial tools and can produce wrong results.", "quotes": [{"id": 801209729, "item_id": 50075608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075608", "by": "rspeele", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "poor UI, tendency to crash", "excerpt": "Thanks for your work on Solvespace. I have been using it for years. When I no longer had access to commercial CAD programs I tried all the open source stuff. My conclusions were: * OpenSCAD -- cool idea, good for a few types of highly procedural parts, but most of the time I'd rather a parametric sketch-based interface over pure code. * FreeCAD -- the most features of any open source CAD, but poor UI, tendency to cra", "context": "long-time user without access to commercial CAD", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: SolidCraft \u2013 Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)"}, {"id": 758554193, "item_id": 47409637, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47409637", "by": "bambax", "date": "2026-03-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "connecting the two by creating a loft using the GUI in FreeCAD results in a wrong and ugly abomination.", "excerpt": "Just yesterday I used Claude to great effect in FreeCAD to model a church tower. The tower has a square base and an octagonal top, but connecting the two by creating a loft using the GUI in FreeCAD results in a wrong and ugly abomination. Claude understood the problem and produced elegant Python code that worked perfectly the first time. So I continued and described the other features of the tower to Claude, who code", "context": "", "use_case": "3D modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Tips for 3D Work"}]}, {"label": "Limited for pros", "summary": "One commenter says it is not suitable for much commercial work and has irritating limits for hobbyists.", "quotes": [{"id": 735576977, "item_id": 45973561, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45973561", "by": "Teever", "date": "2025-11-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Software like OpenSCAD and FreeCAD are obviously not suitable for much commercial work, and have very irritating limitations for hobbyist work", "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", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.0"}]}, {"label": "Fragile models", "summary": "Designs can fall apart when earlier pieces change unless they are planned parametrically from the start.", "quotes": [{"id": 753463024, "item_id": 47091439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47091439", "by": "_whiteCaps_", "date": "2026-02-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you are going to experiment with FreeCAD, I highly, highly recommend starting by learning about parametric modelling.", "excerpt": "I have no formal CAD experience, I just wanted to build some stuff with my 3D printer. If you are going to experiment with FreeCAD, I highly, highly recommend starting by learning about parametric modelling. Define everything in the spreadsheet, and relate all of the sizes to each other. If you don't, it will be a very frustrating experience when you realize halfway into your design that some earlier piece needs to b", "context": "no formal CAD experience, 3D printer hobbyist", "use_case": "3D printing designs", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler"}, {"id": 736590032, "item_id": 46036877, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46036877", "by": "naasking", "date": "2025-11-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "FreeCAD is pretty good overall, but these tiny nuisances will continue to hold it back until they're sorted.", "excerpt": "I will be posting a minimal example on the forums about this soon once I actually finish the project. Here [1] is the last issue that I had. The issue of getting the needed cutout on that forum post was one problem, but the much deeper issue was how a later operation broke the model in an unrecoverable way once it was removed. To me, that speaks to something deeply broken in FreeCAD's core use of Open Cascade, and I'", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "\u00b5cad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D"}]}, {"label": "Large install", "summary": "The Flatpak is about 354 MB, much larger than lighter alternatives.", "quotes": [{"id": 759944561, "item_id": 47496535, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47496535", "by": "Levitating", "date": "2026-03-23", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Dune3D as a flatpak is about 33mb. FreeCAD is 354mb.", "excerpt": "Another simple GTK4 app for the ecosystem, nice. In case anyone is wondering, Dune3D as a flatpak is about 33mb. FreeCAD is 354mb. I enjoy having simple solutions that get simple things done. Will definitely give Dune3D a try.", "context": "", "use_case": "3D CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application"}]}], "who": [{"by": "cheschire", "context": "3D printing hobbyist", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48967114", "date": "2026-07-19"}, {"by": "eggy", "context": "CAD professional", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47752584", "date": "2026-04-13"}, {"by": "eblanshey", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524740", "date": "2026-03-25"}, {"by": "_whiteCaps_", "context": "no formal CAD experience, 3D printer hobbyist", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47091439", "date": "2026-02-20"}, {"by": "Ccecil", "context": "hardware mindset", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46338630", "date": "2025-12-20"}], "tags": ["for 3D printing", "for Linux users", "Python-scriptable", "for