Plasticity
Hacker ApprovedRanked 16 of 27 CAD software by recommenders
Visual, non-constraint 3D modeler built on SolidWorks' kernel; people praise its robustness and freeform hard-surface work. Main caveat: no free option for hobbyists, just a 30-day trial.
Visual, non-constraint 3D modeler built on SolidWorks' kernel; people praise its robustness and freeform hard-surface work. Main caveat: no free option for hobbyists, just a 30-day trial.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 85%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Freeform hard-surface modeling without polygons
“Plasticity for free form hard surface CAD modeling”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application” “I don't have to worry about polygons at all”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Blender 5.0” Enjoyable for personal hobby projects
“for modeling outside of work I'm a much bigger fan of plasticity and blender”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler” “I personally enjoy designing my own things with Plasticity”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Paid license, no free tier
“no free option for hobbyists (just 30 days). That's a bit of a dealbreaker for me.”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application” “being bamboozled into buying a Plasticity Studio license”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application”
Other CAD software people recommend
The four most recommended other CAD software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeCAD | 199 | 95 | 68% | 12 | 2 yrs13 owners | Approved |
| OpenSCAD | 173 | 87 | 66% | 12 | 9 yrs4 owners | — |
| Onshape | 65 | 21 | 76% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Autodesk Fusion 360 | 60 | 37 | 62% | 12 | — | — |
| PlasticityThis page | 11 | 2 | 85% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
14 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It’s decent at modeling medium complexity enclosures and structural supports”
“cool kids nowadays use Plasticity, but that is taking on similar feature creep”
“I personally enjoy designing my own things with Plasticity”
“The joysticks in the STP file don't seem to properly import into Plasticity”
“no free option for hobbyists (just 30 days). That's a bit of a dealbreaker for me.”
“being bamboozled into buying a Plasticity Studio license”
“Plasticity for free form hard surface CAD modeling”
“it focuses on visual modeling instead of constraint based modeling”
“for modeling outside of work I'm a much bigger fan of plasticity and blender”
“it doesn't have any sort of lossless editing or timeline features”
“(see NomadSculpt, Plasticity or MagicaVoxel for example).”
“pretty decent CAD and works on linux”
“it's got a small, highly dedicated team behind it. It's built on Solidworks' kernel, so it's quite robust.”
“I don't have to worry about polygons at all”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.