# ShopSpec

19 Hacker News commenters recommended ShopSpec and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Woodworkers recommend it for planning and visualizing furniture projects and building cut lists. Known gaps include limited shelf counts and imperial-only units.

## Why people recommend it

- Customizable for DIY furniture builds (4 comments): "Your approach to doing what you happened to need - bookshelves, workbench etc in a customisable way is very cool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50101207)) "This is amazing -- I was looking for a tool exactly like this to DIY a bookshelf." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50098335)) "This is beautiful and I'm now itching to make a workbench" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703991))
- Plans, visualizes and executes projects (4 comments): "ShopSpec has been instrumental to plan, visualize, and execute on these new ideas/projects." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49694528)) "ShopSpec has been instrumental to plan, visualize, and execute on" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49694775)) "I'm a woodworker and use it for my own home and shop builds." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50069554))
- Practical woodworking knowledge and examples (2 comments): "this is really well done. Nice work on this, and good job on incorporating some really good, practical woodworking knowlege" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50103060)) "using those example as a base are really great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49694592))

## What people warn about

- Limited shelf count and hardwood types (1 comments): "This is cool. ... (2) >4 shelves does not work. (3) 'Other' hardwood type not possible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50097453))
- Cut list sometimes misses parts (1 comments): "That part doesn't seem to be in the cut list." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50112641))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [FreeCAD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/freecad.md): 199 recommend
- [OpenSCAD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openscad.md): 173 recommend
- [Onshape](https://hackerapproved.com/p/onshape.md): 65 recommend
- [Autodesk Fusion 360](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fusion-360.md): 60 recommend
- [SolveSpace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/solvespace.md): 37 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ShopSpec", https://hackerapproved.com/p/shopspec/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).