CADence
Parametric 3D CAD for makers, for 3D printing and laser cutting: runs in the browser and as a desktop app, built with OpenCascade compiled to WebAssembly and WebGPU rendering.
What it does and how it connects
CADence is parametric 3D CAD for makers, aimed at 3D printing and laser cutting. It runs in the browser at h3ll5ur7er.github.io/CADence and offline once loaded, and as a desktop app via Tauri. It is built with Angular 22, OpenCascade compiled to WebAssembly, and WebGPU rendering.
Development runs on npm start (web app on localhost:4200), npm run desktop, npm run verify (lint, typecheck, tests, production build), and npm run e2e with evidence screenshots. Documentation lives in the repo wiki under docs/Home.md (architecture, decisions, conventions, how to develop), and planned and finished work is tracked as tasks in tasks/.
The first release, 0.47.1, shipped 2026-10-22. The README is short; the wiki and task files carry the detail, and neither was read line by line for this entry.
Alternatives
Compare side by side- SketchForge-3D
A local-first browser 3D design editor for building and cutting shapes and exporting models, rather than parametric CAD for makers.
- anvilcad
Free open-source parametric 3D CAD in Rust with its own B-rep kernels, rather than a browser and desktop parametric CAD built on OpenCascade WebAssembly.
- OCCT
The Open CASCADE Technology geometry kernel library, which CADence builds on, rather than a parametric CAD application.
- geospec
A geometry specification engine built on OCCT that grades models against stated claims, rather than a parametric CAD application.
Recurring errors it addresses
Error Index entries this tool is built to reduce or work around.
- Since OCCT 7.7.0, spherical or toroidal STEP faces with a clockwise outer boundary import as the complement of the bounded patch: 18 spherical faces on a Pro/ENGINEER model grew from 693.8 to 42,569.7 mm2 while BRepCheck_Analyzer calls every face valid. A shape-healing heuristic mistakes the explicit outer boundary for a hole.Error Index
- Boolean operations on two valid lofts sharing an end section return impossible results with no error: Fuse(body, lip) comes back empty and Common is zero on both OCCT 7.9.3 and 8.0.1, and on 8.0.1 Cut is larger than its object, all with IsDone() true. Reproduced on OCCT 7.9.3 and 8.0.1 with measured volumes against a point-classification ground truth; argument order flips the outcome. The reporter traced it to a real F1 airbox model where the same pair lost the body.Error Index
- A STEP export from SolidCraft lost the side faces on 3 of 4 tapered legs when opened in other CAD tools, leaving only end discs. SolidCraft read its own file back fine; the fault was which ring of the cone face the loop started on, which other readers depend on.Error Index
Sources
Not verified
- Pricing: none stated on the repo.
- No independent user voice found: recent repo activity is dependabot pull requests and owner release pull requests.
- License: no LICENSE file exists in the repo root and the README and package.json state no license, so no license is recorded rather than copying the catalog label.
- Thin source: 0 stars, a 765-character README, and no user issues; the entry rests on the README, the release record, and the repo file listing. The wiki docs were not read for this entry.
Last verified November 6, 2026. Listings are informational. The evidence score measures public, verifiable evidence and is not an endorsement or a compatibility claim.