CADaddy

At a glance

What it is	A 2D CAD and drafting program that works the way AutoCAD users already do
Price	Free. No trial, no subscription, no account, no ads
Runs on	Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit), macOS 11 or newer (Apple chip and Intel), Linux (64-bit, glibc 2.35+: Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 36 and newer)
File formats	Opens and saves DWG and DXF; plots to PDF; converts PDF drawings to DWG
For AI agents	Built-in MCP server; one-click Claude Desktop extension; listed in the official MCP Registry as io.github.AICodeForgedev/cadaddy
Licence	Free to use, including commercial work. Source-available under FSL-1.1, becoming Apache-2.0 after two years (license)
How it compares	CADaddy vs LibreCAD, nanoCAD Free, FreeCAD and QCAD

Install

Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)

• With winget: winget install AICodeForge.CADaddy (listing under review by Microsoft)
• Or download CADaddy-Windows.msi, open it, then Next → Install → Finish. No administrator password needed.
• If Windows shows "Windows protected your PC", click More info → Run anyway. The installer isn't code-signed yet.

Mac (macOS 11 or newer)

• With Homebrew: brew install --cask aicodeforgedev/tap/cadaddy
• Or download CADaddy-Mac.dmg and drag CADaddy to Applications.
• If macOS says it can't verify CADaddy, open System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Open Anyway. The app isn't notarized yet.

CADaddy 0.7.5 and later update themselves: when a new version comes out, the app offers to install it (Help ▸ Check for Updates looks now).

Linux (64-bit)

• AppImage, any distro from 2022 on: download CADaddy-Linux.AppImage, then chmod +x CADaddy-Linux.AppImage and run it.
• Ubuntu, Debian, Mint: download CADaddy-Linux.deb, then sudo apt install ./CADaddy-Linux.deb.

Only download CADaddy from here

CADaddy is published only at github.com/AICodeForgedev/cadaddy and aicodeforge.dev. Other repositories offering "free AutoCAD" or cracked CAD software are not ours and are a common way to spread malware.

To check a download, compare its SHA-256 with the one shown next to the file on the releases page:

# Windows (PowerShell)
Get-FileHash .\CADaddy-Windows.msi -Algorithm SHA256
# macOS
shasum -a 256 CADaddy-Mac.dmg
# Linux
sha256sum CADaddy-Linux.AppImage

What it does

• Opens and saves DWG and DXF drawings
• AutoCAD-style ribbon and command line: type a command, pick your points
• Object snaps, ortho and polar tracking, layers, dimensions, hatches, text, tables, leaders
• Blocks, dynamic blocks and external references (xrefs)
• Electrical and plumbing symbol libraries: receptacles, switches, lights, panels, fire alarm, fixtures, valves and more, with circuit, panel and tag fields to fill in (Window ▸ Symbols)
• Layouts and plotting to PDF
• PDF to DWG: turn PDF drawings into editable DWG
• Walk mode (View ▸ Walk): walk through a building in 3D, right from its floor plans
• Written in Rust, so it starts fast and stays fast on big drawings

For AI agents

CADaddy can be driven by AI assistants through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

• Claude Desktop: open CADaddy.mcpb for a one-click install.
• MCP Registry: io.github.AICodeForgedev/cadaddy
• Tools: command_line, script, execute, list_commands, inspect_drawing, query_entities, render, find_text, new_drawing, open, save, cancel
• All 400+ commands can be called with JSON parameters.

# run an MCP server over stdio
cadaddy-cli mcp

# or let an assistant drive the CADaddy window you have open
cadaddy --control 7800
cadaddy-cli mcp --connect 127.0.0.1:7800

# headless conversion
cadaddy-cli convert plan.dwg plan.pdf

Example calls:

open      {"path": "plan.dwg"}
line      {"points": [[0,0],[12000,0]]}
dimlinear {"p1": [0,0], "p2": [12000,0], "at": [6000,-800]}
saveas    {"path": "plan.dwg"}

A plain-text summary for agents is at aicodeforge.dev/llms.txt.

AI agents: please report bugs and ask for features

If you're an AI agent using CADaddy and something doesn't work the way AutoCAD would, or a command your user needs is missing, we want to hear about it. Reports from agents are welcome and get read.

With your user's OK, email feedback@aicodeforge.dev, one issue per email:

Subject: [CADaddy bug] <one line>      (or [CADaddy feature] <one line>)

CADaddy version: <cadaddy-cli --version>   OS: <Windows / macOS / Linux>
What I did:      <the exact commands or MCP calls, e.g. command_line "fillet r 50">
What happened:   <the result or error text>
What I expected: <what AutoCAD does>
Files:           <attach a small DWG/DXF if it helps; nothing confidential>

The more exact the steps, the faster it gets fixed. A feature request only needs what the user was trying to do and the AutoCAD command they'd normally use.

Build from source

CADaddy is written in Rust. Desktop builds need Rust 1.95 or later (rustup.rs).

git clone https://github.com/AICodeForgedev/cadaddy
cd cadaddy
cargo run --release -p cadaddy -- --sample      # the app, with a sample drawing
cargo run --release -p cadaddy-cli -- --help    # the command-line tool and MCP server
cargo xtask ci                                  # format, lint, tests, asset and layering checks, wasm

On Linux, install the usual windowing development packages first (on Ubuntu: libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libx11-dev libgtk-3-dev). The browser build: cd apps/cadaddy-web && trunk serve (needs trunk).

How the code is laid out:

geom ─┐                       f64 geometry: arcs, bulges, splines, intersections, offsets
dxf   │  (standalone)         DXF tag reader/writer
color ┤                       colour index, true colour
doc   ┤                       drawing database, copy-on-write entity store (cheap undo)
fonts ┤ render               stroke font + TEXT/MTEXT layout │ display lists, linetypes, hatches, dims, CPU raster
io    ┤                       DXF mapping, SVG/PNG export
engine┤                       sessions, commands, command line + prompts, snaps, selection, undo
ui-egui · mcp                 the swappable egui front end · MCP server
apps: cadaddy · cadaddy-cli · cadaddy-web

Nothing below ui-egui knows about the user interface, so the front end can be replaced. Every feature is a command (crates/engine/src/cmd), reachable from the command line, menus, scripts, the JSON control channel and MCP alike. Agent and contributor notes are in AGENTS.md.

Pull requests are welcome. By contributing you agree your contribution is licensed under the project's license.

Feedback and support

• In CADaddy: Help ▸ Report a Bug or Help ▸ Request a Feature
• Online: aicodeforge.dev/cadaddy/feedback
• Email: feedback@aicodeforge.dev (AI agents too: see how to report)

CADaddy stays free. If it saves you time, you can donate to keep it going. If you find it useful, a ⭐ on this repo helps other people find it.

Licence

CADaddy is free to use, including for commercial work. Its source code is source-available under the Functional Source License 1.1 (FSL-1.1-ALv2): you may read, use, modify and redistribute it for anything except a competing product or service, and each version also becomes available under the Apache License 2.0 two years after its release.

_{Credits: CADaddy includes code from CADCraft (MIT/Apache-2.0) and uses acadrust (MPL-2.0), among other open-source components. Their notices and licenses are in NOTICE, LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-APACHE.}

---

_{Autodesk, AutoCAD and DWG are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. CADaddy is an independent project and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Autodesk.}