Why use BearCAD?
Is BearCAD better than Fusion, SolidWorks, FreeCAD, or TinkerCAD? No.
BearCAD is pre-alpha. The others have years of features, polish, and users. Need CAM, simulation, sheet metal, or a production assembly? Use one of them.
Use BearCAD when a tiny local CAD app that launches instantly and needs no account is worth the missing features.
Size, start, cost
As of August 2026. Sizes are the download/installer, not the installed footprint. Start times are typical cold launches, not benchmarks.
| BearCAD | Autodesk Fusion | SolidWorks | FreeCAD | TinkerCAD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download | 21–50 MB | 8.5 GB to install | ~8–20 GB | 500–800 MB | none (browser) |
| Start time | ~0.5 s | tens of seconds + sign-in | tens of seconds | several–15 s | page load + account |
| Cost | Choose what to pay | $680/yr; personal-use free (limited) | ~$2,820/yr Standard | Free | Free |
| Account | No | Yes | License | No | Yes |
| Offline | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | No |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, Linux, browser | Windows, macOS, browser | Windows | Windows, macOS, Linux | Browser |
BearCAD sizes from the latest GitHub release (macOS 21 MB, Linux 25 MB, Windows 50 MB). Fusion install size is Autodesk's published requirement. SolidWorks varies with which products you pick. FreeCAD 1.1.3 installers are ~495 MB (Windows) to ~780 MB (Linux AppImage). Fusion personal-use is free for non-commercial work under $1,000/yr, with feature and document-count limits.
Features
| BearCAD | Fusion | SolidWorks | FreeCAD | TinkerCAD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parametric sketches | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Constraint solver | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Extrude / revolve / loft / sweep | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | CSG primitives |
| Fillet / chamfer / shell | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Limited |
| Assemblies | Joints only | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Groups |
| Technical drawings | Basic | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| STEP / STL import & export | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | STL |
| CAM | ✘ | ✔ | Extra | ✔ | ✘ |
| Simulation / FEA | ✘ | ✔ | Extra | ✔ | ✘ |
| Sheet metal | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | Addon | ✘ |
| Surface modeling | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| PCB / electronics | ✘ | ✔ | Extra | Addon | Circuits |
| Rendering | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | Addon | Basic |
| Scripting | Lua | API | API | Python | Codeblocks |
| Local files | ✔ | Cloud-first | ✔ | ✔ | Cloud |
| Open source | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
BearCAD's kernel is OpenCASCADE (same family as FreeCAD) and sketches are solved by SolveSpace. Joints pose parts; components are still just folders. Drawings project views to PDF/SVG. No BOM, no GD&T. The app is MIT/Apache-2.0; the kernel is LGPL.
Why use it anyway
- Small. Tens of megabytes, not gigabytes.
- Fast. Cold launch is about half a second. No splash, no sign-in.
- Yours. Files stay on your computer.
- Scriptable. Anything you click, you can script in Lua.
Quickstart is the fastest way to see whether that trade is worth it.