Open CAD tools
For people who design with CAD and don't want their work locked inside one program. Dutchman CAD is a home for open tools: moving designs between programs, testing that they come through right, and helping more people and tools work with them. Much of it is built around SolidCraft, the open-source parametric CAD app, but not all of it.
Download Dutchman Convert 0.2.5 GitHub DiscordAt a glance
- Dutchman Convert: v0.2.6 · converts Fusion, Inventor, FreeCAD, SolidWorks parts and assemblies, CATIA, Rhino, ACIS, Creo View, and STEP to SolidCraft · whole projects from a folder or ZIP ·
dutchman doctorchecks a folder for problems · DM Dutchy a file that fails - Install:
brew install dutchman-cad/tap/dutchman· Mac app:brew install --cask dutchman-cad/tap/dutchman-convert· Windows: Scoop (dutchman-cad bucket) - Send us a file: a CAD file that won't convert, in any format? DM Dutchy on the Discord (drag it in, plus its STEP export if you have one) and choose Send privately · bigger than 10 MB: /upload (your own permanent private link by DM; files up to 300 MB or one zip up to 1.5 GB; /upload new replaces it) · or paste a OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or WeTransfer link in the DM · the desktop app's failure card opens this DM for you and gets you a one-time private link if the file is too big · every DM to Dutchy gets a reply and reaches a person
- Try it in a browser: https://dutchman-cad.github.io/demo/ · converted designs in SolidCraft's web app, including two complete 3D printers
- Self-host:
docker pull ghcr.io/dutchman-cad/dutchman· the browser converter and a watched folder on your own server or NAS (amd64 and arm64) · SolidCraft and Dutchman on one address: https://github.com/dutchman-cad/dutchman/tree/main/examples/compose · https://github.com/dutchman-cad/dutchman/blob/main/docs/docker.md - Pilot: v0.1.0-beta.8 · helps small local AI models drive SolidCraft and SolidCraft 98 · fills recipe forms for common parts, now with fewer rejected fills · type /report in the Assistant to report a problem
- Fixtures: small, known CAD test files made from short recipes · type /volunteer to help
- SolidCraft 98: v1.2 · news in #solidcraft98-updates
- Discord invite: https://discord.gg/yTcseBEdeu
Projects
Dutchman Convert
Converts native CAD designs into SolidCraft designs, keeping feature history, sketches, assemblies, and joints where it can. It also writes FreeCAD documents, and every conversion lists what it couldn't carry across. It knows 12 formats:
- Fusion (.f3d, .f3z) and FreeCAD (.FCStd): geometry, components, and feature history and joints when they map
- Inventor parts and assemblies (.ipt, .iam): geometry, placed parts, and feature history when every feature maps
- SolidWorks parts (.sldprt): geometry
- CATIA parts (.CATPart), Creo View (.pvz), Rhino (.3dm), ACIS (.sat, .sab, .smt, .smb), and STEP (.step, .stp): geometry, as solids and surfaces
- Creo and NX parts (.prt): recognised, but their geometry isn't read yet
- IGES (.igs, .iges): recognised; open these in SolidCraft directly (File › Import)
Fixtures
Small, known test files made by volunteers in the real CAD programs, from short recipes, so the readers behind Dutchman Convert can be checked against ground truth.
How to help →Pilot
Helps small local language models drive SolidCraft from outside the app, through SolidCraft's Assistant or any MCP client. Run it as dutchman pilot, or download it on its own.
Principles
- Clean room. Formats are worked out from files people are entitled to use and from public information, never from vendor SDKs, decompiled programs, or confidential material.
- Your files stay yours. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose to share it, and reports never need your file names or paths.
- Honest output. Every conversion lists what it could not carry across.
Get involved
- Try Dutchman Convert on your own designs, and report anything that doesn't convert.
- Make a few fixture files in the CAD program you use.
- Ask questions, share what you converted, and meet the people building these tools on the Dutchman CAD Discord.