Features

A parametric modeler that's quick to learn and precise when it counts.

Scan to CAD
A noisy scan of a pillow block bearing housing in the Scan workspace

Bring in a scan

Open the mesh or point cloud from your 3D scanner (STL, OBJ, PLY), then clean it up: fill holes, drop stray pieces, smooth and thin it.

The scan colored by region: planes cool, cylinders warm

Find its faces

Auto Regions sorts the scan into planes, cylinders, cones and spheres, so you pick whole faces instead of triangles.

A section through the housing, traced as a sketch over the scan

Sketch from sections

Cut the scan on any plane and get a sketch of fitted lines, arcs and circles to dimension and extrude.

The scan colored green where it matches the rebuilt solid and warm where it stands proud

Check your work

A deviation map colors the scan by how far it sits from your model, with the share inside tolerance.

Modeling
The housing with its history listed: sketches and features in the order they were made

Feature history

Extrude, revolve, sweep, loft, fillet, chamfer, shell, holes, threads and patterns, all editable after the fact.

The Parameters table: bore, wall and bolt_spacing with their expressions and values

Named parameters

Define wall = 3mm once and use it everywhere. Values keep the expression you typed and follow when it changes.

The Fillet card reopened on the housing: its four edges still found by name after later features

Stable references

Faces and edges are named by the features that made them, so downstream features survive upstream edits.

The Extrude card with a distance of 1/4" + 2mm typed in a millimetre document

Units that mix

Work in millimetres or inches and type either: 1/4" + 2mm is a valid length.

The Hole card editing four M4 tapped holes in the housing hub

Holes and threads

Counterbores, countersinks and tap drills from the standards; ISO metric, UNC and UNF threads, cosmetic or modeled.

The prompt after a crash: an autosaved copy can be restored, discarded or decided later

Autosave and recovery

Work is saved a minute after each change, restored after a crash, and the last 10 saves are kept.

Sketching
The base sketch: horizontal and vertical constraints, two dimensions, two slots

Live constraint solver

Coincident, tangent, parallel, equal, symmetric and dimensions, solved as you drag.

A second dimension on an already-sized side is refused, with the reason shown above the sketch

Clear feedback

See degrees of freedom at a glance; conflicting or redundant constraints are refused with a reason.

A flange sketch: one bolt hole patterned eight times round the center, with two lines of lettering

Text and patterns

Sketch text, convert it to outlines, and pattern sketch geometry along lines, circles or paths.

A spur gear outline imported from an SVG file as sketch lines and a circle

Import 2D drawings

Bring SVG, DXF, Illustrator and PDF artwork into a sketch, scaled and placed with a preview.

A panel sketch with a NEMA 23 motor mounting pattern placed twice

Footprints

Save a set of holes or a cutout with its dimensions and drop it into any sketch in one step.

Assemblies
Two instances of the pillow block on a bed plate with a shaft through them

Components in context

Design parts inside the assembly, place instances, and link parts from other files.

What is inside a project file: manifest.json and document.json, with a parameter as it is stored

One file type

Everything is a .cb3 file: an open zip of JSON design intent plus geometry.

Making
Twelve gusset plates nested on a sheet, some turned to fit

Flat parts and nesting

Get flat outlines of bodies with cut, inside and engrave layers, and nest them on sheets.

The housing in the CAM workspace: facing, contour, bore and chamfer toolpaths with the stock that is left

CAM (in development)

User-defined mills (up to 4 axes) and lathes, tool libraries with cutting presets, adaptive pockets and editable posts.

Automation
The command log after an MCP client added four tapped holes: each call listed

MCP server

Drive Cahaba Studio from Claude or any MCP client, live in your window or headless.