Welcome to Design Documentation
What is Design
Design is a free and open source 2D computer aided design (CAD) application built for everyone. The goal is simple: to make capable CAD software accessible to all — whether you are a maker, a student, a hobbyist, or a professional — without cost, without restrictions, and without complexity.
Design aims to be powerful enough for real work while remaining approachable for those who are new to CAD. A clean, focused interface keeps the most important tools within reach, and clear command line prompts guide users through every operation.
DXF support ensures that drawings are not locked in — Design reads and writes the industry standard DXF format, so files can be shared with and opened by virtually any other CAD application.
Design is available in two forms:
Desktop — a native Linux application available on Flathub.
Web — runs entirely in the browser with no installation required at design-web.uk.
Features
Drawing tools — Line, polyline, circle, arc, rectangle, text, hatch, and blocks.
Entity editing — Move, copy, rotate, trim, extend, explode, and match properties.
Dimensions — Create linear, aligned, angular, radial, and diameter dimensions with full dimension style support.
Layer management — Organise drawings with named layers controlling visibility, colour, and line type.
DXF interoperability — Open and save industry standard DXF files for use with any CAD application.
Goals:
Educate. Learn. Teach. Pay it forward!
Encourage. We love CAD and we want everyone to love CAD too!
Be free. Zero cost and zero restrictions.
Play Well With Others. Design uses industry standard DXF Files.
What is Opensource
Opensource software is a computer program for which the code is made accessible to allow inspection, modification and distribution under specific license terms. The sourcecode for Design is hosted on GitHub across several repositories:
Design — the desktop application
Design-Web — the web application
Design-Core — the shared CAD engine used by both
How Can I Help?
Use Design, Enjoy Design and share it with your friends.
Help others.
Report any problems or suggest improvements on the Issue Tracker
Support Development
If you find Design useful and would like to support continued development, donations are gratefully received via Ko-fi: