KetchUp – Open-source SketchUp alternative built with Rust and WebGPU

xlayn

That name is really close to ask to be sued... remember the Mikerowsoft vs Microsoft.

yboris

Great work! Feedback : every time I draw a rectangle it asks me to name the object; seems like the wrong default behavior.

elxr

Tell your agent to add some showcases of the features on the landing page. Impressive how good that rust UI feels in a browser though. Even the text rendering is impressive. Maybe rust really is the future of cross platform web+mobile apps.

tannhaeuser

See also https://ingetrazo.com/en/ as an alternative vibecoded SketchUp clone.

trevvr

You spelled length wrong

4ff618

I love it. I do 3D printing as a hobby, but I really dislike the design phase. I usually need simple shapes: boxes or enclosures for electronics. I can find most of what I need on Thingiverse and similar platforms, but there’s always that 20% of things I need to design myself to adapt them to my specific needs. SketchUp 8 was the easiest software for me to learn, and it just clicks with me. I really wanted to learn FreeCAD, but there's something about the way it works that I just can't get along with, so I keep going back to SketchUp. Later, I tried all the alternatives: Onshape, Fusion, Tinkercad, and the new SolidCraft, but SketchUp still feels so simple and intuitive to me. I've had better luck with OpenSCAD for simple things, and I still need to try it out with LLMs. That's on my TODO list!

opan

I like the idea and the name from the title, but if this is using LLMs, I'm not interested... Good luck to you anyway, I'm sure there's an audience for this. Used to know a guy who used SketchUp quite a bit. He modeled his basement living room with its weird overhangs and then a U desk to fit exactly into a corner by the stairs, then built the desk. I think he had no prior CAD experience.

charcircuit

A pun doesn't make a name not trademark infringement.

janice1999

It would benefit from curated examples in the File menu to demonstrate the features and give first time users something to interact with.

nico

This is awesome. At the same time I wonder if we are entering an era in which it’s just better to build your own tools Need a 3D modeler? Use Claude or codex to build the 3D model first, then build the modeler around it as you iterate towards what you want to build So many times I’ve had to spend hours learning a software, reading docs, doing tutorials, only to later be able to do a small basic idea of what I actually wanted to do in the first place Now I can just build only the software I need, for the thing I need it for (or, ala REA, maybe either modify or reverse engineer some existing software, to better fit my workflows) In that sense, it would also be cool to be able to drive KetchUp with an agent. I’m a big fan of what pen.dev has done (although now their tool is not free/open anymore)

dofm

Is OBJ a viable form of geometry export here? Not clear what else it can export.

m1keil

Is KetchUp free? Yes. KetchUp is open source under the MIT license and written in Rust. Omg why is rust relevant to the question whether this is free or not.

absqueued

Whoever built this, thank you!

fireflywedding

Does KetchUp plan to support importing existing SketchUp (.skp) files? For people with a library of existing models, import compatibility would matter more than export — STL/OBJ lose the editable structure that makes those files reusable.

dstryr

i'd also recommend checking out https://hew3d.com/ ( https://github.com/hew3d/hew ) i directed pi to their documentation + github repo and created a pretty awesome skill that allows me to take measurements on paper, snap a pic, and then have it generate the drawing. can also snap a general pic and then provide a model number of an item in the pic, and it will maintain scale. this stuff used to take me an hour+!

jitl

I absolutely love sketchup, and seeing it passed between various developers and never improved while gradually getting less and less free was very sad. it was awesome when owned by google and totally free. super happy to see a spiritual successor!

zeandcode

Been waiting so long for this

Xeoncross

Small feature request: I can't figure out how to use it with a trackpad. Seems to be mouse-only. I use sketchup with a trackpad plus one of the different modifier keys for pan, zoom and orbit.

sergio

This is so awesome and something I definitely need. I'm a very casual user of SketchUp (I use it once every few months), but I have a single file which is a detailed model of my house, which I have invested many hours in creating, and that only works on the full Desktop app. So the free web app is not an option for me. And a subscription doesn't make financial sense so I have to ask for a new trial every time I have a home renovation project and I need to modify my model. I'm aware that eventually they might refuse a new trial (they haven't yet) and that day I will just stop using it and learn Blender. However, I'm now realizing that at least for home renovation projects, an essential feature is the SketchUp 3D Warehouse, where you can download user shared models of a TV, a toaster, a chair, etc. Specially for a casual user, you don't need to have the exact model of your real chair, just a chair will do. So the warehouse is an essential part of the value. I'm sure there are alternatives for free models other than SketchUp 3D Warehouse, but having it directly in SketchUp is super convenient.

999900000999

I loved SketchUp! When I was first getting started with Unity I made all my early models in Sketchup. Thanks for sharing.