KherveCAD
AvailableVisual CAD with OpenSCAD as the engine.
An easy-to-use CAD GUI that writes OpenSCAD for you: draw 2D profiles, extrude and combine them with booleans while an object tree, live .scad code, and a shaded 3D preview stay in sync — edit any of the three and the others follow. Build parts once and place them as many times as you like, then snap them together by clicking two faces. It ships a parametric vacuum-hardware library (CF/KF flanges, valves, turbo pumps), chemistry glassware and furniture, a big Examples menu, an AI assistant that models from a plain-language prompt, and STL/SCAD import and export.
Watch KherveCAD
KherveCAD — a visual CAD app powered by OpenSCAD
A tour of KherveCAD: sketching and extruding profiles, the object tree and live .scad code side by side, the parametric vacuum-hardware library, and snapping parts together into an assembly.
Open on YouTubeAttributes
- Object tree — every shape, transform and boolean is a node you can group, reorder, rename, hide or duplicate, and the program is regenerated from it, so tree and code can never disagree
- Live OpenSCAD code tab — syntax-highlighted, line-numbered, editable: change the code and apply it back to the tree, for the whole program or just the part you are editing
- Parts and assemblies — define a part once in the Object tab, place as many instances as you like, and keep editing the definition; every copy follows
- Snap parts together by clicking two faces — the face under the cursor highlights, and mates re-solve automatically when a parent moves
- OpenSCAD is included — the installer ships the engine, so the exact rendered mesh works out of the box with nothing else to install
- Per-part exact rendering — each part is rendered on its own, so booleans really cut, every part keeps its own colour, and the model fills in progressively
- 3D preview — orbit, pan and zoom a shaded view, with a decimated draft mesh while you move so big assemblies stay smooth
- 2D sketch view — lines, rectangles, circles, polygons, text; drag handles and snap-to-grid, in millimetres, doubling as a Top/Front/Side assembly view you can drag parts around in
- Parametric vacuum-hardware library (Ctrl+L): CF16–CF160 & KF flanges, blanks, nipples, tees, crosses, elbows, feedthroughs, ISO-thread bolts and nuts, gate/right-angle valves, turbo and backing pumps
- Also in the library: chemistry glassware (hollow, from revolved profiles) and room furniture for laying out a whole lab
- Examples menu — 21 numbered tutorials from primitives to recursion, plus mechanical parts, procedural flowers and trees, and a finished part per chapter of a well-known OpenSCAD course
- Control flow — for/while loops, if/else, variables, and expressions in any numeric field
- Edge rounding via offset() and minkowski(); per-object colours; render styles (shaded, brushed metal, matte, wireframe, x-ray) with brightness and contrast
- Errors turn red in the tree as you type — bad expressions, empty extrusions, axis-crossing revolves, and OpenSCAD's own compiler errors mapped back to the object that caused them
- Per-document Git — commit, push, pull and connect to GitHub without leaving the app
- Import/export .scad (lossless round-trip, including user modules and functions) and .stl/.obj/.off/.3mf; documents save as .kcad
AI built in
A built-in KherveAI chat (Ctrl+/) — Claude, Mistral, or Ollama Cloud — sees the live OpenSCAD program, answers questions, runs slash commands (/part, /code, /render), and applies its generated SCAD straight into the object tree.
Built with
A modern stack of well-known scientific Python libraries.
Examples
- Learn — 21 numbered tutorials, one technique each, primitives to recursion
- Mechanical — spur gears, ball bearing, pillow block, bolted flange joint, V-belt pulley
- Vacuum — CF/KF port tubes, chambers, valves and turbo pumps from the parts library
- Flowers & trees — procedural tulip, rose, orchid, fir, oak, weeping willow
- Projects — a finished part per chapter of “Mastering OpenSCAD in 10 projects”
- Room & lab — workbench, chair, monitor, door and carpet, for laying out a space
Documentation
Getting started
On Windows, download the installer and run it — it installs per user, needs no administrator rights, and associates .kcad files. If you would rather not install anything, the portable zip extracts and runs in place. The installer is unsigned, so Windows may warn on first run — choose More info, then Run anyway. On a Mac, download the disk image and drag KherveCAD to Applications; it is built for Apple Silicon. The app is not notarised, so the first launch needs a right-click on it and Open, rather than a double-click. Either way the OpenSCAD engine is bundled inside the download, so exact rendering — booleans that really cut — works immediately with nothing else to install. Running from source still works too: install the requirements and run python KherveCAD.py.
Building parts
Draw a 2D profile in the sketch view, extrude it, and combine solids with boolean operations — KherveCAD writes the OpenSCAD program live as you go, and the object tree keeps every step editable. A part is defined in the Object tab and placed in the assembly as an instance, so one definition can appear many times and editing it updates every copy.
Parts library & assemblies
Open the parts library (Ctrl+L) for parametric vacuum hardware built from manufacturer cross-sections — every dimension editable — plus chemistry glassware and room furniture. To assemble, either drag parts around a Top/Front/Side view plane, or use the snap tool: click a face on the part to move, then the face it should meet, and the two lock together. Move the parent later and everything mated to it follows.
Working with the code
The Code tab is the same model seen as an OpenSCAD program, and it works both ways: edit the text and Apply code puts the change back into the object tree. Scope it to the whole program or to the part you have open. Selecting an object highlights its lines, and a compiler error is traced back to the object that caused it.
File formats
Native documents save as .kcad (a JSON object tree). Export the generated program as .scad or the mesh as .stl; .scad and .stl can also be imported back in as tree nodes.
Licence
KherveCAD is free software under the GPL-3.0. It bundles OpenSCAD 2021.01, which is GPL-2.0-or-later and runs as a separate process; OpenSCAD's licence is installed alongside it and its full source archive is attached to the release.
Versions
Disk image for Apple Silicon (arm64).
First release. The installer bundles the OpenSCAD engine, so the 3D view shows the exact rendered mesh — booleans really cut — with nothing else to install. Parts and assemblies, click-two-faces snapping, a parametric vacuum-hardware library, an AI assistant, and a big Examples menu.
Part of the Kherve Tools family
Applications made by a scientist, for scientists.