Free CAD for Every Student

How It Works in a Classroom

Why Teachers Choose It

• Runs on Chromebooks. Desktop CAD such as SOLIDWORKS, Inventor or Fusion can't be installed on ChromeOS. BasicCAD runs in Chrome — see CAD on Chromebook.
• Teaches transferable skills. Sketch constraints, dimensions, features and assemblies work the way they do in SOLIDWORKS and Inventor, so students build habits that carry into college and industry — not a toy workflow they'll have to unlearn.
• Built-in lessons. The interactive Tutorial walks students from their first sketch to a finished project, with achievements along the way, and can be skipped at any point.
• Private by default. Geometry is computed on the student's own device and designs are saved as local files — nothing about a student's work has to be uploaded to start designing.
• Seven languages. The interface is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese.
• Straight to the printer. Printable threads, print-ready holes and multi-color 3MF export for Bambu, Orca and Prusa slicers.

For School IT Admins

BasicCAD is a web app, so there is nothing to package or approve in the Chrome Web Store. To put it on every managed Chromebook, open the Google Admin console, go to Devices ▸ Chrome ▸ Apps & extensions ▸ Users & browsers, choose the students' organizational unit, add https://basiccad.xyz/ with Add by URL, and set it to Force install. It then appears in the launcher like any installed app and opens in its own window.

Students don't sign in to design, and their work is saved as files on the device, so no student data has to leave the school to get started.

Good First Projects

Keychains and name tags with editable text, phone stands, LEGO-compatible bricks, gears with the built-in involute gear generator, a bolt and nut with real printable threads, and small assemblies like a caster wheel. The splash screen's example gallery has ready-made parts students can open, take apart and modify.