We made Arcad, a parametric CAD in the browser, free and no signup
Details
- External ID
- 49142980
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- We made Arcad, a parametric CAD in the browser, free and no signup
- Website domain
- arcad.studio
- Launched
- Aug. 2, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 6
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.3125
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 10, 2026, 5:32 a.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 10, 2026, 5:32 a.m.
Description
My friend and I have been working on Arcad for some months now. It's a free browser-based parametric CAD tool aimed at hobbyists and makers.It has editable feature history, solid modeling powered by OpenCascade, STEP export and touch controls for tablets, although it's primarily made for PC use. Everything runs in the browser and you can try it without creating an account or installing anything.Currently in beta although we feel like it's ready for a full launch. Any feedback is appreciated!Link: https://app.arcad.studio Docs: https://www.arcad.studio/docs
Enrichment
- Theme
- creative coding and visual experiments
- Vertical
- Horizontal
- Function
- Dev tools
- Audience
- B2C
- AI stance
- Not AI
- Project type
- Hobby / open-source project
- Normalized one-liner
- parametric cad in the browser
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
No Building an in-browser parametric solid CAD tool with feature history, STEP export, and OpenCascade integration requires specialized computational geometry and WebAssembly integration knowledge.
What it would actually take: The architecture requires compiling OpenCascade Technology (OCCT) to WebAssembly using Emscripten, coupled with a WebGL/WebGPU rendering pipeline (e.g., Three.js) and a reactive parametric history DAG. The hardest parts are managing memory across WASM boundaries, topological naming issues during parametric rebuilds, and robust B-Rep boolean operations. It demands specialized expertise in 3D CAD kernels and geometric modeling.
Discussion
4 comments analyzed.
Concerns raised: Browser-based architecture reduces local control and data ownership, Concerns about internet dependency for using offline-capable software, Preference for native applications over web-based tools
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 56 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #42 of 57 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 275 days after the earliest competitor.
- FluidCAD · hn · 2026-04-10 · 160 upvotes · similarity 0.56
- FreeCAD 1.1 · ph · 2026-03-30 · 218 upvotes · similarity 0.53
- Open-source CAD in the browser (DXF-native, no install) · hn · 2026-04-19 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.52
- LuaCAD · hn · 2026-08-14 · 106 upvotes · similarity 0.52
- CADara · hn · 2026-05-08 · 37 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- SindriCAD · hn · 2026-08-04 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- DiffCAD, a FreeCAD workbench to review model changes like code · hn · 2026-05-07 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- rcam · ph · 2026-09-23 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.45
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.
Same idea, different domain
Nobody's really built a dev tools tool for Sales yet.