CADCraft is an open-source 2D and 3D CAD application written in pure Rust that drives drawing from a typed command line in the AutoCAD style. It is for drafters, architects and engineers who already have those commands in their fingers and want them in a free program they can keep, and for Rust developers who would rather read a CAD core than script around a closed one. The project comes from the ArtCraft team and calls itself a clean-room implementation, meaning the behaviour is familiar but no AutoCAD code is involved.
What it does
The point is the command language. In the video you type L, click a point, then type a distance and an angle, and the line lands: no menu hunting, no mouse precision. Around that sit the tools the materials name:
- object snaps, layers, dimensions, hatches and blocks
- DXF drawings opened and saved natively
- DWG support through a separate library called acadrust
- 2D and 3D work in the same application
- an MCP interface, so an AI agent can type the same commands
The demo builds an apartment plan (walls, dimensions and a room schedule) from commands alone. That is what the project's own demo shows, not an independent test.
How it works
CADCraft ships as one native Rust binary with no browser wrapper around it, which is the project's own explanation for why it feels fast; there is no published benchmark in these materials to check that against. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD, and the README also lists a browser build via WebAssembly.
The design decision that matters most is that every tool is a command. The user-facing command line and the agent-facing MCP server are then the same surface: anything you can type, an agent can type too. The README badges give the license as MIT or Apache-2.0, while GitHub reports Apache-2.0 for the repository; either way it is permissive.
Getting started
You need one of the four supported desktop systems, or a browser for the WebAssembly build. The project does not list hardware requirements: no GPU, memory or chip figures appear anywhere in the material, so treat that as unknown rather than assuming any old machine will do.
Nothing here costs money. CADCraft is free and permissively licensed, it needs no API key and no model to draw, and nothing in the material depends on a paid service. The one exception is agent use: if you drive CADCraft over MCP, you pay for whatever model you point at it, either a local model on your own hardware or a paid cloud key. CADCraft itself neither supplies nor charges for that.
The repository is github.com/storytold/cadcraft. The copy of the README available here is cut off before any install or download section, so check the repository page for current build steps or prebuilt binaries; as a pure Rust project, building from source means having the Rust toolchain installed. No single install command appears in this material, so do not expect a one-liner.
When to use it / when not
The catch is stated plainly by the authors themselves: CADCraft is early, fast-moving software, and the README carries an "early development" badge. The repository was created on 7 October 2026 and last pushed on 21 October 2026, so this is weeks-old code sitting on roughly 6,250 stars and 2,750 forks by GitHub's count: a great deal of attention, very little mileage. Expect rough edges, missing commands and file-format corners that do not round-trip yet.
Use it instead of AutoCAD when your work is DXF-based drafting, when you want your commands and drawings to stay yours, or when you want an agent to operate the drawing for you. Don't use it if you have deadline work in DWG, need output a client or a plan reviewer will accept, or depend on particular AutoCAD features: DWG here arrives through acadrust rather than natively, and nothing in the material claims full compatibility.
Alternatives
AutoCAD is the reference point the project chose for itself, and for production work it remains the safe answer; CADCraft copies the interface conventions, not the code. These materials do not compare CADCraft with other open CAD programs, so no ranking against them is offered here. The README does point to a Discord for the ArtCraft team, which is where questions about the roadmap belong.
Take CADCraft seriously if you type your CAD commands rather than click them, and you have been waiting for a version of that habit you can install for free on Linux or FreeBSD, or if you want a CAD application an AI agent can operate end to end. For now treat it as something to run alongside the tool you bill hours with, not as a replacement, and revisit it once the early-development label comes off.