WHAT'S NEW
What's new in Crusade
Every version, newest first. The app shows its own version's list under Help ▸ What's New.
The Vault, a 30-day free trial, mouse gestures, easier mates and assemblies, and drawing improvements.
License checksIn Normal mode, Crusade now checks the license every 2 weeks and needs a successful check at least every 30 days (it was about once a month, with one needed every 6 months). Without internet it keeps working until then. A computer that's rarely online can use Offline only mode, which never checks.
A 30-day free trialLicense ▸ Start Free Trial gives this computer the full Crusade for 30 days: no credit card, no email, no account. It goes online once and sends only a one-way code for this computer, so each computer gets one trial. License ▸ Free Trial Code… shows that code. The shared trial from earlier versions still ends November 10.
The VaultHome ▸ Vault… keeps your or your team's files, every version and the part numbers in one place, with an account for each person. Check Out, Check In…, Release Revision with release requests (Approve, Send Back), and a log of who did what. A vault can be a folder on your own computer, on a NAS or on a Windows share. The log stays in the vault: nothing goes to crusadecad.com. Get Latest lists just the files with newer versions, and opening an assembly or drawing gets the parts it uses. A blue bar says when someone checks in a newer version. Clear Up Space… removes local copies the vault already holds.
The Vault service on a NASThe vault can also run as a service in Docker on a NAS (Intel or AMD). It makes its own backups and can put one back. You choose when you create it whether its files and records are encrypted on the NAS (recommended; off unless you pick it). Keep a backup copy somewhere safe too, and, if it's encrypted, the master key. Join a vault by its code. Move Vault to a Service… moves a folder vault over. Anchor… keeps more copies of its backups on other computers (sealed if the vault is encrypted). The NAS guide covers Synology, QNAP and UGREEN.
The master key, said plainlyEvery window that mentions it says the same thing: an encrypted vault's master key decrypts the vault and its backups, and a recovery code only resets a password.
Mouse gesturesRight-drag in the 3D view or on a drawing sheet: a ring of commands opens; drag toward one and let go to run it. A plain right click still opens the menu. Part, Assembly, Sketch and Drawing each have their own ring, set in Tools ▸ Options ▸ Mouse Gestures. With the Onshape mouse style, right-drag still turns the view.
MatesThe Mate panel picks the type from what you click (two flat faces Coincident, round faces Concentric, round edges Fastened), or click a type to choose it; Apply adds it and starts the next. Lock is now Group. Hover a type for a line about it; slots still to pick are gray. The components list is in the panel, so a part's own planes, axes and origin can be mated, or the assembly's origin in the view. Mate to the lines and points of a layout sketch or a part's shown sketch too, and to planes made in the assembly. Width centers on one face or plane, or between two. Parts glide into place as a mate applies (not with Smooth animations off), and move as little as they can: when a sketch they're mated to changes, they slide instead of tipping over. A mate that only fits the other way around goes in that way; one that can't says which mates it conflicts with. Each mate in the list shows its type's icon, and (-) shows only on parts that can still move.
AssembliesInsert Components opens Crusade's own window, narrow at the left so the 3D view stays in sight: the files open now first, then the vault and this computer, with pictures. Click one (Ctrl or Shift for several) and its see-through copy shows at once; set how many of each in the left panel, then click to put each down, turned with X, Y or Z first (the first part too). Crusade gets vault files that aren't on this computer first, with the files they use. Assembly ▸ Plane makes planes in the assembly, such as one half way between two faces of a part, and a layout sketch can go on one. Open a part in the list and click a sketch's eye to show it in the assembly. A click through a plane picks the part behind it; Shift+click picks the plane. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V copy and paste components; Ctrl+drag a part's round edge for a copy, fastened where you drop it on another. Click a part and its mates are tinted; pick several mates with Ctrl or Shift, and a picked mate shows its faces. Right-click the fixed first part ▸ Move… to turn and place it.
