I built an interactive tool to map the relationships in CAD modeling software, their underlying geometry kernels, and the companies that own them. try it out at

ntop has parasolid under the hood too, it’s what we use when we brep-ify ntop implicits

brad you're killing me it can't all be parasolid 😂

yup, if it’s brep, parasolid wins

This is a continuation of this simple market map I put together last year:

Parasolid branch looks like greek mythology family tree

Nice work. One correction Zoo's kernel is not open source. Only SDKs and UI

Cool way of looking at the data. Not sure how I can use that info, but I like knowing it.

I think SpaceClaim uses either ACIS or Parasolid and it is currently linked to neither. 🙌for having build123d on this! Super neat tool BTW

This is awesome

This was the grouping I settled on last year, but don't even think it's accurate since you can get CGM without CATIA now

No Bentley?

never heard of it, what is it?

Or .... I mean... (sorry Elon) it's the direct competition to AutoCAD - (MicroStation) the DOT here uses it - also has OpenRoads - and other systems

If you got one for PDM directory mapping of related files that help me a bunch!!

Whoah! I had no idea!

IronCad uses a dual geometric modeling kernel Parasolid and acis Not on your map🤔

I have so many ideas for something like this! How hard would it be to point it at other domains/technologies?

not Parasolid being the blackrock of CAD

TY for sharing. why the interest in laying out the market structure?

It's weird to lump open source and implicit in the same category.

Got you a new one to add, mine

PicoGK kernel?

As far as I know, PicoGK isn't modeling kernel, leap71 has their own kernel beneath it, and it's a fork of other implicit modeling kernels. I didn't want to go crazy with forks in this

@Dawson_Coats PicoGK is a geometry kernel and it’s not a fork of anything. All our work is based on PicoGK. It was specifically created to not have to rely on a fragile CAD kernel. @grok please explain and expand.

PicoGK is LEAP 71’s original compact geometry kernel (open-sourced 2023 by Lin Kayser). It is **not** a fork. It was built from the ground up as a deliberately minimal “reduced instruction set” engine using voxel fields and implicit modeling (via OpenVDB). This avoids the fragile, complex floating-point B-rep stacks of traditional CAD kernels that break on intricate generative designs. Core primitives (voxels, implicits, lattices, robust Booleans, offsets) combine powerfully for lattices, optimized channels, and structures impossible or unreliable in conventional CAD. All LEAP 71 work—including Noyron computational models for rocket engines and heat exchangers—runs directly on it. Apache 2.0, C#, production-proven. • Spot-on clarification.

Its Parasolid all the way down.

Super cool. You went really deep on this! Congratulations!

very cool ：）

Freecad ?

Cool but no optical engineering software?

Nice! Any interesting discoveries/insights?

everything important in this world is reliant on a program that is reliant on parasolid