JetCad3 aims to bring the depth of expensive CAD/CAM software within reach of small shops and serious garage builders—without the enterprise tax. Start free with a jetcad.io account — the full feature set on metered hobby hours — and upgrade only when you need unlimited time.
Small shop in southwestern Ontario, self-built plasma table. No budget for the big software names so I used SheetCAM for my table from the start. Always open for alternatives, I tried various options that came up on plasma cutting and CNC…
Read full reviewJoel S.
Plasma table
JETCAD3 is in my opinion so far the best All in one CAD/CAM solution i have encountered, we have machines running it in the field and its great, i am sure we will produce many many more, Love the software and the support!
PROMACH
Cawdor · Plasma table, Router, Oxyfuel
Rent it by the month, own a fixed term, or own it outright. All three unlock the same software and all three work offline — the only difference is how you pay. Running without an internet connection has been a priority in JetCad3 from the start, and it is not the norm: nearly every other CAD/CAM package on the market today requires one.
The usual arrangement: pay by the month and stop whenever you like, or pay for a year at 10% off. Covers every computer you personally use and stays current forever. Sign in from the app, or generate an offline key and carry it to an air-gapped machine on a thumb drive.
Buy one to three years outright for a single computer, and the discount grows with the term. Pay once, up front — there is no recurring bill, no card kept on file, and nothing to cancel. When the term ends, it ends.
Buy once, cry once. A USB-C hardware key that unlocks every workspace forever, with no expiry and no version cap. The hardware is the license, so it transfers if you sell it — and License Sharing puts your whole shop on it over the local network from a single key.
Free / Hobby sits underneath all three and never expires — a free jetcad.io account gives you the full feature set on metered hours, and the app still runs with no account at all.
Create a free jetcad.io account and get the full Drafting + Full CAM feature set — metered hobby hours instead of feature limits.
No credit card. Not a trial — free forever. No internet? Free/Hobby also works without an account — limited to 1 component, 5 sketches, and 500-line G-code posts.
Create Free AccountFull-featured 2D/3D parametric CAD, plus eCAD — schematic capture with a real circuit simulator behind it. Everything you need to design and export parts.
Everything in Drafting, plus plasma, oxyfuel and laser sheet CAM. Already on SheetCAM or Fusion 360? AI converts your existing post processors automatically.
Everything in Plasma, Oxyfuel & Laser, plus Router and Mill CAM now. Lathe/turning toolpaths are next on this tier.
A Pre-Paid License buys one to three years of JetCad3 outright, on one computer. Pay for it once, up front, and the longer the term the less each year costs. Nothing renews, nothing is billed again, and there is nothing to cancel.
Savings are measured against paying month to month for the same span. You enter the machine code from the app at checkout — it is on the Offline Key sign-in tab, and in the profile menu once you are signed in.
Not a fan of subscriptions? Neither are we. The JetCad3 Lifetime Unlimited License is a one-time purchase: a hardware key that unlocks the entire suite for good. No monthly bill, no expiration — just plug it in and own it.
The hardware is the license — there's no cloud backup or replacement program for a lost, stolen, or destroyed key. Keep it safe.
A free jetcad.io account is the Free/Hobby tier — the full feature set, metered at 1 hr/day and 5 hr/week of active use (2× on evenings & weekends). No account? The app still works offline: Design unlimited, Drafting and CAM with hobby limits. Paid plans include a 30-day free trial; credit card required to activate the trial. License by signing in from the desktop app, an offline key for air-gapped installs, a Pre-Paid License for a fixed term on one computer, or the Lifetime Unlimited hardware key — every one of them runs without an internet connection. Your files are standard formats saved locally and are always yours.
Every plan — including Free — feature by feature.
Free is the full Full CAM feature set with a usage meter instead of feature limits: 1 hr/day · 5 hr/week of active use, 2× on evenings & weekends.
The questions machinists actually ask.
Create a free jetcad.io account and sign in from the desktop app — that's it. Any jetcad.io account without a paid plan is automatically on the Free/Hobby tier; there's nothing to activate. You get the full Drafting + Full CAM feature set — no feature caps — metered at 1 hour per day and 5 hours per week of active use. No credit card, and it never expires.
