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Unofficial guide · checked 19 October 2026 · SolidCraft 0.16.2

SolidCraft — GitHub, Downloads & First Model Guide

Find the official project, choose how to run it, and build your first part.

Official GitHubTry in BrowserChoose a Download

Screenshots and measurements in this guide were taken in the official web app, version 0.16.2, on 19 October 2026. Download links go to GitHub Releases.

What is SolidCraft?

A free, open-source parametric CAD program written in Rust

SolidCraft is a clean-room CAD application for sketches, solid features and assemblies. Sketches are driven by a constraint solver and solid operations live on a timeline, so changing an early dimension rebuilds everything downstream — the behaviour you expect from professional parametric CAD.

It ships as a native desktop app for Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD, and as a WebAssembly build that runs the same code in a browser. Geometry is checked by the project’s own test suite, and files are ordinary local files: .solidcraft designs and STEP exports, with no cloud account in between.

The app is developed in the open. Bugs, feature requests and release notes are all on GitHub, and the browser build is updated by the official project — not by this site.

How a part is built

Sketch → Extrude → Edit

SolidCraft keeps the history of what you did, not just the final shape. That is why the third step matters as much as the first two.

  1. 01

    Sketch

    Draw a rectangle on a plane. Dimensions are constraints: type 40 and 30 instead of clicking approximate points, and the sketch solves itself.

  2. 02

    Extrude

    Turn the closed profile into a solid. One distance — 20 mm — gives the box used throughout this guide: 40 × 30 × 20 mm.

  3. 03

    Edit

    Double-click the sketch, change the 40 to 60, and the body rebuilds. This is the difference between a mesh and a parametric model.

Your first model

A 40 × 30 × 20 mm box, measured in the app

The tutorial draws a dimensioned rectangle on the XY plane, extrudes it 20 mm, then proves the model is parametric by changing the width. The expected result is not a guess: the body’s properties report it.

Width
40 mm
Depth
30 mm
Height
20 mm
Volume
24,000 mm³
Start the tutorialSee the verification
SolidCraft showing a 40 by 30 by 20 mm box with its sketch and body in the browser tree
The box from the tutorial, in the official web app 0.16.2. The browser lists the sketch and the body; the viewport shows the extruded solid.

Questions

Frequently asked

Short answers about the project, the official files and the browser build.

Is SolidCraft free to use?
Yes. SolidCraft is open-source software under the MIT OR Apache-2.0 license. There is no account, subscription or license key in the app, and you can build it from source yourself.
Is this the official SolidCraft website?
No. This is an independent guide. The official project lives at github.com/tangency-labs/solidcraft, with the web app at docs.solidcraft.io/app/. Every download button on this site points to the official release files — we do not mirror installers.
Do I need to install anything to try it?
No. The official web app runs the same program in the browser (WebAssembly + WebGL2). It is slower with very large models than the desktop build, but it is enough for the first-model tutorial.
Why does Windows or macOS warn me about the download?
The official installers are not code-signed yet, and the macOS app is ad-hoc signed but not notarized. SmartScreen asks you to confirm with “More info → Run anyway”, and macOS needs right-click → Open the first time. This is the project's current state; the guide explains how to check the files instead.
Where does the web app keep my designs?
In the browser's private storage for that site (OPFS), not in your Downloads folder. Clearing site data removes them. Open File → Open… to see the Files in this browser panel, and use the Download row to keep a .solidcraft copy you can reopen later or move to another machine.
Which version does this guide describe?
Stable release 0.16.2, published on 19 October 2026. Every screenshot and measurement was taken in that version. The download page lists the exact files we checked; newer releases may change names or behaviour.
Why does the built-in updater stop at 0.11–0.14?
Those versions only trust packages from the project's old GitHub address. After the repository moved, they can see a newer release but cannot install it. Install 0.15.0 or later once by hand; from then on updates work again.
Can SolidCraft open and export STEP files?
Yes. STEP (AP203, AP214 and AP242) is read and written, including assemblies and names; the tutorial exports AP242. IGES, 3MF, STL and OBJ are supported too, and DXF/SVG can be imported into a sketch.

Ready to make the box?

It takes about ten minutes in the browser, and you can check every number on this site against the running app.

Open the tutorialCompare downloads