LLM-assisted CAD", "for hobbyists"], "use_cases": ["cad", "cad modeling", "cad for woodworking", "3d modeling", "long-term woodworking cad workflow", "3d printing models"], "compared": [{"slug": "openscad", "name": "OpenSCAD", "co": 8, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "fusion-360", "name": "Fusion 360", "co": 6, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "blender", "name": "Blender", "co": 8, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "solvespace", "name": "SolveSpace", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "cadquery", "name": "CadQuery", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "build123d", "name": "build123d", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50067325", "title": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47521945", "title": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45972519", "title": "Blender 5.0", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48755075", "title": "LibreCAD in the Browser", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48540779", "title": "Akse3D \u2013 open-source 3D modelling anyone can master", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50059523", "title": "AI coding agents generate more code, but not more software", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1, "compare": 1, "neutral": 3}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1, "compare": 2, "recommend": 1, "warn": 2}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 3}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 2, "recommend": 4, "compare": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 801631858, "item_id": 50101991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50101991", "by": "reacharavindh", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have noted FreeCAD + Blender + $ai_model to be a good general purpose workflow that yields more control", "excerpt": "OP here. writing for my own reference. Found great pointers so far. I'm going to try https://sawdust.diy and https://fluidcad.io/ for the short term. For the long term, I have noted FreeCAD + Blender + $ai_model to be a good general purpose workflow that yields more control, and will probably get me lost into the details. https://janne-alatalo.fi/en/articles/silhouette-modeling/ and its accompanying SKILL - https://g", "context": "", "use_case": "long-term woodworking CAD workflow", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?"}, {"id": 801621842, "item_id": 50101365, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50101365", "by": "edg5000", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Astra in Codex CLI is good with FreeCAD", "excerpt": "Astra in Codex CLI is good with FreeCAD if you let it use the FreeCAD Python runtime in a headless session. It is good at relying purely on natural language to design and revise. To follow specific CAD techniques you need additional prompting. Highly recommend. Uses quite a lot of tokens.", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD for woodworking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?"}, {"id": 801612737, "item_id": 50100796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50100796", "by": "cladopa", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I used Freecad in the end that is way more intuitive and fast with graphical tools.", "excerpt": "OpensCAD and FreeCAD. I learned OpensCAD manually but it was so painful because you needed to take into account the most minimal and ridiculous thing using code, so I used Freecad in the end that is way more intuitive and fast with graphical tools. With code like OpenScad it was just too exhausting just to have to think rationally every single detail. And you spent hours doing the most minimal project. Then LLMs appe", "context": "hobbyist furniture maker", "use_case": "CAD for woodworking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?"}, {"id": 801571794, "item_id": 50098237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50098237", "by": "artyom", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "doing FreeCAD+Python or OpenSCAD code, usually one-shots things", "excerpt": "Second this. Since Opus 4.6 there's been a very noticeable bump in accuracy at just doing FreeCAD+Python or OpenSCAD code, usually one-shots things with basically described geometry. Recently, Sonnet 5.5 got quite good, too, but not at the level of Opus/Fable for complex geometry Disclaimer: I use it for very precise 3D printing, not woodwork.", "context": "", "use_case": "3D printing models", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?"}, {"id": 801426628, "item_id": 50089164, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50089164", "by": "dofm", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "why the recent improvements to FreeCAD are just _obviously_ nicer", "excerpt": "> Maybe the agents know this so don't bother putting too much effort in? Perhaps it is much more basic: the words to describe really good user interfaces are inadequate to the task, and they are often emotional/psychological in nature. For example, look at how Mac enthusiasts talk about interfaces, talking about \"delight\", \"surprise\", \"subtlety\" on the positive side, \"janky\", \"crass\", etc. on the negative. Even if an", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI coding agents generate more code, but not more software"}, {"id": 801209729, "item_id": 50075608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075608", "by": "rspeele", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "poor UI, tendency to crash", "excerpt": "Thanks for your work on Solvespace. I have