FreeCAD and BRL-CAD are both participating in Google Summer of Code 2026. GSoC remains one of the more practical ways for new contributors to enter established free software projects: applicants work with mentors on scoped development projects, while the host communities get focused time on features, refactoring, documentation, testing, and tooling that can otherwise be hard to fund.
FreeCAD’s 2026 organisation page describes the project as a cross-platform parametric CAD modeler and BIM application, with Python, C++, Qt, OpenCASCADE, and OpenInventor listed among its core technologies. Its topics include engineering, graphics, CAD, 3D, architecture, BIM, and CAM. The project ideas are collected on the FreeCAD GSoC 2026 wiki page, making this a good entry point for contributors interested in the main FreeCAD codebase and its wider ecosystem.
The BRL-CAD GSoC page is broader than the name suggests. It is acting as an umbrella organisation for open computer-aided technology projects, listing OpenSCAD, LibreCAD, IfcOpenShell, BRL-CAD, and Manifold in its 2026 description. For OSArch readers, that means the relevant opportunity is not only BRL-CAD itself, but also the open BIM and geometry stack around IfcOpenShell, and by extension the Bonsai ecosystem that builds on it.
That spread is useful: FreeCAD covers a full end-user CAD/BIM application, while the BRL-CAD umbrella covers lower-level geometry, IFC, programmable modelling, 2D CAD, and mesh processing projects. Together they give contributors several paths into free software for design and construction, from user-facing application work to core model data, geometry, and interoperability tooling.