Documentation
How to use CubbyCAD
Guides for modeling, sculpting, rigging, scripting, import, export and storage.
Guides
Pick a feature
Each guide walks through one feature in the editor, step by step.
Shape building
Drop primitives on the grid, mark them solid or hole, and group them. Manifold computes the boolean so the result stays solid and printable.
- Primitives: box, sphere, cylinder, cone, and more
- Add, subtract, and group with live booleans
- Direct modeling, no constraint solver to fight
- Multicolour groups bake per-part colours into the union
Smooth blends
Switch a group from Sharp to Blended and its parts merge with a rounded fillet. A blend-size slider sets how soft the join is.
- Per-group blend width, set in millimetres
- Works with primitives and imported meshes
- Falls back to sharp CSG when a part can't be blended
- Coarser live preview, full resolution on export
3D sketcher
Sketch on any face or the ground plane with the pen and rectangle tools, then extrude or revolve a closed contour into a solid. Everything happens in 3D.
- Pen and rectangle tools, snap-aware
- Extrude or revolve a closed contour
- Sketch on a picked face or the ground plane
- Import an SVG to turn vector art into contours
Sculpt with layers
Convert a shape to a sculpt and push its surface with a brush. Strokes sit in a layer over the base, so you can undo one or clear the whole layer.
- Seventeen brush tools: draw, carve, clay, smooth, flatten, crease, pinch, grab, stamp and more
- Texture brush: knurling, wood grain, honeycomb, scales and six more reliefs
- Emboss and Engrave brushes make existing detail stand out more, or less, without redrawing it
- Paint techniques from miniature painting: wash, drybrush, edge highlight, glaze, zenithal
- Lock a plane or corner so scrape, flatten and crease follow one reference
- Non-destructive: strokes layer over the base and are ordinary undo steps
- Mirror sculpting across X, Y, or Z
Rig & pose
Add a humanoid or quadruped skeleton, or build a custom rig bone by bone. Bind geometry to the bones and pose with FK or IK. Save named poses for later.
- Humanoid and quadruped presets, or a single-bone start
- Bind parts to bones by overlap or by hand
- Pose with forward (FK) or inverse (IK) kinematics
- Save and reapply named poses; mirror a pose across X
Script parts
For when a part needs real parameters. Script parts run in your browser (no server involved), and their settings show up as editable controls.
- ManifoldCAD JavaScript / TypeScript modules
- Parameters become editable controls in the editor
- Public parts are embeddable and downloadable
Bring stuff in
Import meshes you already have, or place other parts from your workspace by reference. Drop in a photo or blueprint as a reference plane.
- Mesh import: STL, OBJ, GLB (Draco and meshopt)
- Reference other parts from your workspace
- Reference images (PNG, JPEG) as adjustable planes with opacity
- Non-manifold detection with one-click auto-repair
Modifier stack
Mirror a half, repeat in a line, grid or ring, twist, bevel, subdivide, smooth or decimate. Modifiers run in order after the boolean, and the original part is left alone.
- Mirror and radial mirror
- Linear, grid, polar and spiral arrays
- Twist, subdivision, smoothing, remesh
- Bevel every sharp edge, or pick edges in the viewport with a depth per edge
- Decimate to reduce triangle count
Slice & export
Every model is a watertight solid, so it slices without trouble. There's a built-in slicer (still experimental) and exporters for the common formats.
- Experimental integrated slicer
- Export STL, STEP, glTF, and PLY
- Vertex colours carried through glTF and PLY
Editor & help
A command palette covers every action. There is a guided tour on first launch, an optional AI assistant, and touch-friendly controls.
- Command palette, around 75 commands (Space or Ctrl·K)
- Optional in-editor AI assistant (your own OpenRouter key)
- First-run tour, replayable from Help
- Touch support, including first-person navigation
Storage
Work locally by default, or sign in for cloud sync. The same .cubby file works in all three.
- Browser storage (IndexedDB), no account needed
- A folder on disk via the File System Access API
- Cloud sync when signed in
Direct modeling
There's no constraint solver, no feature timeline and no assemblies. You move a shape and the model updates. If a part really needs parameters, write a script part and it gets sliders. For most printed parts this is quicker to learn and quicker to work in.