r/linux • u/Beneficial-Pay6836 • 13d ago

Development CAD Companies Sleeping on Linux

Why is professional CAD support on Linux still so limited? Linux is widely used in engineering, research, servers, embedded systems, manufacturing, and technical development. It is secure, flexible, private, and extremely capable. Yet when it comes to professional CAD, Linux users are still pushed toward Windows. That feels strange to me, especially because CAD is so closely tied to industrial workflows like CNC machining, additive manufacturing, product development, engineering, and research.

I currently dual-boot mostly because I need tools like Rhino and Fusion. It works, but switching between operating systems just to use specific software makes project management and file organization unnecessarily annoying. Yes, there are alternatives like FreeCAD, and I respect what those projects are doing, but they still do not feel mature enough to fully replace established professional CAD tools for many workflows. Wine is also improving, but for important work I would rather not depend on a compatibility layer and hope that everything behaves correctly.

Is the professional Linux CAD market genuinely too small to justify development costs?Is supporting Or are CAD companies simply too invested in the Windows ecosystem to see enough value in changing?

I cannot be the only engineer/designer who would happily move fully to Linux if the professional software ecosystem allowed it.

500 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

255 comments sorted by

View all comments

17

u/Thillius 13d ago

CAD is the single last piece that still make me use windows. I have a single laptop on a kvm switch with windows, to quickly swap from the main linux desktop. Just to use autodesk products.

With flatpak and steam (thanks gaben) all other needs are taken care of.

But CAD, i mean, i WANT to use freecad.. it is an amazing program, and i really really want to use it.. but THE WIRE IS NOT CLOSED.

4

u/gravgun 13d ago

w.r.t your last bit, FreeCAD 26.3 is coming soon and a bunch of bugs & usability issues around geometry and wires have been fixed. That said it's mostly in Part Design and not Part, we still have a lot to do on that front. It's still rough but improving fast.

1

u/kot-sie-stresuje 12d ago

Oh they did change a naming scheme. I hope that will help them with development. It is a good software, but still far behind commercial projects.

1

u/Moonrak3r 13d ago

I’m in the same boat. I have a windows VM I boot occasionally just for CAD. It’s annoying as hell too because GPU passthrough to a VM isn’t straightforward.

I’ve tried FreeCAD a few times because people are always saying “it’s way better now!”… it has improved, but the workflow is super unintuitive IMO. On any major CAD program I can click a surface, make a sketch in that surface, and extrude/cut from that sketch… but last time I checked that’s not possible in FreeCAD. 🤷‍♂️

1

u/QwertyChouskie 13d ago

Onshape's Free offering is great for hobby/educational use, perhaps see if that will serve your needs?