Open CAD Studio

A CAD application for 2D drafting and 3D modeling, built with Rust. Reads and writes DWG and DXF files natively.

Try it in the browser

A WebAssembly build runs directly in the browser — no install:

https://hakanseven12.github.io/OpenCADStudio/

It covers the core 2D workflow (open / draw / edit / save DWG & DXF, plus all the manager and style dialogs), with a few limitations versus the desktop app:

• No 3D modeling — solid primitives, booleans and ACIS import are disabled.
• Hatches don't render (WebGL2 lacks the vertex-stage storage the hatch shader needs).
• Fonts: only the bundled stroke fonts; system/TrueType fonts and missing-glyph fallback aren't available.
• Single-threaded, so large drawings are slower than on the desktop.

Features

File Formats

• DWG read/write (R13 through R2018)
• DXF read/write (R13 through R2018)
• STL export (STLOUT / EXPORTSTL)
• STEP AP203 export (STEPOUT)
• OBJ import (IMPORTOBJ)
• PDF export (plot layouts to PDF)
• WBLOCK — write selected entities or a block to an external file
• XREF — attach, reload, and auto-resolve external references

2D Drafting

Command	Description
LINE, PLINE, RECTANG, POLYGON	Basic geometry
CIRCLE, ARC, ELLIPSE, SPLINE	Curves
HATCH, HATCHEDIT	Hatch fills with pattern, scale, angle editing
OFFSET, TRIM, EXTEND, FILLET	Modify geometry (supports lines, arcs, ellipses, polylines, splines)
BREAK, STRETCH, LENGTHEN	Shape editing
ARRAY, MIRROR, MOVE, COPY, ROTATE, SCALE	Transformations
EXPLODE	Explode blocks, dimensions, polylines, mlines
DDEDIT	Double-click text editing
MASSPROP	Area, perimeter, centroid of selected entities

3D Modeling

Command	Description
BOX, SPHERE, CYLINDER	Solid primitives
EXTRUDE, REVOLVE	Profile-based solids
LOFT	Ruled-surface loft through cross-sections
SWEEP	Sweep a profile along a path
ARRAY3D	3D array
ACIS tessellation	Renders 3DSOLID, REGION, and BODY entities

Annotations & Dimensions

• Dimensions: Linear, Aligned, Angular, Radial, Diameter, Ordinate — with full DIMSTYLE support (DIMASZ, DIMSCALE, DIMEXO, DIMEXE, and more)
• Text: MTEXT, TEXT, DTEXT with font browser (STYLE DIALOG)
• Leaders: MLEADER with straight and spline path types; MLEADERSTYLE manager
• Tolerances: GD&T feature control frames
• Tables: TABLE entity render; TABLESTYLE manager
• MLine: MLINE entity with MLSTYLE manager and EXPLODE support

Paper Space & Layouts

• Multi-tab layout system with model space and unlimited paper space tabs
• Viewport projection: Model content correctly projected into paper-space viewport rectangles
• Camera persistence: View position and zoom saved per layout; restored on file open and tab switch
• Correct paper size: Physical paper dimensions read from embedded PlotSettings (not drawing limits)
• Inline MSPACE overlay — enter a viewport with double-click; edit model entities in place
• VPORTS — preset viewport configurations (single, 2H, 2V, 4-way)
• LAYOUTMANAGER / LAYOUTPANEL — GUI layout manager
• PLOTSTYLEPANEL / STYLESMANAGER — plot style table editor (CTB/STB)
• PRINT — send layout to system printer

Blocks & References

• INSERT with attribute prompting (ATTREQ)
• ATTEDIT — edit block attribute values interactively
• REFEDIT / REFCLOSE — in-place block reference editing
• XREF — attach, reload, and resolve external DWG/DXF references
• DATAEXTRACTION — export entity property data to CSV

Snapping & Precision

• Object snaps: Endpoint, Midpoint, Center, Node, Quadrant, Intersection, Perpendicular, Tangent, Nearest, Insertion, and more
• Ellipse arc endpoints, LWPolyline arc midpoints, Hatch boundary points
• Object Snap Tracking (OTRACK / F11)
• Polar Tracking with configurable angle increment
• Dynamic Input overlay (DYNMODE / F12)
• Grid snap with adaptive spacing
• Command history navigation (↑ / ↓)

Rendering

• GPU-accelerated via WebGPU (wgpu)
• 4× MSAA anti-aliasing
• Orthographic and perspective camera
• ViewCube with face/edge/corner snapping
• Wide polylines: LWPolyline and Polyline2D filled strokes
• Raster images: GPU-textured quad pipeline (IMAGE command)
• Wipeout: Solid fill masking
• Complex linetypes: Text and shape elements rendered in linetype patterns
• White/black entity colors adapt to background luminance
• Per-viewport background color (BACKGROUND)
• Visual style selector (Wireframe, Shaded, etc.)
• X-ray ghost pass for selected wires occluded by geometry

UI

• Modular ribbon interface — Home, Insert, Annotate, View, Manage, Layout
• Command line with autocomplete and history
• Layer Manager with per-viewport freeze columns
• Properties panel
• COLORSCHEME — runtime theme switching
• SHORTCUTS — keyboard shortcuts panel
• SPLINEDIT — close, open, reverse spline control points
• UCS icon with 3D foreshortening and axis labels

Installation

Linux (AppImage)

Download OpenCADStudio-*-linux-x86_64.AppImage from the latest release, then:

chmod +x OpenCADStudio-*-linux-x86_64.AppImage
./OpenCADStudio-*-linux-x86_64.AppImage

No installation required — runs directly on any modern Linux distribution.

Windows

Download OpenCADStudio-*-windows-x86_64.exe from the latest release and run it directly. Windows SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC" because the binary is not yet code-signed — click More info → Run anyway.

macOS (Apple Silicon)

Apple Silicon (M-series) only; Intel macOS isn't built. The app is ad-hoc signed but not Apple-notarised (notarisation requires a paid Apple Developer ID), so macOS Gatekeeper guards the first launch. Pick whichever path is easiest:

Option A — Homebrew (recommended):

brew install --cask --no-quarantine \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HakanSeven12/OpenCADStudio/main/packaging/homebrew/open-cad-studio.rb

--no-quarantine lets Gatekeeper skip the unsigned-app prompt. See packaging/homebrew/ for publishing this as a brew tap.

Option B — manual .dmg:

Download OpenCADStudio-*-macos-arm64.dmg from the latest release, open it, and drag OpenCADStudio.app to /Applications. If the first launch is blocked, clear the quarantine flag once:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/OpenCADStudio.app

On older macOS you can instead right-click OpenCADStudio.app → Open and confirm; on macOS Ventura and later, approve it via System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.

Build from Source

Requirements: Rust 1.75+

git clone https://github.com/HakanSeven12/OpenCADStudio.git
cd OpenCADStudio
cargo build --release --bin OpenCADStudio
./target/release/OpenCADStudio

License

GPL-3.0-only — see LICENSE