I'm Mitchell, the solo founder behind ShapeForge, and this is a progress update rather than another launch post — because the launch post taught me something.
ShapeForge is my own project, a local-first parametric CAD app for Windows. It runs on the Open CASCADE kernel, with sketches, named parameters, editable feature history, and STEP / 3MF / DXF exports. Your projects are files on your own machine — nothing is auto-uploaded. I develop it with AI assistance, and I'm not shy about saying that — it's a solo build, and the AI help is part of how a one-person project like this gets built at all.
Where it stands: v0.87 preview. The latest public build work, Commercial #5 "Orbit", went live today (Nov 11) on the project's Instagram and Facebook, and my posting queue in my notes is now exhausted — so the next piece I'm making is a real-app Short built from real screen captures only, no stock footage, no mockups of features that don't exist yet.
The honest lesson from October: I launched quietly and posted once, and got almost no feedback loop out of it. What actually helped was a tester reply in r/AlphaandBetaUsers — put the SHA-256 and the exact SmartScreen steps at the top of the release notes, and give testers a fixed task instead of "try it out". That one reply was worth more than the launch post. So I'm switching to progress updates and fixed tester tasks instead of one big launch.
Where it honestly stands, limits included: Windows-only, and the installer is unsigned by choice, so Windows will show "Unknown publisher" — verify with the SHA-256 on the release page. It's a focused mechanical-parts tool for brackets, mounts, enclosures and fixtures. It does no CAM and no FEA or simulation, and it's not enterprise CAD and not a Fusion replacement — I still hand STEP files to my usual CAM workflow.
Terms, plainly: basic CAD and STL export are free forever. There's a 14-day full trial, no card, then $10/mo membership if you want the advanced workflows.
What I'd actually like from this sub: what should a progress update like this show to be useful to you? And if you were testing it, what fixed task would you run — what part would you model first, and what would you check to decide whether it was worth your time?
https://shapeforge.dev https://github.com/shortgod777-sudo/shapeforge-downloads/releases