been using it for years. When I no longer had access to commercial CAD programs I tried all the open source stuff. My conclusions were: * OpenSCAD -- cool idea, good for a few types of highly procedural parts, but most of the time I'd rather a parametric sketch-based interface over pure code. * FreeCAD -- the most features of any open source CAD, but poor UI, tendency to cra", "context": "long-time user without access to commercial CAD", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: SolidCraft \u2013 Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)"}, {"id": 800654818, "item_id": 50040926, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50040926", "by": "seesthruya", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "keeps bouncing off FreeCAD", "excerpt": "I love what I see so far with FluidCAD! I'm a Fusion user that keeps bouncing off FreeCAD, and I have dabbled with build123d. Very interested to see where this project goes as it seems to be great combination of gui-driven and code-driven cad.", "context": "Fusion user", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenSCAD the Programmers Solid 3D CAD Modeller"}, {"id": 799474258, "item_id": 49967141, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967141", "by": "nickserv", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "basic 3D modeling/printing (freeCAD, Blender, Orca)", "excerpt": "I use it for a bit of everything: dev work (InteliJ), basic 3D modeling/printing (freeCAD, Blender, Orca), light video editing (OBS, Kdenlive), gaming (wine) ... Could probably go with an Arch based distro, but the Ubuntu/Debian base is useful for the good compatibility.", "context": "", "use_case": "3D modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "The work by Valve's Timur Krist\u00f3f on improving old AMD GPUs on Linux"}, {"id": 793389217, "item_id": 49586826, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49586826", "by": "dofm", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "There is a FreeCAD workbench for this", "excerpt": "There is a FreeCAD workbench for this, and it seems to have been restarted recently: https://github.com/execuc/LCInterlocking Like some of the other older pre-TNP-mitigation plugins it's possible its interaction with those mitigations is quite limited, though my limited understanding is some work has gone into extending the mitigations into objects generated by the Python API in the next version of FreeCAD (26.3 \u2014 Ca", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Household Laser Cuts"}, {"id": 789030498, "item_id": 49314406, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49314406", "by": "adius", "date": "2026-08-15", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I've tried to get into Solidworks, Fusion, and FreeCAD several times, but every time I come back to programmatic CAD", "excerpt": "I've tried to get into Solidworks, Fusion, and FreeCAD several times, but every time I come back to programmatic CAD. It just better matches how I think about 3D design I guess. Also, I love that there can't be any hidden state or constraints -everything is fully defined by your code and fully visible. Just give it a try, I guess, and see if it works for your use cases!", "context": "", "use_case": "3D parametric design", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: LuaCAD \u2013 Parametric CAD Scripted in Lua"}, {"id": 786294033, "item_id": 49143377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49143377", "by": "fho", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I can use FreeCAD sufficiently well to be productive (it really has become better over the years).", "excerpt": "Version 10-12 is 10-ish years ago. They switched to yearmonth (e.g. 2604) release names long ago. Let's just say things changed since then. There is also a difference between intuitive and familiar. I learned to CAD on Fusion 360 with no formal education and it just worked. I can use FreeCAD sufficiently well to be productive (it really has become better over the years). I tried OnShape and just started working. I li", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built"}, {"id": 783473824, "item_id": 48967114, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48967114", "by": "cheschire", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "FreeCAD is great if someone mainly wants to print functional, usable parts.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is great if someone mainly wants to print functional, usable parts. That\u2019s totally valid and honestly even more powerful than Blender for that use case. Autodesk Fusion (prev. Fusion 360) is also a popular option. I use blender because I also like to do a lot of 3d printed art, and as you mentioned, that sculpt tooling is one of many fantastic tools for that purpose. Also LLMs know a lot about Blender, making", "context": "3D printing hobbyist", "use_case": "functional 3D printed parts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.2 LTS"}, {"id": 780419600, "item_id": 48776225, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48776225", "by": "felooboolooomba", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly recommend using a CAD with constrains support, like the sketcher in FreeCAD. Once get the hang of it, you'll never, ever go back.", "excerpt": "I highly recommend using a CAD with constrains support, like the sketcher in FreeCAD. Once get the hang of it, you'll never, ever go back.", "context": "", "use_case": "constraint-based CAD sketching", "switched_from": "", "story": "LibreCAD in the Browser"}, {"id": 780287313, "item_id": 