cad

Solid CAD in a browser tab: you draw a 2D sketch, give it thickness, then cut, round and repeat. Every step stays in the timeline, so you can go back and change a dimension and the rest follows.

sketch

Open the node, choose CAD ▸ Sketch in the mode picker (or press <kbd>S</kbd> in Solid) and pick a plane: XY, XZ, YZ, or a flat face on a body (Sketch on face).

The sketch toolbar has Line (<kbd>L</kbd>), Rectangle (<kbd>R</kbd>), Circle (<kbd>C</kbd>), Arc (3 points) (<kbd>A</kbd>), Slot (<kbd>S</kbd>), Trim (<kbd>T</kbd>) and Select (<kbd>V</kbd>). Snap to grid (<kbd>G</kbd>) and a grid step sit beside them. Select a line, circle or arc and its numbers appear in Properties; type a value, or an expression such as $w/2.

Closed loops become profiles on their own. An inner loop becomes a hole. Press <kbd>Enter</kbd> to Finish sketch, or Cancel sketch. A sketch holds up to 2,000 entities.

solids

tool	key	does
Extrude	<kbd>E</kbd>	gives a sketch region depth. Distance, Flip direction, Symmetric (both sides of the plane).
Revolve	<kbd>R</kbd>	spins a profile about the X axis, the Y axis, or a line in the sketch, through an angle.
Loft · Sweep		a solid through two or more sketches on different planes; a profile carried along a path sketch.
Hole	<kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>H</kbd>	simple, counterbore or countersink; standard clearance and tapped sizes; Through all or a Depth with a Drill point (118°).
Thread · Pipe · Coil		a cosmetic or modelled thread on a cylindrical face; a tube along a path; a helix.

Extrude and Revolve end in a mode: New body, Join to a target, Cut from it, or Intersect (keep only the overlap).

Click a flat face and press <kbd>E</kbd> to push or pull it: Push out joins, Pull in cuts.

round, shell and combine

tool	key	does
Fillet	<kbd>F</kbd>	rounds the edges you click (<kbd>Shift</kbd> adds more) with a Radius.
Chamfer	<kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>C</kbd>	the same with a flat bevel, by Distance.
Shell		hollows a body to a wall thickness; the faces you pick are left open.
Draft		tapers faces by an angle from a neutral plane, for moulding.
Combine	<kbd>B</kbd>	Join, Cut or Intersect one body with others. The tool bodies are used up.
Split body · Mirror · Scale · Move · Duplicate		cut with a plane, reflect, scale about the centre or origin, translate and rotate, copy.
Rectangular pattern · Circular pattern		repeat a body along one or two axes (Count, Spacing), or round an axis through an angle; tick Merge into one body to fuse the copies.

Edges and faces are remembered by what they are, not by number. If you reorder or change an earlier step, a later fillet finds its edge again where it can, and flags the step when it can't.

parameters drive dimensions

Any number field accepts $name. Define w, h, wall in the Browser ▸ Parameters row, type $w in a sketch dimension or $wall in a Shell, and one edit moves everything. Expose a parameter with the plug and it appears on the node's card as a field with an input handle, so you can wire a number or text node into it. See 3d models.

import and measure

Import STEP (a .step or .stp file) brings a part in as a body you can cut and drill. Measure (<kbd>I</kbd>) reads two picks: the gap between parallel planes, hole centre to centre, a point to a plane, or an angle; one pick gives an edge length, a circle's diameter or a face's area in mm².

After each rebuild the model also records every body's volume (mm³), surface area (mm²), bounding box and whether it is closed. The modeler pixie reads those numbers to check its work.

exports

A new model declares STEP, GLB and Render (PNG). Download them from Export in the header, or wire them from the card. Ask the modeler to add more:

format	for
STEP	the exact solid, for other CAD tools and machinists
STL	a mesh for a printer
3MF	a scene export with one build part per colour, for multi-colour printing
GLB	a mesh scene with materials, for viewers and other nodes

An export can name which bodies it contains, so one model can give a separate STEP per part.

limits & good to know

• 2,000 operations per model; the timeline's rollback marker lets you step back through them.
• A step that can't be built shows an error on its timeline entry and in the status pill; the rest of the model stays as it was.
• Lengths are always millimetres internally; type 2in and it converts.
• STL and 3MF are not declared by default.

related

3d models · meshes and sculpting · variants and checks · look and share