Click on "Deploy Server".
Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state.
In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@QCAD MCP render floorplan.dxf to SVG and extrude its walls into a 3D STL"
That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed.
Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.
AI-driven 2D CAD automation — DXF/DWG parsing, 3D extrusion, persistent file depot, room analysis, and full CRUD management. 7 MCP tools for DXF processing. Your AI assistant becomes a QCAD Pro operator.
You might use this if… | You want your AI to process floor plans programmatically, convert DXF to 3D for Resonite/Unity3D, maintain a persistent CAD file depot, or automate drafting workflows. |
What it connects to |
|
Ports | Backend 11966, Dashboard 11967 |
Start |
|
Tool | Access | Purpose |
| READ | List files in the persistent CAD depot with metadata |
| READ | DXF metadata: layers, entity counts, bounding box, blocks |
| MUTATE | Create DXF from primitives (line, rect, circle, text, polyline) |
| MUTATE | DXF → SVG preview with layer filtering |
| MUTATE | DXF walls → 3D STL mesh (configurable height/thickness) |
| MUTATE | DXF → SVG/PNG/PDF (ezdxf or QCAD Pro) |
| READ | Room detection, area calculation, door/window identification |
| READ | Measure distances and lengths in a DXF |
| READ | Extract wall segments as BIM-ready JSON (QCAD Pro) |
| READ | 2D beam FEM analysis (numpy, no QCAD needed) |
| MUTATE | Add aligned/linear/angular/radial dimensions (QCAD Pro) |
| MUTATE | Add text annotations (QCAD Pro) |
| MUTATE | Add hatch patterns (QCAD Pro) |
| MUTATE | Insert CAD blocks from library (QCAD Pro) |
| MUTATE | Rectangular/polar array patterns (QCAD Pro) |
| MUTATE | Convert between DXF and DWG (QCAD Pro) |
| MUTATE | Delete/offset/rename/freeze layers |
| MUTATE | Execute arbitrary ECMAScript in QCAD Pro |
| MUTATE | High-fidelity SVG/PDF/BMP render via QCAD Pro |
| MUTATE | Quick ECMAScript snippet execution |
| READ | Search 4800+ CAD blocks from part library |
| MUTATE | Download a block DXF from library |
| READ | Search QCAD ECMAScript scripts gallery |
| MUTATE | Download a script from gallery/Gist |
| READ | QCAD Pro install/running/version report |
| MUTATE | NL → ECMAScript via AI sampling (MCP only, needs QCAD Pro) |
| MUTATE | AutoLISP → QCAD ECMAScript translation (MCP only, needs QCAD Pro) |
Related MCP server: lambdacad-mcp
All CAD files are stored in a persistent depot at %LOCALAPPDATA%\qcad-mcp\depot — survives server restarts and system reboots. Configurable via QCAD_MCP_DEPOT env var.
Depot CRUD via REST API:
Endpoint | Method | Description |
| GET | List all files with metadata (size, dates, description, tags) |
| GET | Download a DXF file |
| PUT | Rename or update description/tags |
| DELETE | Remove file + metadata sidecar |
| POST | Create DXF from JSON entity spec (line, rect, circle, text, polyline) |
| POST | Upload DXF/DWG directly to depot |
Endpoint | Method | Description |
| GET | Server health, ezdxf version, QCAD Pro status |
| POST | Upload DXF/DWG (also saved to depot) |
| GET | Download SVG/STL/PDF/PNG outputs |
| GET | List all files (depot + outputs) |
| GET/PUT/DELETE | Full CRUD on the persistent CAD depot |
| POST | Execute any MCP tool |
| GET | SSE live log stream |
| POST | Chat with CAD expert via Ollama |
| GET/PUT | LLM + extrusion defaults + QCAD Pro path |
Route | Page | Description |
| Dashboard | Hero banner, QCAD Pro status panel, depot stats, ezdxf version |
| AI CAD Demo | NL → floor plan → SVG → 3D STL. Baroque church, mob compound, art museum presets |
| Depot | Full CRUD file browser with SVG preview, create DXF wizard, upload, rename, delete |
| Viewer | DXF upload + SVG preview with per-layer toggle |
| Extrude | DXF → STL with wall height/thickness/wall-layer controls |
| Analyse | Room detection, area table, door/window list |
| Layers | Layer visibility, freeze/lock, rename, bulk operations |
| Blocks | Search 4800+ CAD blocks from library with download |
| Scripts | Browse QCAD ECMAScript scripts gallery + save local scripts |
| AI Agent | Autonomous multi-step CAD workflow (QCAD Pro) |
| Batch | Run info/analysis/extrude across all depot files. STL batch extrude with gallery |
| Pipeline | 5-step wizard: describe → SVG → analyse → STL → FreeCAD wall data export |
| Playground | Tool API tester: select any tool, edit JSON args, execute, view raw response |