48767957, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767957", "by": "IshKebab", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For complex stuff the only good open source option is FreeCAD.", "excerpt": "I would think SolveSpace would be a much better target for this. It's got its own GUI system so probably pretty trivial to get running in the browser. Oh yeah look somebody did it 4 years ago: https://github.com/TrevorDArcyEvans/solve-space-web Plus SolveSpace is actually a good CAD app, especially for simple stuff. (For complex stuff the only good open source option is FreeCAD.)", "context": "", "use_case": "complex CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "LibreCAD in the Browser"}, {"id": 777675794, "item_id": 48604737, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48604737", "by": "kennywinker", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I think this is a free alternative to tinkercad, not to freecad. Tinkercad is a lot of people\u2019s first cad program, so now instead of putting them on a path towards autodesk products, this could put them on a path towards freecad", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Akse3D \u2013 open-source 3D modelling anyone can master"}, {"id": 777585088, "item_id": 48599068, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48599068", "by": "stiray", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I will stick with FreeCAD", "excerpt": "Was preparing a rant about CAD solutions being free as long as people didnt get hooked and then closed behind paywall with ever increasing price. Then I see that I can self host it. This is interesting novelty. But there were so many bad apples in CAD area, that I will stick with FreeCAD and after 20 years, if this will evolve and prove it is just not another scam, happily give it a try.", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD modelling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Akse3D \u2013 open-source 3D modelling anyone can master"}, {"id": 777242289, "item_id": 48577643, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48577643", "by": "elgertam", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I wish it worked with my preferred CAD, FreeCAD.", "excerpt": "I've been using the OpenSCAD version of this for a while. This new release is a big upgrade! I wish it worked with my preferred CAD, FreeCAD. But this is neat!", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) \u2013 Open-Source AI CAD"}, {"id": 776661968, "item_id": 48541373, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48541373", "by": "twiclo", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Learning FreeCAD to create a sliding insert between the body of the phone and the screen.", "excerpt": "Turning my Unihertz Jelly Star into an Xperia Play like device. Basically I want to add a slide up controller to this tiny phone. I was reminded of my Gameboy Micro while watching a review of Mina the Hollower on it and now I'm determined to play that game on this tiny thing. No idea if it will actually run. Learning FreeCAD to create a sliding insert between the body of the phone and the screen. If I can pull that o", "context": "", "use_case": "designing phone insert", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 768025857, "item_id": 48001616, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48001616", "by": "behaviors", "date": "2026-05-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "OpenSCAD is the first step, FreeCAD and similar(now starting to see more CAD LLM work) are still a WIP.", "excerpt": "I've been using an OpenSCAD container with various local models. Dumping the render.png straight to the model, allowing it to modify the code and try again. Made some interesting things, but the main purpose was to fix things I've already made and have some weird single issue that cascades to a broken model if I touch it. OpenSCAD is the first step, FreeCAD and similar(now starting to see more CAD LLM work) are still", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Text-to-CAD"}, {"id": 764832787, "item_id": 47802049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47802049", "by": "hgoel", "date": "2026-04-16", "stance": "compare", "quote": "tweaking code is more comfortable to me than dealing with constraints and sketches and multiple planes in, say, FreeCAD", "excerpt": "CadQuery and build123d have been very handy for prototyping stuff for 3d printing. AI still isn't quite good enough to generate correct scripts, but AI autocomplete at least helps with putting together small snippets. My last project involved making a cosplay helmet. I modeled the shell in blender, it was a low poly design, so I exported it to an OBJ, then put together some Python to load the OBJ, give the triangles ", "context": "", "use_case": "functional designs", "switched_from": "", "story": "CadQuery is an open-source Python library for building 3D CAD models"}, {"id": 764041347, "item_id": 47752584, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47752584", "by": "eggy", "date": "2026-04-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "FreeCAD in Python as well as Blender", "excerpt": "Looks great! Nice work. I am steeped in CAD for my work flow, so I used to program AutoCAD in AutoLISP, Rhino in Rhinoscript, now F#, and FreeCAD in Python as well as Blender. They have the geometry engines built-in and tested over decades. I think this is good for the maker with a 3D printer to do parts that are relatively simple (not discounting parametric code to make complex shapes here). Industry needs integrati", "context": "CAD professional", "use_case": "CAD scripting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: FluidCAD \u2013 Parametric CAD with JavaScript"}, {"id": 760588240, "item_id": 47536765, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47536765", "by": "fileoffset", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "any time I tried a complex model I get performance issues, lock ups and crashes pretty consistently.