Only active CAD/CAM time. The clock runs while you're actually working — sketching, modeling, generating toolpaths — and pauses automatically after a few minutes of inactivity, so thinking time and lunch breaks are free. The Design workspace and machine control (GcodePilot) never count: both are never metered and never locked, even when your CAD/CAM time is used up.
Daily time resets at midnight in your local timezone; weekly time resets Monday at midnight, also local. The app shows a live meter with a countdown to your next reset and warns you before time runs out — with autosave, your work is never lost.
On weekday evenings (7pm to midnight) and all weekend, your time burns at half rate — an hour at the screen only uses 30 minutes of your meter. That effectively doubles your free hours exactly when hobby time actually happens.
JetCad3 still works completely offline with no account, no login, and no credit card. The Design workspace stays unlimited; Drafting and CAM run with hobby limits (1 component, 5 sketches, and G-code posts up to 500 lines). Sign in any time to switch to the metered, full-featured free tier.
The 30-day trial unlocks a paid plan — full features with no usage meter — and requires a credit card to start. The free tier is metered but free forever, with no card. Most people start on the free tier and take the trial when a project needs unmetered time.
Yes — 30 days, full-featured. A credit card is required to activate the trial (to prevent abuse). You are not charged until the trial period ends; if you cancel before then, you will not be charged.
There are three ways to pay, and they all unlock the same software and all work offline. A subscription is billed monthly or yearly (10% off yearly) and covers every computer you personally use — sign in from the desktop app, or generate an offline key and carry it to an air-gapped machine. A Pre-Paid License buys 1–3 years outright for one specific computer, paid once with nothing to renew. The Lifetime Unlimited License is a one-time USB-C hardware key that unlocks everything forever and shares across your shop's network.
A fixed term of JetCad3 — one, two or three years — bought outright for a single computer, with the discount growing as the term gets longer. You pay once, up front: no recurring bill, no card kept on file, nothing to renew and nothing to cancel. When the term is up, it's up. It's for anyone who wants a known cost over a known number of years instead of a monthly line item, and it's the middle ground between a subscription and buying the Lifetime Unlimited key outright. You enter that computer's machine code at checkout and import the license file once.
The term runs on the calendar from the day you activate it, not on hours used — so a year is a year whether you draw every day or not. But the clock doesn't start at purchase: a license can sit unactivated for up to a year before it must be used, so buying early costs you nothing. When a term ends, JetCad3 drops to the Free/Hobby tier rather than locking you out, and your files stay exactly where they are. You can also buy the next term before the current one runs out — it queues up and starts the day the current one ends, so no paid day is ever wasted.
Nothing changes for files you already saved. JetCad3 keeps your work on your machine; it is not stored in our cloud. Your documents remain yours regardless of subscription status.
Plasma, oxyfuel and laser CAM are available today on the Drafting + Plasma, Oxyfuel & Laser tier ($40/mo). Router CAM is available now on Drafting + Full CAM ($60/mo). 3-axis mill and lathe/turning CAM are still in active development on the Full CAM tier—existing Full CAM subscribers will get those workspaces as they ship.
No — and that goes for every way of paying for it, not just one. Running offline has been a priority in JetCad3 from the start, which is unusual: nearly every other CAD/CAM package on the market today needs a connection. A subscription can generate an offline key you carry to an air-gapped machine on a thumb drive. A Pre-Paid License is a file you import once. The Lifetime Unlimited License is a hardware key you plug in. In all three cases the licensed machine can be completely off the network, and JetCad3 never syncs your part files to the cloud or phones home with your geometry.
Neither. It's a single self-contained executable. Put it anywhere — a USB drive, your desktop, a network share — and double-click. No installer, no admin prompt, no IT department involved.
It depends which way you're licensed. A subscription covers all machines you personally use — activate each install by signing in online or with an offline license key. A Pre-Paid License is one computer per license, because it's bound to that computer's machine code and answers to nothing over the network; licensing the office PC and the one at the table means one license each. The Lifetime Unlimited hardware key covers your whole shop at once through License Sharing, without carrying the key around. If you need to move a subscription or rebind a Pre-Paid License to a new computer, both are self-service from your account dashboard.
Free forever with a jetcad.io account — or go unmetered with a 30-day trial. Works on every machine in your shop.