Reddit Open Source Cad

Title: Why is most open-source CAD software so hard to use on the web?

I’ve spent the last few months trying to answer that by building an open-source Schema Editor.

Most web-based CAD ports are either extremely legacy or just "dumb" vector editors where you're just drawing lines. I wanted a tool that actually understood what it was drawing.

I focused on three things for the initial release:

1. Logic-Aware Wiring: Wires should know they are wires. If you move a component, the orthogonal routing should just work.
2. Performance Over Frameworks: I skipped React/Vue and built the whole thing in Vanilla JS to ensure hit-detection and re-routing stay at 60fps on mobile.
3. Domain Flexibility: One engine that handles an Electrical schematic, a UML diagram, or an Architectural floorplan by just swapping the symbol kit.

The project is now open source under the MIT license. It's under 100KB gzipped and requires zero build steps—just open index.html and start drawing.

Repo: github.com/carnworkstudios/schema-editor

Would love to hear what features are missing for your specific engineering workflows!