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is great for small things but any time I tried a complex model I get performance issues, lock ups and crashes pretty consistently. There are still a lot of hard edges. I switched to Solid Edge free community edition, much more stable and the workflow is less bespoke.", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 760444320, "item_id": 47527770, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47527770", "by": "sgt", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I like FreeCAD but I use it so rarely that I forget how to use it by the time I need it again.", "excerpt": "I like FreeCAD but I use it so rarely that I forget how to use it by the time I need it again. So I returned to Fusion 360 (for the time being). Maybe this new FreeCAD version is easier to use?", "context": "occasional CAD user", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 760398656, "item_id": 47524916, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524916", "by": "rcarmo", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "feels infinitely more polished than FreeCad's clunky panel", "excerpt": "TL;DR: I wish they'd just align with Blender on UX, TBH. I wish they settled on a nicer UX with less visual clutter. I use Blender and it is a _massively_ more complex application in every regard, yet its right-aligned panel and progressive exposure of toolbars feels infinitely more polished than FreeCad's clunky panel (which is often rendered with huge, oversized fields and buttons) and their legendary five-stacked ", "context": "Blender user", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 760395840, "item_id": 47524740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47524740", "by": "eblanshey", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs.", "excerpt": "FreeCAD is really the only serious contender for CAD on Linux. I love how everything is hackable via Python APIs. Every release seems to fix more and more UX issues. I have very high hopes for it to eventually start attracting more commercial usage, much like KiCad and Blender did in their spaces. We need more open software like that.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "CAD on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD Version 1.1 Released"}, {"id": 759944561, "item_id": 47496535, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47496535", "by": "Levitating", "date": "2026-03-23", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Dune3D as a flatpak is about 33mb. FreeCAD is 354mb.", "excerpt": "Another simple GTK4 app for the ecosystem, nice. In case anyone is wondering, Dune3D as a flatpak is about 33mb. FreeCAD is 354mb. I enjoy having simple solutions that get simple things done. Will definitely give Dune3D a try.", "context": "", "use_case": "3D CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application"}, {"id": 758554193, "item_id": 47409637, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47409637", "by": "bambax", "date": "2026-03-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "connecting the two by creating a loft using the GUI in FreeCAD results in a wrong and ugly abomination.", "excerpt": "Just yesterday I used Claude to great effect in FreeCAD to model a church tower. The tower has a square base and an octagonal top, but connecting the two by creating a loft using the GUI in FreeCAD results in a wrong and ugly abomination. Claude understood the problem and produced elegant Python code that worked perfectly the first time. So I continued and described the other features of the tower to Claude, who code", "context": "", "use_case": "3D modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Tips for 3D Work"}, {"id": 753463024, "item_id": 47091439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47091439", "by": "_whiteCaps_", "date": "2026-02-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you are going to experiment with FreeCAD, I highly, highly recommend starting by learning about parametric modelling.", "excerpt": "I have no formal CAD experience, I just wanted to build some stuff with my 3D printer. If you are going to experiment with FreeCAD, I highly, highly recommend starting by learning about parametric modelling. Define everything in the spreadsheet, and relate all of the sizes to each other. If you don't, it will be a very frustrating experience when you realize halfway into your design that some earlier piece needs to b", "context": "no formal CAD experience, 3D printer hobbyist", "use_case": "3D printing designs", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler"}, {"id": 746434737, "item_id": 46652171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46652171", "by": "anfractuosity", "date": "2026-01-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "which I imported to FreeCAD to make a model that I 3D printed in plastic", "excerpt": "Very fun project :) Not seen this type of robot before that uses wires to push the pins. I got a little set of cheap transparent locks and tried placing the key in a flatbed scanner to image and think I used inkscape to generate an SVG, which I imported to FreeCAD to make a model that I 3D printed in plastic, which worked after a little filing.", "context": "", "use_case": "3D modeling for printing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lock-Picking