Users debate whether Aircad's low price and small-team structure pose unacceptable risks for professional CAD work, with the developer arguing that client-side execution and standard export formats mitigate vendor lock-in. Competing opinions suggest the tool is either too risky for business-critical drafting or well-suited for hobbyists who value open standards over subscription models.
42 readable replies · Supporting reply 1 · Supporting reply 2 · Supporting reply 3 · Supporting reply 4Open-Cascade-SAS
OCCT
C++2022–2026
Open-Cascade-SAS / OCCT
OCCT
OCCT is an open-source software development platform for 3D CAD, CAM, CAE.
4Distinct people
4Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
3.2KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
OCCT is an open-source software development platform for 3D CAD, CAM, CAE.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
Critical One commenter notes that the repository still generates invalid solids. Another comment references an issue regarding incomplete fillet and chamfer handling.
A warning from this week’s discussion. Read the supporting reply
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Critical
One commenter notes that the repository still generates invalid solids. Another comment references an issue regarding incomplete fillet and chamfer handling.
Supporting reply 1 · Supporting reply 2 · 1 discussions summarized
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 8:03:49 PM UTC.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year4 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2022-02-07 12:32:07 UTC to 2026-08-30 18:49:39 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
1 sourcesJDjdevy·Sep 12, 2024
I have 100s of hours of FreeCAD experience from my day job designing injection molded parts for toys.
For some background, for about ~3-4 years (~5 years ago) I started using FreeCAD 1.18.1 in my job (and even more before that for hobby use). I am used to using open-source software with bad UI, so that's not my major complaint. As long as you stick mostly in the Part Design, Part, and TechDraw workbenches, you should get used to the UI. I used the main branch of FreeCAD up until 1.19.1 but then switched to RealThunder's LinkBranch [2]. I switched for the topological naming fixes (some introduced in this 1.0), assembly workbench (not the same as in this 1.0), and other many quality of life fixes (multiple solids per body and 3D offsets for most Part Design boolean operations). It was never great but it got the job done. As long as you neve
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r need complex organic 3D surfaces, FreeCAD can work - or at least the LinkBranch did for me, I'll have to test 1.0.
However, my biggest complaint is with the CAD engine FreeCAD uses: OpenCASCADE (OCCT) [1]. As with most CAD engines, this thing is OLD. It does not like to make NURBS surfaces with true tangency to other faces, and it really doesn't like when fillits cross edges into other faces. You will spend hours adjusting cosmetic geometry so that dress up features like fillits and chamfers will apply. Unless some group of PhDs with some hardcore C/C++ experience come along or the company that develops OCCT gets some major funding, I don't think FreeCAD will improve enough for day-to-day design of complex parts for a long time.
Nowadays, I use Fusion 360. I prefer SolidWorks but Fusion is all my job offers me currently. For a CAD package, and coming from years of FreeCAD, Fusion 360 just works. I have tools for making arbitrary complex surfaces (could still be better), I can create fillets that cross into other faces (most of the time), and I can go back in history and edit features and my model will rebuild itself (to a limit, but even the FreeCAD LinkBranch had more issues than Fusion even though it was better than vanilla 1.19.1 and 1.20 FreeCAD). Fusion also has a proper assembly system, which is essential! You can cheat and create parts in FreeCAD by linking sketches to geometry in other parts, but it can only get you so far before you need to go back in time and everything breaks upon a rebuild.
I hate to say it, but FreeCAD has a lot of work to do other than the UI. I want to use FreeCAD but it wastes too much of my time for professional work. I would still use it for simple hobby projects.
I could talk for hours on this stuff.
[1] https://github.com/Open-Cascade-SAS/OCCT
[2] https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD/releases