Documentation
How to use CubbyCAD
Step-by-step guides for every part of the editor — modeling, sculpting, voxels, rigging, scripting, import, export, and more.
Guides
Pick a feature
Each guide walks through the feature in the editor, step by step.
Shape building
Drop primitives onto the grid, mark them add or subtract, 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 smooth and an SDF field merges its parts with a rounded fillet instead of a hard edge. A blend-width slider sets how soft the joins are.
- 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. It all happens in 3D, with no separate flat editor.
- 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 an SDF sculpt and push its surface with a brush. Edits sit in a layer over the base, so you can undo a stroke or clear the whole layer to get the original back.
- Ten-plus brush tools: draw, carve, smooth, flatten, pinch, grab, paint, and more
- Non-destructive: strokes layer over the base
- Several brush shapes; adjustable size, strength, and blend
- Mirror sculpting across X, Y, or Z
Voxels
Build from blocks on a voxel octree that supports varying detail levels and sloped edges, so it's fine where it matters and coarse elsewhere. Surface-nets and plain-voxel meshing are available too.
- Voxel octree with variable depth and sloped edges
- Surface-nets and plain-voxel meshing as well
- Per-cell colour
- Walk through what you built in first person
Rig & pose
Add a humanoid or quadruped skeleton, or build a custom rig bone by bone. Bind geometry to the bones, then pose with forward or inverse kinematics. Save named poses to reuse 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
Write real parameters when you need them. Script parts run in the browser with no server round-trip, 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 instance other models and voxel parts. You can also drop in a photo or blueprint as a reference plane to model against.
- Mesh import: STL, OBJ, GLB (Draco and meshopt)
- Instance other models and voxel parts
- Reference images (PNG, JPEG) as adjustable planes with opacity
- Non-manifold detection with one-click auto-repair
Modifier stack
Stack modifiers on any part. They run after the boolean, in order, and you can reorder or remove them.
- Subdivision to smooth out faceting
- Remesh to symmetrise the boolean output
- Decimate to reduce triangle count
Slice & export
Every model is a watertight Manifold solid, so it slices cleanly. The built-in slicer preps parts for 3D printing, with 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's 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 document moves between 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, not parametric CAD
There's no constraint solver, no feature timeline, and no assemblies. You move shapes and they update right away. When you need real parameters, you write a script part. For most projects this is quicker to learn and faster to work in.
Ready to build something?
Open CubbyCAD in your browser and start with any guide above.