Robot"}, {"id": 743542342, "item_id": 46471396, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471396", "by": "Alupis", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Flatpaks to install many GUI apps, such as FreeCAD, KiCad, Darktable, Steam, Reaper, and a lot more.", "excerpt": "I've used Fedora on my laptop for over a decade. I switched my main home workstation to Fedora in 2023, and haven't looked back since. My workstation runs Kinoite[1], an immutable/atomic version of Fedora. I started with Fedora 38, and now am running 43. Flawless major-release upgrades. I develop using distrobox[2] (pet containers) on podman. It \"Just Works\". Nearly 99% of my Steam library is playable on Fedora too. ", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop"}, {"id": 741418082, "item_id": 46338630, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46338630", "by": "Ccecil", "date": "2025-12-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I personally do better with CAD software such as fusion or freecad", "excerpt": "If you are a programmer OpenSCAD is likely for you. It certainly has benefits in things that are repeating patterns (gears and such)...and if your mind is good at visualizing things in \"code\" things will likely go a lot faster. I personally do better with CAD software such as fusion or freecad since my mind doesn't work in the code realm since I have more of a hardware mindset. Translating the picture in my head to c", "context": "hardware mindset", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenSCAD is kinda neat"}, {"id": 737198545, "item_id": 46074909, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46074909", "by": "abrugsch", "date": "2025-11-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I'm trying to move to freecad but it hasn't had its blender moment yet.", "excerpt": "Can you not use the \"free for hobbyists\" license? Autodesk make it unreasonably hard to renew it, instead dark-patterning you into upgrading to the paid tier. (Unless of course you need paid tier features) I agree on the easy to use front though. I'm trying to move to freecad but it hasn't had its blender moment yet.", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "Fusion 360", "story": "Ask HN: What tools do you pay for today that feel overpriced or frustrating?"}, {"id": 736590032, "item_id": 46036877, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46036877", "by": "naasking", "date": "2025-11-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "FreeCAD is pretty good overall, but these tiny nuisances will continue to hold it back until they're sorted.", "excerpt": "I will be posting a minimal example on the forums about this soon once I actually finish the project. Here [1] is the last issue that I had. The issue of getting the needed cutout on that forum post was one problem, but the much deeper issue was how a later operation broke the model in an unrecoverable way once it was removed. To me, that speaks to something deeply broken in FreeCAD's core use of Open Cascade, and I'", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD modeling", "switched_from": "", "story": "\u00b5cad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D"}, {"id": 736259158, "item_id": 46016197, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46016197", "by": "VorpalWay", "date": "2025-11-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "FreeCAD is also scriptable in python.", "excerpt": "I saw a programatic Web cad tool before, took a moment to find it (and along the way I found a few others). Caveat: of these I have only used Onshape, and I tend to use it via the graphical interface. - First up Onshape is web based, but is actually programmable behind the scenes (and all documents are scripts under the hood). This is used to let you write plugins it for it. - The one I was thinking of used to be cal", "context": "", "use_case": "scriptable CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "3D printing with unconventional vase mode"}, {"id": 735688401, "item_id": 45980525, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45980525", "by": "MayeulC", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "compare", "quote": "much easier to use than FreeCad for me", "excerpt": "Ah, interesting, it looks like Dune3D is based on solvespace with opencascade: https://docs.dune3d.org/en/latest/why-another-3d-cad.html I was going to suggest solvespace. It is very barebones, but was much easier to use than FreeCad for me. It also has constraints in 3D space, which I use a lot: https://solvespace.com/index.pl", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.0"}, {"id": 735585922, "item_id": 45974120, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45974120", "by": "gcr", "date": "2025-11-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Also take a look at solverspace, caligula, FreeCAD, ...", "excerpt": "agreed! take a look at https://Plasticity.xyz. It's not open-source, but it's got a small, highly dedicated team behind it. It's built on Solidworks' kernel, so it's quite robust. Also take a look at solverspace, caligula, FreeCAD, ...", "context": "", "use_case": "CAD", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.0"}, {"id": 735576977, "item_id": 45973561, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45973561", "by": "Teever", "date": "2025-11-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Software like OpenSCAD and FreeCAD are obviously not suitable for much commercial work, and have very irritating limitations for hobbyist work", "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", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.0"}]}