Every week of OwlCAD in September 2026: the features that shipped and the fixes that matter when you print.
What changed in September 2026
Newest week first. A week belongs to the month its Monday falls in.
Week of September 28, 2026
New
Select several parts and edit them together in the Properties panel: one colour for all of them, and shared dimensions typed once (a value they disagree on reads “Mixed”).
Scale can also be typed as a size in your display unit, not only as a multiplier.
A section view, beside X-ray, cuts the model open across X, Y or Z so you can see wall thicknesses and hidden pockets.
Measure the angle between two faces or edges, and the gap between two whole parts. Arrange can space three or more parts evenly along an axis.
Assemblies: mute mates to lay a mated assembly out flat for printing, and “Check travel” under a joint names the parts that pass through each other as it moves.
Sketch constraints can be listed, edited and removed, and the count of degrees of freedom left is now exact.
Set, search and reset keyboard shortcuts in the Help cheat sheet, for any tool the / palette can find.
Files with several parts import as those parts: a STEP assembly as named, coloured parts (a repeated part as a component), an OBJ’s objects, a glTF scene’s parts (.gltf files too) and a DXF drawing’s layers. SVG files import at their real size.
Exports keep your parts apart: STEP writes a structured assembly of named, coloured parts, GLB writes one named, coloured mesh per part, and 3MF colours now show in Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer, where a slicer assembly comes back in as one object of coloured parts.
2D export (SVG and DXF) draws from the top, front or right, with true arcs and circles, and can write SVG cut lines for a laser cutter.
Print check judges each body from its own base, and reports bridges and parts floating above the plate.
Choose the size a sculpted AI model lands at, from 5 to 1,000 mm. Meshy text-to-3D models, run on your own Meshy key, now arrive textured.
Your project’s comments appear in the editor, in the Comments panel, where you can remove any of them.
A fillet or Round edges built only approximately, rounded on a grid to stay within the time limit, now says so in the Properties panel and, where an exact build fits, offers “Build precisely” with how long it will take.
A precise fillet or Round edges build shows a banner with Cancel and “Use approximate”, and a part you chose to build precisely stays precise after you edit it.
The built-in parts library shows each part’s name in your language, and its search finds parts by those names as well as in English.
In the section view, a click on the cut face selects the part it cuts through.
Fixed
Pro’s server STEP export for large models works again: it takes a model of up to 1,000,000 triangles, and a mesh too detailed to export is refused at once with its face count, instead of running for minutes and failing.
OpenSCAD’s ! root modifier shows exactly what OpenSCAD shows: the first-marked subtree on its own, in a .scad file and in a .csg export alike.
A live OpenSCAD script pasted as Document JSON sizes its text in the right font on the first paste, not only the second.
A project open in two tabs keeps its undo history: the tab you are not editing in no longer throws it away when it reloads the project.
Models no longer turn dark when you look at them from behind or from below: the light follows your view, and a part’s shadow falls only on the build plate, not on the parts beneath it.
A part coloured black shows its shape: the editor, the gallery’s 3D view and thumbnails saved from now on draw it in dark grey, as a slicer draws black filament. Its colour and your exports stay black.
GLB files are written in metres, as glTF defines them, so an export opens at its real size in Blender, AR viewers and game engines instead of 1,000 times too big.
OpenSCAD import matches OpenSCAD in more places: rotate_extrude and linear_extrude heights, minkowski with $fn, for loops without a variable, and a path that winds round twice.
An extrude or revolve whose outline encloses nothing, or whose inset swallows the outline, now builds nothing, as in OpenSCAD, instead of failing every operation above it, and the Properties panel says why and what to change.
Split for printing puts its joint keys on the part’s real cut face, and a fillet on a valley edge now rounds it instead of being skipped.
Pressing Enter in a dialog no longer runs the button that opened it again, and one colour pick is one undo step.
A part that can’t be built no longer empties your whole export or silently goes missing from it: export, Open in slicer and Print check name the part, and you can export or send the rest without it.
Arrow keys move the selected part only when the model has focus: on a Scene tree row they move through the tree, and on a toolbar they step between its tools. The welcome tour keeps shortcuts from changing your model behind it.
On German and French keyboards, [ and ] typed with AltGr now rotate the selected part.
A shape with a size of zero or less now builds nothing everywhere, in the viewport, Print check and every export including STEP, and the Properties panel says why, instead of the viewport drawing a flat or mirrored shape the export left out.
When the in-browser geometry engine runs out of memory on a very complex shape, it restarts and tries that shape once more before showing an error, and the other parts are no longer blanked with it. Split into bodies no longer runs out of memory on heavily filleted parts.
STEP export stops with a message instead of hanging on a mesh too fine to stitch into a solid.
Modify with AI tells you when a change it proposed was skipped because a variable sets that value.
After an Undo, the import notice’s unit buttons and Repair work from the size your part is actually at.