Sketches and partsT is the Tangent relation. Right-click a plane ▸ Sketch starts a sketch on it. Drag a point that's already there and it snaps like a new one. A shown sketch's lines and points can be clicked outside the sketch, so a plane can go along a sketch line or through a sketch point. Revolve: click the axis in the view, or choose the X, Y or Z axis, or click a straight edge of the part; the axis is marked in the view. Merge result is ticked on every new feature. In a feature's panel, Final is one switch: on, the finished part rebuilds after each change. The view turns about the point under the cursor. The Configurations button opens the Configuration Manager.
Part numbers at the first SaveWith numbering set up, a new document asks for its number when you first save it: the next number, Reserved or No Number. Without it, nothing asks.
DrawingsExploded views, Compare Revisions, inspection balloons with a table and report, bend and punch tables, revision clouds, a configuration table and more.
Pictures keep only their pixelsPictures and title-block logos keep only their pixels once a file is saved: no hidden photo details like where it was taken. Older saved versions keep the original, so send files with Share or Pack and Go, whose copies always leave it out.
The free viewer shows only what it doesWithout a license, the commands that need one are hidden instead of shown with a lock: the ribbon, menus and Home show only what the free viewer can do. Enter a license and everything appears at once.
FixesFiles lists a folder's own folders; double-click one to open it. Components with a problem show in red in the list, and a mate with a problem goes in red too (OK never does nothing). OK stays gray until a feature has what it needs, and Enter presses OK in assembly panels. Renaming a file renames its components in the assemblies that use it. Switching units asks whether to keep the part's size, and keeps it with a feature's panel open too. Esc on an assembly's Mate, Move, Pattern or Mirror keeps a saved assembly saved. Revolve's second angle works from a variable in an inch part, and Up To Next cuts through a part with thin slivers. Model edges are drawn solid and smooth, and the icons are sharper. New drawing views of a part with a modeled thread are ready in seconds, not minutes, and a drawing saved while its views were still loading no longer shows every dimension as out of date.
Known on Windows: Keep Fewer Versions… in Options doesn't remove old versions yet, and the vault's Move Vault to a Service… can't finish for a folder vault made on Windows. Each says so, and your files stay as they were.
0.0.6 beta
October 24, 2026Import your part numbers from a spreadsheet, clearer questions, and big parts that use far less memory.
Import your part numbersNumber registry ▸ More ▸ Import Part Numbers… reads a spreadsheet (.ods, .xlsx or .csv) of numbers from your old system. A preview shows what each column will become, and you choose to import them as part numbers or document numbers. New numbers carry on after the highest one, and More ▸ Undo Import takes the last import out again.
Clearer questionsA question about something Undo can take back has a blue button that says what it does, and Enter does it. A question about something that can't be undone has a red button, and Enter and Esc both leave things as they are.
Big parts use far less memoryA part with a lot of threads, holes and patterns used to make Crusade grow by gigabytes: about half as much now. Memory a rebuild frees goes back to the computer while Crusade sits idle.
The same answer on every computerWhen an operation takes a very long time, Crusade now measures the work it has done, not the time on the clock, so a busy or slower computer gets the same result as a fast one. The "Crusade is working…" card says what it's doing, such as "Rebuilding Boss-Extrude5: combining bodies".
Parts check themselves onceAfter this update each part opens from its saved model and is rebuilt once in the background, as after the last one. You can keep working meanwhile; Ctrl+B says it's already rebuilding.
Projects and Properties on a laptopProjects fits a laptop screen, and a file's picture keeps the same size whichever file you pick. In File ▸ Properties, Del deletes a picked row, the right-click menu works like the other tables', and the Parts tab's column titles are never cut off.
FixesSwitching back to Crusade after closing Projects no longer says something went wrong. Checkpoints and Revisions' Restore… asks first again. On Windows, the "Crusade is working…" card stays while Windows calls the window not responding, and the installer signs every library for Smart App Control. Long hints are one short line, with the rest behind the screen's "?".
0.0.5 beta
October 23, 2026Document numbers and part number patterns, a redone File ▸ Properties, the Variables screen, a calmer look and less waiting with big parts.
