While many of us use a variety of CAD tools, a lot of people are fans of Tinkercad—especially for working with kids or when you just need to create something quickly. However, one common drawback is that Tinkercad requires you to work online, with your projects stored on someone else’s servers. We get it; not everyone is comfortable with that.
Enter CaDoodle, developed by [CommonWealthRobotics]. It’s almost a complete clone of Tinkercad but runs locally on Windows, Linux, Mac, or even Chrome OS. Is it exactly the same as Tinkercad? Not quite, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
For instance, CaDoodle offers compatibility with other popular 3D design tools like Blender, FreeCAD, OpenSCAD, and more. On the surface, however, it replicates the core functions of Tinkercad quite well.
That said, CaDoodle is still fairly new, so there are some quirks to be aware of. For example, the Linux AppImage version has some trouble loading plugins, which are essential for importing many file formats. Also, on certain systems, you need to manually resize the application window after it starts — otherwise, it may not respond properly.
Overall, though, CaDoodle is quite impressive. Within the Settings menu, you’ll find a checkbox to enable advanced features, along with some other useful options.
One reason this tool is particularly interesting is that we often visit schools where internet access for kids is restricted. Of course, the schools might also hesitate to allow random software installations, so choose your battles wisely. But having a local, Tinkercad-like option is definitely a step in the right direction for offline CAD learning!
https://hackaday.com/2025/10/25/what-if-tinkercad-was-self-hosted/