SolidCraft
Ranked 17 of 27 CAD software by recommenders
Free open-source parametric CAD that runs in the browser and covers most everyday modeling needs; critics say it still has unsolved hard geometry problems and many edge cases.
Free open-source parametric CAD that runs in the browser and covers most everyday modeling needs; critics say it still has unsolved hard geometry problems and many edge cases.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Covers most everyday CAD needs
“Does 99% (I use solidworks makers for the remainder 1) of what I need”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Nasscad – local-first 3D CAD for browser and Windows” “it covers A LOT of what we need”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: SolidCraft – Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)” Useful for automation and AI workflows
“It feels a bit scary how good the frontier models are at creating stuff with these apps”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: SolidCraft – Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)” “these (promoted goodies) may come as the missing link in innumerable automation chains”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: SolidCraft – Open-Source Parametric CAD in Rust (With MCP Support)”
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 | — | — |
| SolidCraftThis page | 10 | 3 | 77% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
12 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Does 99% (I use solidworks makers for the remainder 1) of what I need”
“their initial development is easier but it creates a near infinite amount of edge cases”
“if your geometry kernel can't be compiled into a .dll or .so file”
“it covers A LOT of what we need”
“It feels a bit scary how good the frontier models are at creating stuff with these apps”
“so that their platforms will be able to run these programs locally and spit out the results”
“Running in the browser is the best part.”
“I don't see this project getting far on the hard problems they still have open.”
“Looks awesome, for some reason I liked that much more then FreeCAD”
“I do prefer the take on using Fusion as the UI base.”
“this actually would be a meaningful contribution to society”
“these (promoted goodies) may come as the missing link in innumerable automation chains”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.