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This is a news source for architects, engineers, builders, planners, and professionals interested in free software for the built environment.
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SurfacePsycho 0.10.0 has been released for Blender 5.2. The free and open source add-on provides non-destructive NURBS and Bezier modelling through Geometry Nodes, with STEP and IGES import and STEP and SVG export. Its familiar control-point and surface workflow may be especially approachable for architecture students moving between Rhino and Blender. ...
Open Planner Studio is an open source construction planning application built around Gantt charts, Work Breakdown Structures, and automatic Critical Path Method calculations with float analysis. Tasks can be edited in a hierarchical table or on an interactive timeline, with support for labour, equipment, subcontractors, holidays, inspection points, and construction phases. ...
Bonsai 0.9.0 has been released with 2,070 new features and fixes. The free software BIM authoring tool gains a redesigned IfcOpenShell engine: the release team’s fourteen-model benchmark reports IFC opening 2.5–3.4 times faster, with less than half the memory used by 0.8.5. ...
CADBase is an open-source data exchange platform designed to streamline collaboration among teams using different open-source design tools. Operating as a centralized infrastructure, it provides engineering-tailored version control and fills a gap for workflows utilizing both FreeCAD and Blender. Through native library add-ons, the platform lets users store, track, and share 3D models and manufacturing data across a project lifecycle, eliminating messy shared folders and untracked file iterations. ...
CAD Importer is an MIT-licensed Unity package for bringing CAD and BIM models into real-time robotics simulations and digital twins. Written in pure C# without native plugins, it supports editor imports for STL, PLY, OBJ, glTF and GLB as well as STEP, IGES, and IFC, with asynchronous runtime loading available for the mesh formats. ...
IFClite is now available to Python users through ifclite-geom, a native wheel that runs the project’s Rust geometry kernel in-process. It converts IFC data into per-entity triangle meshes without requiring Node.js, WebAssembly, a subprocess, or a local server. ...
Open CAD Studio is a GPL-3.0-licensed 2D drafting and 3D modelling application written in Rust. Its central goal is native reading and writing of DWG and DXF files from R13 through R2018, without depending on proprietary CAD libraries or a separate conversion workflow. ...
Blender 5.2 LTS has been released with long-term support until July 2028. Its largest addition is an experimental Geometry Nodes physics system for procedural hair and cloth simulation, alongside geometry bundles and lists, a Bevel node, audio sampling, and support for Geometry Nodes on Empty objects. ...
The FreeCAD Project Association has approved three grants for Q2 2026. João Matos will receive EUR 4,000 to develop BIM Plan Edit, a focused 2D editing context for working with walls, openings, spaces, and symbols on a selected building storey. ...
Magik has published LibreCAD in your browser, a WebAssembly port that runs the full GPL-licensed LibreCAD desktop application in a browser tab rather than a reduced viewer or JavaScript reimplementation. The demo loads the C++ and Qt application through Emscripten and Qt for WebAssembly, with the fork available as LibreCAD-Web. ...