See it in action

What you can make today

A few short films of real parts built in SolidExpress. Hover to preview, click to watch. The features page has the full set.

Fewer clicks than SolidWorks on a beginner part

We timed a centered through-hole (the same Extruded Cut pattern as the pin hole) against SolidWorks’ official Creating a Cut Extrude lesson from the Model a pair of needle-nose pliers training series (Nick Ler, SolidWorks training team).

  • SolidWorks — ~32 gestures for the comparable brick + through-hole path (sketch → extrude → sketch circle → Extruded Cut Through All)
  • SolidExpress — ≤10 clicks with Box + Apply hole, or ≤8 with the O shortcut (Depth 0 = through)

Through-hole click audit: mounting-block study · pliers series (mates + revolute drag): see the Assembly motion film above and the needle-nose pliers study · recipe: mounting-block howto

Download latest

Desktop builds for macOS, Windows, and Linux from the current GitHub Release. Checksums live on the release page.

macOS

Universal disk image (Apple Silicon and Intel). Open the DMG and drag SolidExpress into Applications.

Download DMG

Windows

64-bit installer. SmartScreen may prompt on early releases; checksums are on the release page.

Download Setup.exe

All assets & checksums · Source

It is your software

SolidExpress is open-source CAD. Study it, change it, redistribute it, and keep your models in formats the rest of the industry already speaks. No subscription gate between you and the kernel. No proprietary dead-end for the parts you design.

Latest release binaries

Beyond the first solid

Finish and combine

  • Fillet and chamfer edges
  • Boolean unite, subtract, and intersect
  • Push / pull planar faces for quick direct edits
  • Mirror, linear and circular patterns, offset

Work like a modeler

  • Orbit, pan, and zoom with mouse, trackpad, or touch
  • Section views and shaded / edged / wireframe display
  • Variables and equations that drive dimensions
  • Feature history with undo and redo

Import & export

Bring geometry in, send geometry out. Drag and drop onto the viewport, or use the File menu. Your work stays movable across the tools you already use.

Bring in

  • STEP (.step / .stp) — industry B-rep exchange
  • STL — mesh import for reference or further work
  • SVG — drop 2D artwork onto a face as sketch geometry
  • Native documents — open and save parametric models with full history

Send out

  • STEP — hand off precise solids to CAM, simulation, or other CAD
  • STL — mesh for 3D printing and visualization
  • SVG drawings — lightweight 2D views of your model
  • AI context — markdown export of the document so assistants can reason about your design

Roadmap

What is coming next, and what it unlocks for you — not a laundry list of internals. Ordered by the next tutorial we rebuild step by step.

Assembly documents

File → New Assembly, insert several parts in one go, then Float or Fix each component.

Enables: start a product the way a SolidWorks tutorial does — an assembly first, with your saved parts dropped in together.

Mate any two components

Click a face on one component and a face on another — even two copies of the same part — and every mate on a part holds at once. Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V copies components.

Enables: bolted joints with 16 nuts and 8 pins, two pipes flange to flange, without typing transforms.

Design a part in place

Insert → New Part inside an assembly: sketch on its planes, revolve, then leave Edit Component.

Enables: a pin or spacer sized to the parts around it, created as a real component instead of a separate file.

Tangent mates

Seat a curved face against a flat one — a wrench head against a nut side.

Enables: proving a printed wrench actually fits its nut, in the assembly, before you print either.

Print the whole assembly

3MF export of every placed component where it sits, and assemblies that save and reopen intact.

Enables: check the assembled size and send a fitted set to the slicer in one file.

Spline editing

Fit-point and control-point handles, end tangents, tangent relations to lines and arcs, a curvature comb — and Convert Entities that keeps model splines as splines.

Enables: smooth handles and organic profiles you can shape like in SolidWorks or Fusion, not approximate with arcs.

What you type is what you print

Typed values kept exact, true drafts, sweeps and guided lofts that follow the real curve, and a finer, user-set 3MF / STL export tolerance.

Enables: a 1.2 mm wall that stays 1.2 and a Ø3 hole that prints round — no silent rounding between the dimension and the part.

Richer interchange

Fuller STEP AP242 exchange: colors, names, and assembly structure.

Enables: cleaner handoffs to CAM, visualization, and other CAD without re-coloring and re-naming on the other side.

Model-based definition (MBD)

Semantic STEP PMI export of the 3D dimensions already on the model.

Enables: inspection and manufacturing to read tolerances from the solid — fewer ambiguous 2D callouts, one source of truth on the part.

Presentation

Still renders and turntable / explode video.

Enables: reviews and marketing stills you can share without opening the CAD session.

Extensions

A plugin surface for custom commands, beyond today's command-line export.

Enables: grow the tool without waiting on the core team.

Already shipped

Open by design

SolidExpress is not a black box with a logo on it. The modeling software, the interchange paths, and the document story are meant to stay under your control — whether you are a solo maker, a shop floor, or a team that refuses to rent its toolchain forever.

Fork it. Audit it. Teach with it. Ship products with it. It remains your software.