Big parts open at once after an updateA part saved by an earlier version of Crusade opens as it was saved, and you can turn, select and measure it while this version rebuilds it in the background (a 125-feature part used to hold its window for two minutes). Assemblies and drawings show such parts at once too (the Gear Drive demo: 2 seconds instead of 11). If a rebuild comes out different, it takes its place, and Measure keeps what you picked. A part whose own files changed is still rebuilt first.
Big assemblies keep up smoothlySave a part used in a big assembly and the assembly behind loads what changed a little at a time, so the window you're typing in keeps going (a screw used in three subassemblies held it up for 15 seconds before). Clicking back to an assembly where nothing changed is instant, and a moved or changed part is the only one drawn again. A part used many times that changes shows its new shape everywhere in about half the time (a locknut used 153 times in a test assembly: under half a second instead of 0.8, with no pause after).
File ▸ Properties, redoneFile ▸ Properties opens on the Document tab, with Document Number, Document Description, Mass, Material, Revision and Version ready to fill in, and a new Properties button at the top right of the window opens it too. Links have plain names: a link is just Mass (or $PRP:"Mass" inside other text), and older files, title blocks and notes still work. Values the part works out can't be typed over: they show as f(x) Mass = 0.462 lb. Type a name in the New Property row under the last one to add a property, and right-click a row to set its type (Text, Number, Date, Yes or No), link it, or delete it.
A number for every documentHome's new Number registry button keeps your document numbers: P-0001 for a part, A-0002 for an assembly, D-0003 for a drawing and V-0004 for a variable table, all on one counter so a number is never used twice. File ▸ New offers the next number (or one you reserved), and a drawing can share its model's number. No number is fine too: give it one later from File ▸ Properties or by right-clicking it in Projects. A number can be changed the same way, and the assemblies and drawings that use the file follow; Undo puts it all back. Find in the registry looks through every property of every document (type vendor: mcm to look only in Vendor).
Part numbers and number patternsEach body gets a part number from its document's number (P-0001-1, P-0001-2), with a color code when it has a color or finish (P-0001-1-BK), even one for each configuration (P-0001-BK in Black, P-0001-WH in White). The Bodies panel calls bodies by their part numbers, and the new Parts tab in File ▸ Properties lists them. Numbers can follow your own pattern, too: in the registry's Settings, build them from pieces such as a fixed prefix (160-), a list to pick from in the New box, a property's code, the counter and the body number, with any separator between them, and one counter shared by all or one for each prefix.
Each body its own lookIn a part with several bodies, each body can have its own material, finish and color: click its color dot in the Bodies panel, or right-click it for Edit Material, Appearance or Use the Part's Look. The part's mass adds up each body's own material. Configurations can change them too (Add Column ▸ Material, finish or color, for the whole part or one body). The Bodies panel now shows Material and Mass from the start, and remembers if you turn them off.
The Variables screenTools ▸ Variables (or the =x button) opens a table under the part or assembly, like the Configuration Manager, in place of the Equations window: the file's own variables first, then each linked shared table. Formulas show f(x) and what they come to; copy and paste with Excel works. Rename a variable and everything that uses it is renamed too (W to Width in 3 places, and in drawing notes), and deleting one that's used asks first. In any value box, typing = lists your variables with their values: =wi narrows it to width, and Enter puts the name in. An assembly's Configurations now open the same table as a part's.
Units and decimals the same everywhereValue boxes show their unit as a gray mark at the right (0.5000 [in]) that isn't part of the text, so clearing a box really clears it; typing 25 mm still converts. Lengths and angles show the decimal places set in Document Units wherever they appear: value boxes, Measure, the status bar, Variables and the Configuration Manager. Changing them updates the open boxes at once.