An AI-sculpted model that finishes close to the time limit is now delivered instead of being failed and refunded.
Filleting many edges of a detailed part is much quicker, and a filleted part no longer carries paper-thin stray bodies that exports, Split into bodies, Print check and slicers counted as extra parts.
A hollow part stays hollow: Round edges and Clearance no longer fill its sealed cavity, Extrude face no longer adds a chamber it seals as solid material, and Split into bodies no longer splits the cavity off as an inside-out part.
Print check’s “Holes (genus)” row is now “Holes”, and it counts a hollow part and several parts together correctly: a hollowed box no longer shows −1 holes, and two parts with one hole each show 2.
STEP export writes a twisted, tapered or offset extrude and a partial revolve at their real shape, and threads at their real volume, instead of a plain prism, a full turn, or a thread that lost its core or its teeth.
An extrude or revolve outline holding a point or arc far outside what can be built (in a stored or hand-edited file) now builds the rest instead of failing the part and the whole export, the Properties panel says what changed, and editing its sketch shows the outline that builds.
The editor no longer crashes to its error screen when you hold an arrow, [ or ] key on a large scene, or when your browser translates the page.
If the geometry engine fails to load, OwlCAD downloads it again itself before giving up, and print preview now says when the browser has run out of memory, suggesting you close other tabs or reload, instead of blaming your model.
A project reopened after a reload keeps saving to the cloud even when the reload raced sign-in, and a page closed while a save was uploading reopens with your last edits instead of the older cloud copy.
Signing in to a different account in another tab no longer shows the previous account’s Pro badge or admin links in this one while it catches up.
Screen readers announce the close button of notifications in your language, and the import notice’s unit buttons say which unit is applied.
Round edges is exact and quick on a convex part such as a sphere: a detailed sphere took about 14 s and came out approximate, and now builds exactly in under a second.
Exporting or print-checking a model with a part too complex to build in time now says so straight away, instead of first finishing the slower parts before it, which could take more than a minute.
Pressing Cancel while a part is being split, simplified or shared, or while an AI model is exported or inserted, no longer shows an error.
On a device you have signed in on before, the editor’s Share button and Pro badge appear with the header instead of popping in a moment later and shifting it.
Modify with AI: an edit that waits for you to confirm discarding undone steps shows “Waiting for you to confirm…”, then what you decided, with Revert if it applied, instead of “No change to make here”.
The German interface, help and website now read correctly, quote the labels the German editor really shows and name keys as on a German keyboard (Strg, Umschalt, Entf); the AI generation and school pages show server errors in your language, not English.
Number fields read a decimal comma or point the same way in every language and browser: “2,5” is 2.5, never 25, and an ambiguous entry such as “1.234,5” is refused with the reason shown under the field instead of being saved wrong.
File and storage sizes are now counted the same way as the limits beside them, so an image that fits under the 8 MB cap no longer appears to exceed it.
Import errors and the part-submission dialog explain what went wrong in your language instead of in English.
An SVG file without units imports at the size a browser or Inkscape shows it, its numbers read as pixels: each number used to be read as a millimetre, which made the import about 3.8 times too large.
In the section view, hovering and picking edges, vertices and parts, and box selection, go by what is drawn: the cut-away half can no longer be picked, and a click on the cut face no longer passes through to the parts behind it.
The Spanish and French interface, help, emails and website now read correctly and quote the editor’s real labels. Templates, generated part names and a new project’s name appear in your language, and gallery part sizes use your decimal mark.
Week of September 21, 2026
New
GLB files optimised with gltfpack now import: meshopt compression, quantized geometry, texture transforms, and GPU-instanced repeats with each copy in its own colour.
Screen readers hear your edits, undo and redo, and every message the editor shows, and the editor has headings to jump between.
The arrow keys work in the editor’s menus, and opening a menu puts you in it.
The Timeline, the Undo and Redo tooltips and the “building” message are in Spanish, German and French.
“Open editor” on the file-format and converter pages opens straight to File > Import.
A tab left open across an update tells you a new version is out and asks you to reload, instead of saying something went wrong.
Print preview moves its highlights with your part as you drag it, instead of measuring it again.
The account page shows Pro’s price before Checkout, and the Pro-only tabs offer the upgrade.
AI generation can make pillow blocks.
For AI agents on the MCP server: a read_resource tool for clients that cannot read resources, a print check that says where the thinnest wall is, and a way to publish a variable as a Customizer control.
Export > Selected parts only: export just the parts you have selected, in any format.
New groups, modifiers and components put their origin at the centre of their parts, and Centre origin (right-click, or the command palette) moves an older one there without moving anything.
OpenSCAD import is much closer to OpenSCAD: text() in OpenSCAD’s own Liberation fonts, import() of the STL, DXF, SVG, 3MF and OBJ files that come with a script, projection(), 2D hull(), rotate_extrude() of any shape, and sphere($fn) built the way OpenSCAD builds it.
