Comparison

ThermoForge HX vs OpenShape3D

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ThermoForge HX

Features
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ThermoForge HX is the pocket engineering suite for shell & tube heat exchangers. Built for process engineers, thermal designers, EPC contractors, plant maintenance teams, and chemical/mechanical engineering students

About

OpenShape3D

Features
Read full description

openshape3d is a direct-modeling CAD app built for touch. Sketch a profile, pull it into a solid, and keep cutting, blending and patterning until the part is done — no desktop, no subscription server, no file conversion dance. Geometry is computed by OpenCASCADE, the same open-source B-rep kernel used in professional CAD. Extrudes, primitives and booleans produce exact analytic surfaces, so a cylinder stays a true cylinder instead of a faceted approximation. SKETCHING • Sketch on a world plane, on any flat body face, or on an offset construction plane pulled off a face • Line, rectangle, circle, arc, ellipse, polygon and text-as-outline tools • Endpoint, midpoint, centre, vertex and grid snapping — draw with Apple Pencil • Trim, move/rotate gizmo, construction geometry, and reusable symbols • A full 2D constraint solver: coincident, parallel, perpendicular, tangent, equal, concentric, symmetric and more • Driving dimensions with inline arithmetic (type 25.4/2) pull geometry to value • The sketch tells you where it stands — fully defined, or how many degrees of freedom remain SOLIDS • Extrude a profile, or push and pull a face directly with automatic booleans: pull to add material, push to cut • Revolve, sweep along a chained path, loft through sections, and helix • Fillet and chamfer edges with live preview and drag-to-size • Shell a body hollow, with optional open faces • Union, subtract and intersect between bodies, computed off the main thread • Split a body with a plane or a sketch profile • Linear and circular patterns with ghost previews • Move, scale, rotate, mirror, translate point-to-point and align VIEWING • Orientation cube, six standard views, isometric and orthographic toggle • One finger orbits, two pan, pinch zooms — the camera never locks up • Section view that clips live against a plane, with a drag arrow and flip • Shaded, shaded without edges, wireframe with proper hidden-line removal, and X-ray • Marquee select with window/crossing semantics, and Select Through to reach a body buried behind others • Isolate to hide everything but the selection MATERIALS AND REFERENCE • Material presets — steel, aluminium, brass, plastics, rubber, wood — plus custom colour with metallic and roughness • Drop PNG or JPEG reference images onto any plane and trace over them MEASURE • Face area, body volume and bounding box on selection • Two-point distance with X, Y and Z deltas over snap points IMPORT AND EXPORT • Import STL and DXF • Export STL, OBJ, 3MF, GLB, USDZ and sketch DXF • Preview your model in AR with Quick Look

Screenshots

ThermoForge HX4 screens
OpenShape3D4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: ThermoForge HX at every 2 weeks against OpenShape3D's every 5 weeks. ThermoForge HX also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ThermoForge HX ships an update every 2 weeks, OpenShape3D every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
ThermoForge HX versus OpenShape3D: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThermoForge HXOpenShape3D
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB35 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCosimo GioiaLaan Labs

In-app purchases

None

ThermoForge HX

No in-app purchases

None

OpenShape3D

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ThermoForge HX free?
ThermoForge HX is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is OpenShape3D free?
OpenShape3D is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do ThermoForge HX or OpenShape3D have ads?
Neither ThermoForge HX nor OpenShape3D shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ThermoForge HX or OpenShape3D?
ThermoForge HX ships an update every 2 weeks, and OpenShape3D every 5 weeks. Most recently, ThermoForge HX was updated on September 10, 2026 and OpenShape3D on September 15, 2026.

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