Lists without the buttonsLists and tables end in an empty row: type a name there to add one (New Configuration, New Variable, New Layer, New Property), and right-click ▸ Delete or press Del to delete. In a feature's list of picks, like Loft's Profiles, Delete or Backspace takes only those rows out of the list, never features out of the part, and Shift-click picks a range. Deleting from the feature tree while a feature is open says to finish or cancel it first. Empty lists say what goes in them instead of showing a blank box.
A calmer top bar and a cleaner lookFile, Edit, View, Insert, Tools, Help and License are under one Menus button at the far left (Alt+F and every shortcut work as before), and a new Properties button sits on the right with Checkpoint, Options and Rebuild. Longer directions are behind a round ? button instead of filling the screen, a picked row in every tree and list gets a rounded blue outline, and Properties, the Registry and a drawing's sheet tabs use the ribbon's pill tabs. Windows and panels fit a small laptop screen and scroll when they need to. And the mouse wheel never changes a value by accident: over a box it scrolls the panel.
"Crusade is working…"When Crusade is busy for more than about a second, a small card in the bottom-left corner of the window says what it's doing (Rebuilding Fillet3), how far it's got (47 of 125) and for how long, and it goes the moment Crusade is ready again. If it looks stuck, Save a Report writes a file you can send in, with nothing personal in it.
Better sketchingTrimming half of a T's bar leaves its upright where it was. Smart Dimension between two parallel lines keeps the gap along their whole length. Sketch Fillet and Chamfer work on a Center Rectangle's corners, and Offset and Mirror Entities handle its diagonals. Sketch Pattern has its own tab, finished with the green check. A relation that only repeats others shows gray and no longer makes a sketch Over Defined, a new relation replaces the one it covers (Midpoint replaces Coincident), and a pasted rectangle stays a rectangle.
Less waiting with big parts and drawingsA big part inserted into an assembly is built in the background and goes in when it's ready (a 125-feature part used to stop the window for two minutes), and big STEP files import while you keep working. Mate picks on a big STEP part are quicker (0.7 seconds instead of 4.6). Save and Auto Save write the file in the background. A drawing view whose hidden lines take long shows quick ones first, marked as approximate, until the exact ones are ready: a drawing that froze Crusade for good now shows its views in about 3 seconds. SimpleSim checks the part without holding the window, and assemblies of big parts open faster from the second time on (one: 6.3 seconds down to 2).
Projects, refinedHome turns into Projects in place (Home or Esc turns it back). It shows one top folder, Documents/Crusade Projects to start, with every folder inside it as a tree. New Part, New Assembly and New Drawing save straight into the picked folder, and Add Folder makes a new one. A folder shows its own files while a search looks in the folders inside it too, and the page updates by itself when files change. It fits a laptop screen.
FixesMenu items that did nothing work again: Units, Open Recent, Edit Sketch ▸ (with several sketches), an assembly's right-click Configuration ▸, Move to Folder ▸ and Move to a Shared Table ▸. Assemblies, drawings and Bills of Materials keep finding a part's configuration after it's renamed. A variable table linked on Windows is found on Linux and the other way round, a copied project folder keeps its own table, and Pack and Go copies tables too. Mating a top face to a top face turns the part over instead of saying the mates conflict. On Windows, typing replaces a box's first value, and opening a file while Crusade is busy works. Icons, close buttons, menus and Projects follow a theme change, and grayed-out checkboxes can be seen in Light. Hole table tags (A1, A2 …) keep clear of the holes' diameter leaders.
0.0.4 beta
October 21, 2026A new configuration manager, in-context design (edit parts inside assemblies), live sketch patterns and faster STEP models.
A new Configuration ManagerConfigurations opens a table under the part (drag the line above it to size it); you can still turn the part and use the View tab while it's open. Add Column asks whether to switch features on and off or change a value, then you click them in the feature tree (a sketch drops down its dimensions, now named like Length1 and Diameter2) or tick part variables, so thick can be 10 in one configuration and 25 in another. Or right-click a feature (Configure Suppression), a value or a variable (Configure Value). Cells show units, take formulas and can use the row's other columns; copy and paste with Excel or LibreOffice, or export and import a CSV file. Values the configurations set get a thin blue outline.