The Code panel lists the files a live script imports, and you can remove one.
Text has letter spacing and anchor settings.
Version history opens from the foot of the Timeline, or from the command palette.
STEP export keeps a shape whose facet count you set as flat faces, like its STL (“STEP: keep flat facets” in the Export menu, on by default).
Pro’s server STEP export for large models leaves hidden parts out when you choose “Visible only”, and puts mated parts where the editor shows them.
Pro’s server STEP export can be cancelled while it runs.
Fixed
The Projects page no longer jumps around while it loads.
A failure in the account menu no longer blanks the whole page, and the phone menu scrolls on short screens.
German “Ungroup” reads “Gruppierung aufheben”.
Image tracing and SVG and DXF hole detection are faster on drawings with many shapes.
If part of the page fails to load after an update (help, the code editor, search), it says so in place instead of taking down the whole page.
Face tools and edge fillets land in the right place on exploded, mated and moved parts.
Gallery pages keep your language, “More from this pack” links work again, and long account pages no longer run under the footer.
The panels on the right no longer go blank when the project is open read-only because another tab is editing it.
A project always opens exactly as you last saved it: an undo history that disagrees with the saved project no longer overrides it.
Groups keep their names when a project is reopened.
For AI agents on the MCP server: text renders, exports and appears in thumbnails as real letters instead of a placeholder.
Projects where a variable drives a generator keep their undo history when reopened.
OpenSCAD text is measured in the right font when the script computes it, a Customizer value picks it, or it is set in an included file or library.
An undo or redo that can’t be applied says so and leaves your model as it was, instead of getting stuck.
Projects that use the BOSL2 or MCAD libraries keep their undo history when reopened, and show your saved model while the library loads.
STEP export treats an imported mesh that isn’t watertight the way STL export does, instead of failing.
Opening the editor in a browser too old to run it says so and names the versions that work, instead of failing to start.
When the browser gives the editor a graphics context that can’t draw, it says 3D graphics aren’t available instead of showing a black viewport.
If a tab still running an older version of OwlCAD drops the files a live OpenSCAD script imports from this browser’s copy of a project, opening it again puts them back and says so.
A project saved by a newer version of OwlCAD opens read-only with “Update to edit”, so an older tab can no longer drop what the newer version saved.
Auto-orient, Drop to plate, Align and the size read-out measure the part itself; a selected part’s origin marker no longer counts as part of it.
Week of September 14, 2026
New
Image import: turn a PNG, JPG or WebP into a traced outline, a relief, a lithophane or a reference image.
A Code workspace for a project’s OpenSCAD scripts, files and document JSON, with BOSL2, MCAD, Round-Anything and threads-scad bundled.
Import a .zip, or a folder of .scad files, as one project whose scripts run live, and several files dropped at once land side by side instead of in a pile.
Converter pages for OBJ, 3MF, SVG, DXF, STEP and image files to STL.
A pillow block and a shaft collar generator, and staggered and radial vent layouts with a round boundary.
Shadows, Smooth shading and Lighting switches in the View menu, and a notice when your browser is drawing the editor without the graphics card.
AI generation checks each part for measurable defects before delivering it and tries one repair, and a failed request says why in your language.
You can withdraw analytics consent at any time, including from inside the editor, and Global Privacy Control is honoured.
This changelog.
Fixed
Opening an unrelated .json file with File > Open could discard the open project.
Rounded objects show their selection and x-ray outline.
The worm drive’s wheel meshes with the worm instead of overlapping it.
One malformed mesh no longer hides every shadow, and a damaged imported mesh exports the triangles you can see.
Copied objects bring the variables they read with them.
Upgrading to Pro shows the price before the card form.
Week of September 7, 2026
New
Plugs, caps & sleeves: a generator for round parts sized off the thing they fit, plus magnet pockets, alignment pins, grommets and tube end caps in the parts library.
Round, chamfer and clearance now work on dense imported meshes, where the geometry kernel used to refuse them.
Texture rollers: wrap a model’s relief around a barrel you roll over clay.
Auto-orient picks the pose that prints best, and tells you why.
Generators remember the settings you used last.
Search tolerates typos, and the command palette now reaches file, export and generate actions.
Imports read 3MF boolean operations as editable boolean nodes, and open Draco-compressed GLB files.
AI agents can connect over OAuth instead of a pasted token, send local files and URLs to import, and receive large exports and STEP files as a download link.
Fixed
A stated clearance is now treated as the total gap: six of eight fit generators had been doubling it.
A refused parameter edit no longer leaves an empty viewport.
The tutorial overlay no longer loops forever in Spanish, German and French.
Only the topmost dialog answers Escape.
Changing your email needs a recent sign-in, and a data export now includes access tokens and connected apps.