Coming from FreeCAD
Hew for FreeCAD users
The other open-source answer: direct modeling instead of a feature tree, a low floor instead of workbenches.
You know FreeCAD: open source, parametric, workbenches for everything — constrained sketches in Part Design, TechDraw for drawings, FEM, CAM. Hew is the other open-source answer to “model a real thing,” from the opposite school. There is no feature tree, no constraint solver, and no workbench switching: you draw on a face, push/pull, and combine solids explicitly. Nothing regenerates, so nothing breaks downstream when you edit — the topological-naming class of grief doesn’t exist, because there’s no dependency graph to invalidate.
What replaces the constraint solver is SketchUp-style precision: typed unit-aware lengths mid-gesture, inference snapping to endpoints/midpoints/axes, guide lines, a tape measure, dimensions. You state sizes as you go instead of constraining them afterward. The floor is much lower — a first-session user builds something real — and the ceiling is much lower too: no parametric re-use, no STEP, no FEM, no CAM, no TechDraw-grade drawings.
Both are free software you can trust with your files: FreeCAD’s format is open, and Hew’s .hew is a documented zip of JSON and geometry buffers. Which one fits is mostly about whether your models are driven by parameters and downstream engineering, or are things you shape directly and then build in the shop.
Feature comparison
| FreeCAD | Hew | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Free, LGPL | Free, AGPL-3.0 |
| Modeling paradigm | Parametric feature tree, constrained sketches | Direct modeling: draw, push/pull, boolean; undo is the only history |
| Editing later | Change parameters, model regenerates (and can break) | Push/pull the geometry again; nothing regenerates or breaks |
| Precision | Constraint solver + typed dimensions | Typed lengths mid-gesture, inference snapping, guides, dimensions |
| Learning curve | Steep — workbenches, sketcher discipline | SketchUp-shaped; productive in the first hour |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux, plus the full app in a browser |
| CAD interchange | STEP/IGES native | No STEP — STL, 3MF, glTF, USDZ, SVG |
| Drawings | TechDraw workbench | Printing to exact scale on paper/PDF; SVG line drawings |
| Assemblies, FEM, CAM | Built in or first-party workbenches | None |
Below that line FreeCAD is an engineering suite and Hew is not — no point tabulating a column of “no.”