A browser-based OpenSCAD alternative that opens your existing .scad and .csg files with an editable history, not as a mesh. Model visually and stay parametric. Free.
OwlCAD reads the scripts you already wrote, modules, functions, loops and all, and turns them into a model where every step stays editable: grab any part and re-dimension it. Same parametric thinking, no code to write, no render step, and nothing to install. (OwlCAD is a hosted web app, not open-source.)
Free to use · No install · No upload to wait for
Competitor details last checked: 4 October 2026
The parts of OpenSCAD worth keeping — everything driven by numbers — without the parts that slow a design down.
Drop a .scad on the build plate and OwlCAD evaluates it: modules, functions, variables, for and if, list comprehensions, include and use. What lands is primitives, booleans and transforms you can select, not a baked mesh. Paste source straight in instead if you have no file to save, open a multi-file project as a folder so its use and include resolve against its siblings, or bring OpenSCAD’s exported .csg. Or keep the script itself: run it as a live script and it stays OpenSCAD source, re-runs when you change one of its parameters, and turns its Customizer values into controls, with BOSL2, MCAD, Round-Anything and threads-scad built in.
Model by placing shapes and typing exact dimensions, and drive the design from named variables and expressions where you want to. Change a number and the whole model rebuilds, which is the reason you were writing scripts in the first place.
Geometry evaluates continuously in a Web Worker, so the model on screen is the model you export. There is no fast-preview versus slow-render split, and no waiting on a render before you can check whether two parts fit.
minkowski() with a sphere — the standard way to round a part — maps onto an editable fillet/clearance modifier with a radius you can change afterwards. polyhedron and any other minkowski() have no parametric form and come in as mesh; OwlCAD lists exactly what it baked, so you are never guessing.
Mark the values you want exposed and publish: anyone can adjust them with sliders in the browser and download their own print-ready file. No customizer syntax, no annotations, no hosting a Thingiverse page.
True millimetres, printer profiles, auto-orient, watertight checks, and a weight-and-cost estimate before you slice. Export STL, 3MF, OBJ, GLB, SVG and DXF, plus true analytic STEP for the parts you build here, which OpenSCAD cannot write at all.
OwlCAD runs a hosted MCP server, the standard that lets AI apps such as Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Cursor use outside tools, so your agent can build a part on your account: a real parametric model where every step and dimension stays editable, checked by the CAD kernel and by a render of its own work, handed back as a print-ready file plus a project you can open and edit. Part of Pro, and it spends no AI credits.
Drop in a script you already have. No account needed, and your browser reads the script itself, so there is no upload to wait for.
Yes. Drop a .scad onto the build plate and OwlCAD evaluates it — modules, functions, variables, for/if, list comprehensions, and include/use are all interpreted — then lands the result as an editable model tree of primitives, booleans, and transforms. It is not a screenshot or a mesh: every cube, cylinder, and difference is a node you can select and re-dimension. OwlCAD also reads the .csg files OpenSCAD exports, takes source pasted straight in when there is no file to save, and can open a multi-file project as a folder, resolving its use and include against the sibling files.
Most of it. Primitives, booleans, hull, transforms, linear_extrude, rotate_extrude, and text come in parametric, and the common minkowski-with-a-sphere rounding idiom maps onto an editable clearance modifier. Two things have no parametric equivalent and arrive as mesh instead: polyhedron, and a minkowski() with something other than a sphere. OwlCAD lists exactly what it baked or skipped after the import, so you always know which parts stayed editable.
No. That is the point. You model visually with shapes, gizmos, and typed dimensions, and the result is still fully parametric: change a number and the model rebuilds. If you like driving a design from variables you still can, with named variables and expressions on any parameter.
No. OwlCAD evaluates geometry continuously in a Web Worker, so the model on screen is the model you export — there is no F5-preview versus F6-render distinction, and no waiting for a render before you can check a fit.
OwlCAD has a no-code equivalent: mark any parameters you want to expose and publish the model, and anyone can adjust them with sliders in the browser and download their own print-ready STL or 3MF. You do not write a customizer — you pick which values to expose. And a script you run as a live script keeps its own Customizer annotations: each one becomes a control in the property panel.
No. OpenSCAD is GPL desktop software you can build yourself; OwlCAD is a hosted web app. Modeling, import, and export are free forever and your projects are private by default, but if a libre licence is a hard requirement, OpenSCAD or FreeCAD is the right answer and we would rather say so.
OwlCAD’s AI does not write OpenSCAD code, but it produces the same kind of model: describe a part and it returns a parametric tree of primitives, booleans and transforms, the same structure a .scad file lands as when you import one, with every dimension still editable. You can work on it beside your imported scripts and export it as STL, 3MF or STEP. AI generation is part of OwlCAD Pro.