Type = for a formulaIn any value box, typing .25*2 gives 0.5, worked out once. Start with = (=thick*2) to keep it a formula you can come back and change: it shows a blue f(x) beside its value, in the box, the feature tree, the Configuration Manager and on sketch dimensions.
Design parts in an assemblyRight-click a part in an assembly and choose Edit Part: it opens with the other parts around it, see-through. Sketch on their faces, use Convert Entities on their edges, or extrude Up To Surface to one of them; when those parts change, your part follows the next time the assembly is open. Insert ▸ New Part in Assembly makes a new part in place, on a face you click. A small arrow in the feature tree marks what uses another part; right-click it to lock or break the link.
Assembly patterns you can changePattern in an assembly makes a pattern in the parts list, with its copies under it. They follow the parts they copy, count in the Bill of Materials and show in drawings. Double-click the pattern to change it, or right-click it to turn it off or delete it.
More ways to patternLinear Pattern, Circular Pattern and Mirror can copy whole bodies, not only features: copies that touch join into one body, or each copy can stay a body of its own. Tick Centered in any linear pattern (part, sketch or assembly) to copy both ways: 5 instances then makes 9, with the original in the middle.
Sketch patterns you can change laterA Linear or Circular Sketch Pattern now remembers how it was made: its copies follow the original, right-click one and choose Edit Pattern to change the count or spacing, and the count, spacing and angle can be linked to a variable or set per configuration.
STEP and IGES colorsSTEP and IGES files keep their colors: the part's color and faces colored on their own, whether you open the file as one part, as an assembly, or import it into a part. The colors show in assemblies and renders too, and stay when you save.
Planes and the origin your waySketching on a plane keeps its outline in view, so you can see where you're drawing; the other planes hide. Click the eye at the end of a plane's row in Default geometry (or right-click ▸ Hide) to hide just that one, even when Show Planes (P) is on; the part remembers it. The origin shows with the planes, as the same red mark as a sketch's origin. Rather show and hide planes yourself? Turn off Show and hide planes automatically in Options ▸ General. Renders never show planes or the origin.
Quicker MeasureIn Measure, point at a result to see its lines in the view right away (click it to keep them). The lines are solid, with a dark edge and small dots at their ends, so they show over blue faces. A plain click on empty space clears what you picked, ready for the next measurement.
See what a feature is built onRest the mouse on a feature or sketch in the feature tree for a second: the things it uses get a thin blue outline. That means its sketch, the plane it's on, and the features that made the faces and edges it picked (a fillet points to the pocket it rounds). Other parts of an assembly and variables it uses are named in a tip.
Faster drawings, mass properties and openingDrawing views of detailed parts appear sooner (Standard 3 Views of a 40-tooth gear: 17 seconds instead of 52). Mass Properties, an assembly's mass and costing take a second or two on STEP models that took half a minute. And a part saved with its finished shape opens at once on your other computers too, Windows or Linux, with the same version of Crusade.
Render works with STEP modelsOpening the Render panel on a model from a STEP file (a part or an assembly) could freeze Crusade for a minute or more. It opens at once now, and Save Render Image's progress bar keeps pace with the picture.
FixesDelete questions have Delete as the default, so Enter deletes. With Crusade installed in two folders, each copy runs on its own. Changing the theme works with only an assembly or a drawing open. An assembly's Mass Properties closes with Esc when some parts have no material. The Show Planes (P) button stays off when planes show just for picking one to sketch on.
0.0.3 beta
October 19, 2026Big parts open at once, more sheet metal, STEP assemblies and a big update to drawings.
Big parts open at onceSaving a part now keeps its finished shape in the file, so big parts, the assemblies they're in and their drawings open straight away: a 150-feature part that took two minutes to open shows in under a second, and a part opened once opens straight away the next time even if it wasn't saved. The bottom bar says whether anything can change: green when nothing the part is made from has changed, amber, naming the file, while it rebuilds one that did, and what was updated once it's done. Options ▸ General ▸ Performance turns it off.
