Import a model

Bring in STL, 3MF, OBJ, GLB, STEP, SVG, DXF, OpenSCAD .scad/.csg, or an image.

Imported meshes, STEP files included, join your document like any other object. A STEP assembly keeps its parts: each arrives as its own object, with the name and colour the file gives it (or the file’s own name when it gives none), and a part placed several times usually becomes a component with an instance for each copy. OwlCAD detects the source units on import so the part arrives at the right scale. An SVG becomes editable extrudes, and so does a DXF — its blocks are expanded and its loose lines and arcs are joined into closed outlines first, and when its parts are drawn on different layers each is named after its layer (a hole on a layer of its own still cuts its part). An SVG is read at its own size — in the units it declares, otherwise at 96 pixels per inch, as a browser and Inkscape read it — and what it paints is what lands: a shape drawn with a wide stroke keeps the stroke as part of the shape, while thin outlines such as a laser file’s cut lines become the area they enclose. Text has to be converted to paths first (Inkscape: Path ▸ Object to Path); the import says what it left out. Dashed lines are imported as solid lines, and clipping paths and masks are not applied, so a clipped shape arrives whole — the import says so when a drawing uses either. A 2D drawing asks two things before it lands, because neither is easy to change afterwards: how deep to extrude it, and whether its shapes should be combined into one object. A drawing with several shapes — a logo, a row of letters — otherwise arrives as that many separate objects, and combining them means you can move it, or subtract it from a plate, in one go rather than selecting every piece first. A shape with holes keeps its holes either way. OpenSCAD works two ways: import a .scad script directly — OwlCAD interprets it (variables, modules, functions, for/if loops) into an editable tree of primitives and booleans — or, for scripts using features OwlCAD does not evaluate, export a .csg (openscad -o out.csg in.scad) and import that instead. A plain STL/3MF from OpenSCAD imports as a mesh. The Import submenu has two more OpenSCAD entries: OpenSCAD code… takes source pasted straight in (handy for a snippet you copied, with no file to save first), and OpenSCAD folder… loads a multi-file project, resolving its use/include against the sibling files. A downloaded .zip opens the same way when you drop or import it: if it holds .scad files they import together as one project (the STLs rendered from them are left out), and otherwise its model files import one by one. Several .scad files dropped at once that include one another are one project too; unrelated ones import separately.

Customizer options. A .scad written for OpenSCAD's Customizer brings its parameters in as variables. Import turns the script into shapes once, so an option that sets a size or a position stays adjustable, while one that shapes the script's structure — a loop count, an if branch, a rotation — is baked in at its value. The import message names those, the Variables panel marks them, and the message offers Run as live script to make every option adjustable. Run OpenSCAD script… in the same submenu does that from the start: the script is kept and re-run whenever you change a parameter, so everything stays live, but its shapes are rebuilt each time rather than edited by hand. To hand-edit a live script's shapes, right-click it and choose Bake into editable model: it becomes ordinary shapes at its current values, and the size and position options stay variables. Undo reverses either switch.

Images. A PNG, JPG or WebP asks what it should become. Outline traces its dark shapes into editable extrudes, like an SVG: drag the threshold until the preview looks right, tick Trace light areas instead for white art on dark, and set width and depth. It suits logos and line art with clear edges. Relief turns brightness into height and Lithophane makes a plaque that shows the photo against a light; both land as an image relief you can keep adjusting.

1. File → Import → Model file…
2. Pick a file; units are detected and converted to mm.
3. For an SVG or DXF, choose how deep to extrude it and whether its shapes become one object.
4. For a PNG, JPG or WebP image, choose Outline (trace its shapes), Relief or Lithophane.
5. The geometry drops onto the plate ready to edit.