CaveCAD is a 2D CAD application for drawing cave surveys and maps, built as a modified version of QCAD Community Edition by RibbonSoft GmbH. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by RibbonSoft.
CaveCAD keeps QCAD's full 2D drafting core and adds cave-specific branding, its own settings/data location (so it coexists with a regular QCAD install), and is designed to host the Cave Survey tool suite (traverse plotting, survey file import from Walls/Compass/Survex, LRUD passage walls, map fitting, breakdown symbols, and georeferencing).
CaveCAD's source code, like the QCAD 3 source code it is derived from, is released under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3) with QCAD's optional exceptions. See:
- LICENSE.txt — overview of all licenses in this tree
- gpl-3.0.txt — the GPLv3 license text
- gpl-3.0-exceptions.txt — QCAD's exceptions, which permit script add-ons and C++ plugins under their own licenses
All modifications made for CaveCAD are themselves licensed under GPLv3. Script add-ons and C++ plugins are released under their respective licenses.
The complete, buildable source code for CaveCAD — including every modification to upstream QCAD — is public at:
https://github.com/ndschonegg/cavecad-src (branch: cavecad)
Upstream QCAD source: https://github.com/qcad/qcad
See NOTICE.md for a summary of changes made to upstream QCAD, as
required by GPLv3 section 5(a). The authoritative record of every change is
the git history of the cavecad branch.
"QCAD" is a product name of RibbonSoft GmbH. In accordance with QCAD's distribution terms, this modified version is distributed under the distinct name "CaveCAD" and is never distributed as "QCAD", "QCAD Professional" or "QCAD/CAM". CaveCAD does not include any QCAD Professional or QCAD/CAM components (no proprietary DWG plugin; DXF only).
QCAD started as version 1 in October 1999 and has since evolved through version 2 (September 2003) and the current version 3 (July 2012 to present). CaveCAD forked from QCAD 3.33 in August 2026.
Detailed compilation instructions for Windows, macOS and Linux can be found on the QCAD web site at:
http://www.qcad.org/en/component/content/article/78-qcad/111-qcad-compilation-from-sources