| Models | Uploads vs outputs listing with download |
| Logs | Live SSE log viewer with filter/export/pause |
| Settings | LLM provider/model, extrusion defaults, QCAD Pro path |
| Help | 10-tabbed reference: QCAD, ezdxf, tools, pipeline, formats, fleet |
| — | Free, paid, and historic floorplan sources + raster→DXF pipeline |
just bootstrap # uv sync + npm install
start.ps1 # kills zombies, starts backend + frontend, opens browser{
"mcpServers": {
"qcad": {
"url": "http://localhost:11966/sse",
"transport": "sse"
}
}
}Scanning a floorplan print into a working DXF is straightforward:
Book/magazine page → scanner (300-600 DPI) inkscape-mcp
↓ (Trace Bitmap)
Potrace / Inkscape ↓
↓ QCAD MCP
Raw vector DXF (plan_modify)
↓
Clean up in QCAD / plan_modifyStep | Tool | What it does |
Scan | Any scanner | 300-600 DPI, grayscale or B&W, save as PNG/TIFF |
Vectorize | inkscape-mcp | Converts raster lines to SVG paths |
Convert | SVG → DXF (via potrace or ezdxf) | Opens in any CAD program |
Clean | qcad-mcp | Merge short segments, delete stray marks, re-layer, re-dimension |
Two approaches:
inkscape-mcp route — send the scanned PNG to inkscape-mcp's trace_bitmap() tool, get back SVG with proper path geometry. The SVG imports cleanly into QCAD as workable entities.
potrace in qcad-mcp — add a plan_raster_to_dxf(file_name) tool that wraps potrace + ezdxf. Self-contained, no external server needed.
Either way, the result goes through plan_modify for cleanup (delete noise, merge wall segments, re-assign layers, re-add dimensions). The baroque church preset in the Demo page proves the parametric geometry works — scanning would let you capture actual existing buildings.
QCAD Professional sells for €50.40 for a single-user license — lifetime, no subscription. That looks absurd next to AutoCAD at $2,000+/year, but RibbonSoft's revenue model is more nuanced:
Product | Price | Market |
Community Edition | Free (GPLv3) | Hobbyists, students, tinkerers |
QCAD Professional | €50.40 | Individual professionals, small firms |
QCAD Pro Site License | €440.40 | Companies (unlimited seats, single site) |
QCAD Pro Server License | €583.20 | Self-hosted deployment |
QCAD Pro Scalable Server | €1,771.20 | Enterprise-scale |
QCAD/CAM (CNC add-on) | €132.00 | Manufacturing |
QCAD/CAM Site License | €1,173.60 | CNC shops |
Books / E-Books | €40–42 each | Documentation, passive income |
The strategy is open-core freemium with enterprise site-license extraction:
Community Edition is genuinely free and capable (GPLv3). It's a giant funnel — architects, makers, and students learn on it, recommend it, and eventually their employer buys a site license.
€50 individual is friction-free "impulse buy" pricing — no PO approval needed, no vendor negotiation. You just buy it.
Site & server licenses (€440–€1,771) are where the real revenue lives. An architecture firm with 20 seats paying €440 beats 200 individuals paying €50. And server licenses for SaaS/on-prem deployment scale further.
QCAD/CAM at €132 captures the CNC/manufacturing niche — a separate, higher-value market.
Books at €40 are pure margin — the manual is already written, printing costs are negligible.
RibbonSoft is a Swiss GmbH (limited company) based in Sarnen, not retirees. 100% of their office energy is from Swiss hydropower (they're proud enough to put it in the footer). They've been doing this since 1999 — 26+ years of sustainable bootstrapping.
Who pays? Ganesh in Bangalore runs the Community Edition for his residential projects — it handles DXF perfectly for Indian building code drawings. When a client demands DWG or PDF export, he drops €50 on Pro — one job pays for it. As his practice scales past 5 seats, he graduates to a site license. Meanwhile a European architecture firm pays €440 for compliance reasons and never thinks twice. The Bay Area Autodesk tax ($2,500+/year) only makes sense when someone else is paying.
€50 clears every threshold, everywhere. No PO approval, no vendor negotiation, no subscription clock. You buy it once and own it.
Python: Ruff linter — zero errors across 5 MCP tools + depot CRUD
Frontend: Biome + tsc — zero errors across 9 TypeScript pages
Protocol: FastMCP 3.2 SSE transport + 10 REST endpoints
Automation: Justfile recipes for all fleet operations
AI Protocol: FastMCP 3.2 with SSE transport
MIT — see LICENSE.
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