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Voxels

Build models out of blocks on an adaptive octree that supports varying detail levels and smooth slopes — edited in place in the 3D editor.

Voxel parts let you model by placing and carving blocks, like building with cubes. CubbyCAD's voxel engine (Ported from the Cube 2 engine) is an octree, so it can mix coarse blocks where the surface is flat with finer detail and angled slopes where you need it — keeping things blocky by intent but not crude. Colour is per-cell, and the result is watertight and ready to slice.

Reach for voxels for blocky/low-poly props, terrain, organic mass-outs, or anything where hand-placing volume is faster than parametric modelling. Voxel parts are edited in place as an edit mode of the 3D editor — there's no separate workbench to switch to.

Voxels: a blocky model on the octree
Overview. A voxel model built from blocks, with sloped detail.

How to use it

  1. Start a voxel part

    Start a voxel part one of three ways: run New voxel part from the command palette; drop the Voxel Part tile from the shape palette into the scene; or select an existing part and run Convert to Voxel (or Voxelize mesh…) to turn geometry into voxels.

  2. Choose conversion settings

    For a conversion, the Convert to Voxel dialog lets you choose a Quality tier (Fast = blocky occupancy only, Balanced = base-level slopes, High = full slope-fitting + refinement), a Resolution, and optionally Max refinement levels. Click Convert.

  3. Pick a voxel tool

    The voxel tool palette opens in the left sidebar, grouped into Draw, Sculpt, Select, and Paint. Pick a tool — e.g. Block, Sphere brush, Cube brush, Slope line, or Select / edit.

  4. Set the tool options

    In the contextual Tool options card, set the mode — Add, Subtract, or Paint (recolour) — the Brush size, and a colour from the palette popover.

  5. Place, carve, or paint

    Click/drag in the viewport to place, carve, or paint cells. Drag with the Block tool to draw a line of cells.

  6. Add slopes and detail

    To add slopes/detail: use the Slope line tool (click a start then an end point, choose Wedge or Slab), or with the Select / edit tool pick a face and use plain scroll to resize the edit cube, Shift+scroll to push a corner in, and Alt+scroll to pull it out.

  7. Set resolution and symmetry

    Adjust the overall Resolution (the ÷2 / ×2 detail slider) and Symmetry (X/Y/Z with an Odd/Even centre) in the palette's Document settings accordion. Voxel size, mesher and smoothing live in the Properties panel.

  8. Finish the edit mode

    Finish the voxel edit mode to return to object editing (the session is committed when you finish it).

The voxel tool palette
In the editor. The voxel Draw / Sculpt / Select / Paint tools and the Tool options card.

Tips

  • Keyboard tool shortcuts work in the viewport: V select, N block, S sphere brush, B cube brush; [/] change brush size, M toggles add ↔ subtract, and Alt+X/Y/Z toggle symmetry axes.
  • With a live Selection you get a transform toolbar: move/rotate/mirror, Duplicate, Hollow, Copy, plus Cube 2's Remove slopes and Bridge gaps.
  • The Sphere brush has a Smooth slopes (multi-res) toggle with a Detail levels control; the Smooth tool has a matching option — both are premium "Advanced voxel" features (so is the Slope line tool).
  • The Eyedropper samples a cell's colour; Bucket fill recolours a connected region; Magic wand selects a connected island.
  • High resolutions (≳192) can take several seconds to voxelize and tens of MB to store — step down if the editor feels unresponsive.
  • Use Remip (merge uniform) to collapse uniform regions of the octree back into larger cubes after editing.

Try it in your browser

Open CubbyCAD and put Voxels to work — it runs in the browser, no install.

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