Faster all roundBig parts rebuild about twice as fast, assemblies build several parts at once and draw copies of a part only once, dragging parts in an assembly follows the mouse smoothly, and Home appears in about a quarter of a second. The results are exactly the same as before.
Parts made from another partRight-click a part in Projects (or File ▸ New Part from This…) to start a new part from it: a casting, say, that you then machine. When the casting changes, the machined part and its drawing follow, and anything the change breaks turns amber in the tree instead of being quietly wrong.
More sheet metalOn the Sheet Metal tab: Miter Flange runs a flange along several edges with mitered corners, Corner Relief cuts round, square or tear reliefs where bends meet (Closed Corner closes them instead), and Convert to Sheet Metal turns a part of even thickness, from a STEP file say, into sheet metal with a flat pattern.
STEP assembliesOpening a STEP file with several parts asks how to open it: Open as Assembly makes each part a file of its own, placed as in the file, with its subassemblies; Open as One Part works as before.
Assembly configurations and flexible subassembliesOne assembly can hold several versions (which parts are left out, which configuration each part uses, which mates are on), picked at the top of its list. Right-click a subassembly ▸ Make Subassembly Flexible and its parts move the way its own mates allow.
Drawings follow the partChange a part and its drawing's dimensions, centerlines, center marks, balloons, notes and tolerance frames measure and point at the part as it is now. One whose edge or hole is gone turns amber and says it needs a look, instead of showing an old size.
Drawing standards and sheetsSheet Properties picks ANSI or ISO drafting and first- or third-angle projection, with border zones, a projection symbol, more sizes (A0, ANSI D and E, portrait, any size) and several sheets in one drawing. Layers, line weights, fonts and text heights can be set, and DXF files keep the layers and real dimensions.
New drawing viewsHalf, offset, aligned and broken-out sections, crop views, detail views with any outline, and shaded views. Projected and section views stay lined up with the view they came from, and centerlines show in section, detail and isometric views too.
New drawing annotationsHole callouts, tolerances and fits, dimensions in both inches and millimeters, chamfer and arc-length dimensions, the part's own dimensions brought in with Model Items, notes with leaders and fields such as {Material}, balloons, datum targets, bolt circles and centerlines placed by hand. Bills of Materials choose their columns and order, and section hatching follows each part's material (bolts and pins are left unhatched).
Projects, checkpoints and revisionsHome ▸ Browse projects… shows your Crusade files as pictures: search them, rename or move one (whatever uses it follows), and see an assembly's Bill of Materials without opening it. The Checkpoint and Rev buttons save points and revisions to go back to, and Crusade keeps a good copy of each file in case one gets damaged.
Safe across versionsFiles now record which Crusade saved them: one from a newer Crusade says so, with an Update… button, instead of opening wrong. And the first time this Crusade saves a file an older one saved, it keeps that version, so the older Crusade can still open it (Open Older Version…).
Smaller improvementsConfigurations take dimensions and suppressed features as columns; the Render camera and focus take exact numbers; Section View can cut along a face; Select Other works in sketches; Shell with no faces picked makes a closed hollow part; reports use your units; a tidier, more even look throughout; and many small fixes.
0.0.2 beta
October 17, 2026The free trial until November 10; safer Pack and Go.
Free trialTry everything free until November 10: no credit card, no email, no sign-up. Press Start Free Trial in the License menu, the License window or the first-launch setup. It ends by itself on its date, with or without internet; after that Crusade is the free viewer and your files still open. A license key you buy takes over from the trial.
Safer Pack and GoPack and Go and File ▸ Share pack only Crusade documents, STEP models and variable tables, and list any file from outside the document's folder before packing, so a file someone sent you can't slip one of your own files into a zip you send back.
Odd folder namesCrusade keeps its look when its folder or your user name has an apostrophe in it (O'Brien); before, the app could show up unstyled.
0.0.1 beta
October 16, 2026The first release. Everything is new.See everything Crusade does.