I was chatting about this in off-topic, but things seem to be getting out of control right now.
With the recent news about Adobe software suite being completely vibecoded it would say it is just a matter of time until Solidworks or Inventor or pro/e get vibe coded into existense.
Now the biggest issue with OpenSource CAD has been the kernel, this is basically what most users have issues with if it is not the UI in FreeCAD. FreeCAD uses OCCT. OCCT is mainly developed for viewer and translation applications. FreeCAD was probably the only or the biggest program that uses OCCT as a kernel for CAD as we know it. So if you are looking for a new program, you should check what kernel it uses.
There is already a huge list of these vibecode applications but 2 of them stood out the most in my opinion:
and
First is a Fusion360 clone using their own kernel I think and the second is a Onspace clone using the same kernel as FreeCAD.
This is starting to get kind of insane. It is going to force a lot of the “old” companies into more customer-friendly models in the long run I guess (or into bankruptcy).
Yea, I don’t know how I feel about all of this. Even if they aren’t copying code or icons/logos, it still feels wrong to copy functionality that directly. At the same time, patent stuff is already crazy so I wouldn’t want that to devolve into overprotecting either.
The main issue I have with all these apps popping up is that there are too many choices. I landed on FreeCAD and I’m staying there.
The other thing you have to realize when using a vibecoded app is there probably isn’t a team behind it. Support may not be much of a thing. In practical terms, that means using this kind of stuff as a hobbyist makes sense, but I wouldn’t expect professional companies to use such things (sure there will be some).
Yes, same. Still really interesting how it’s developing. Over in another Discord a user is working on his own 2D-drawing software and it’s so much better than QCad or LibreCAD already.
I have been testing and breaking it a lot, really dig it so far.
Are folks here happily vibing FreeCad models? Lately, have been vibing small CAD designs via OpenScad based models. Reason being LLMs familiarity with the syntax.
Guessing others here have also been expecting big techs to create tech that ultimately cannibalizes their own IP/businesses as they accelerate their race to the bottom?
I used to be Adobe fan like 20 years ago, but since then they worked very hard to make me smile when I found out about those clones I actually am tempted to “get back to adobe” with those
To be honest as a mechanical engineer that uses CAD professionally I can’t wait till those big CAD companies get swamped with free alternatives. Especially Autodesk.
Beyond free (unsupported, dubious quality…) clones in the short term, i’m hoping, we’ll see smart companies adapt and innovate to survive.
Competition’s great for Customers. Hopefully, we’re going to benefit from lots of amazing affordable software in the near future, just before skynet wipe us out.
There is absolutely a big division between people who mostly only care if it works and people who when they see Claude on the page just get annoyed and start complaining it is slop.
I kinda don’t care if it is AI, like the CraftCAD 47mb and Solidcraft 62mb, and developers kept saying the code is crap. If it was really crap why is it so small? I would say if the code is crap there would be a bunch of useless stuff in it. And so people calling it slop is getting annoying real fast, I know big tech is going to screw us over in the end, but then at least we have a lot of nice software that we can use without AI.
And FreeCAD…to be honest, I spend 5 years of my life trying to fix that program. Only to realize the code isn’t the problem but the organization. So even if I would wish they would survive this, I really doubt it. (they will just stay around tho, but for a few developers not for normal CAD users.)
Playing with Cadrs (OnShape clone) now… and Claude connects fine. So far, so good.
Interesting point Claude makes since it’s helping me in both FreeCAD and Cadrs:
Glad it’s working. For what you’re doing, its main advantage over the FreeCAD connection is that every change I make goes through cadrs’ own command layer. My edits show up in the feature list like yours, and you can undo them the same way. In FreeCAD I mostly worked by running Python scripts, which is harder to follow and reverse.
Ahh yes, and monopolised the market pretty much, then took advantage of that monopoly by region. Here’s a bit of bitter history from my perspective;-.
<rant>
People tend to forget that Photoshop was invented for Apple computers, and is part of the reason for the “they are so much better at graphics” myth. They gouged so heavily in AUS that the price of photoshop was many multiples of that in US. It got so bad that in 2013, the fact that it was cheaper to fly to the US, buy Adobe creative suite there and fly home than to buy in the local market, caused a parliamentary inquiry.
Microsoft was almost as bad, and Apple while accused of similar, continued to provide competitive products free or almost free.
When Apple discontinued Aperture, I was forced into the Adobe rental system and to be fair, these days it’s not terrible value if (like me) you are the kind of person who likes to keep stuff updated, but it’s not exactly great value for a hobbyist. There are a lot of competitors who (like the free Apple products that I’ve used pretty much for forty years, do “almost” everything Adobe products do, but there’s always that one feature that needs to be worked around.
I ditched Microsoft back then and have never gone back (remember Excel was also originally developed for Mac whey they hopped on the “Australia Tax” gravy train, and I bought the paid CLARIS works for less than a quarter of the annual updates in MS works. It’s funny how it was capable of probably 80% of the MS suite and happily lived in a world where supposedly MS stuff was compulsory. I am still using its free successors happily.
So yes, they’ve updated stuff and fixed the odd bug, but they’ve spent decades taking the p*ss out of their customers, so perhaps it’s time to reap a bit of what they’ve sown! </rant>
I’ve been working on one for a couple of months now. It’s extremely capable, and I’ve spent hundred of hours testing it, and have a out a dozen friends testing it. It runs locally, it does use OCCT but OCCT has quite a few big limitations so I’ve layered a lot of custom kernel work on top of it. It’s far more capable than FreeCAD. It does sheet metal too- flat patterns, bend lines etc. It has a hardware library with super quick and intuitive hardware insertion and a large library of standard parts.
I do intend to sell it, I’ll sell it as a perpetual license with commercial use rights, targeting under $200. The only real competition is Alibre Atom3d and I’m already way ahead of them on functionality. I’ve forever been annoyed that every decent CAD program is thousands per year for commercial rights.
If anybody is interested in beta testing and wants a free perpetual license, I’d love your feedback so I can continue improving it.
Not trying to just self promote as it’s still not even for sale
Also I should say I’ve made a concentrated effort to avoid directly copying any other program or infringe on any of the many patents that exist
I wish you all the best and it looks nice, but FreeCAD also has tons if OCCT mitigations and it is still unstable asf. So I doubt it very much that you’ll be able to make a good product with that terrible kernel.
If you get customers and they realize the OCCT issues, it’s a hard sell if you blame OCCT. Normal end user don’t care what/who the problem is as long as it gets fixed.
The issue with OCCT also is, they don’t give a crap about your program. Thay hardly give a crap about FreeCAD. OCCT is maintained by 2 devs, with massive overhead. They only work with big commercial customers like Siemens.
They pushed a pr that fixed fillets by a lot like a month ago, it will be in their 8.1 release in januari. 5 months for a pr to pass through. So if your customers have issues you need to make an OCCT pr, beg them to merge it. Then wait 5 months for them too add it too their release. It’s bonkers, there are btw other kernels being developed right now.
About the fillet bug/pr, Solidcraft created a similar pr and merged it in a single day.
I actually am tempted to “get back to adobe” 
with those