picoCAD – a tiny modeler for tiny models | Hacker News Reader

picoCAD – a tiny modeler for tiny models

store.steampowered.com

221 pointsjohanpeitz32 comments

Hallo! Johan the dev here, thanks for all the positive responses. Happy to answer any questions about picoCAD if there are any.

You can also check out https://picoCAD.net for more info :)

Hey, been meaning to try picoCAD for a while now this might push me over the edge :)

For my curiosity: How are you distributing this? Is it the Web version of the pico8 game or did you rewrite it in love or something? Or does pico8 allows to embed their VM when distributing on Steam?

pico8 has the ability to export anything you make into native binaries. Simple as that :)

Love picocad.

Now that picotron is ramping up which basically offers a superset in terms of features compared to pico8: will there be an expanded picotron version of picocad?

It has definitely crossed my mind. Main reason I haven't looked into it is Picotron's (so far) lack of ability to export native binaries.

This looks so cool!

Is there a workflow you would recommend for creating animations once the model has been created in picoCAD?

Unfortunately I know next to nothing about animating so I am not much help here. That said I didn't know anything about 3d modelling when I made picoCAD so maybe there will be another tool in the future :D

Jesus fucking christ, you're good at this.

Does it have steam deck support? Can you export to .stl?

I've seen the linux version (available on itch.io) run on the steam deck but haven't tried my self. Lots of keyboard and mouse required to have a good time. :)

It does export to obj/mtl which is usually importable into most other softwares

I’ve tried other 3d modeling software (blender, fusion, etc) and picocad is the only one I’ve been able to actually pick up and use without unsuccessfully spending hours watching outdated tutorials. I understand it’s not apples to apples. Just wanted to say thanks and this is an awesome tool!

Wow, that makes me so happy to hear. I'm no 3D modeler myself so it is very much built from a beginner/2d perspective.

That’s how I feel about tinkercad.

Same. I randomly stumbled across someone's (Ben's) picoCAD timelapse on Youtube last January[1] and the toolkit was so simple that I bought it and tried it myself.

Sure enough, I was more productive with picoCAD in my 30s than I was with 3dsmax/maya/etc in my teens despite many hours of tutorials. I joined the Discord and even participated in some jams.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/@bencanfield/videos

Is OnShape on that list of software you tried?

For folks who want a regular (not low-poly) modeler which is a small/light-weight download, Dune 3D seems the best thing to try:

https://dune3d.org/

Previous discussions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37979758

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40228068

The other notable thing to try is Solvespace or maybe NASA's Open Vehicle SketchPad (for opensource)

I wish the guy behind Dune3d had joined Solvespace development instead. His GTK4 UI on all platforms would have been nice. I'm hoping to address some of the solvespace shortcomings in 2025, but he really needed assembly with STEP files which I don't see happening soon.

Did his rewrite of the Solvespace parser get integrated back into Solvespace?

I think you mean solver improvements, but no.

We are doing named parameters soon. Then I make no promises, but looking at fillets and chamfers.

Yes, solver, thank you for correcting my error.

Named parameters would be _huge_!

Looking forward to the announcement!

I don't think there's overlap despite picoCAD having the word "CAD" in its name.

Just compare its examples with dune3d's real world circuit board example to see the difference: https://picocad.net/

Better comparisons would be Crocotile and maybe Blockbench. Not CAD software.

I was writing for folks expecting a "normal" CAD program which was a small download.

Love this! Might nab it just to try it out. A very similar tool is Kenney Shape which has you drawing pixel art with depth numbers for each square that turn into models: https://kenney.nl/tools/kenney-shape

These kind of tools (and the aesthetic) make me so happy for some reason.

Another one that's pretty impressive and very lovely looking is Crocotile: https://crocotile3d.com/

I love Crocotile. It's got very opinionated, kind of weird UX, but it gets me in the zone so so well. I haven't used it in ages, I should give it another spin.

Looking at the video I was instantly teleported back here: https://playclassic.games/games/racing-driving-dos-games-onl...

I really don’t have any usage for such a thing but I love the simplicity of the trailer.

Building low poly models is easy. Hardest part is texturing. Even harder to draw textures that look great at low resolutions.

The texture mapping UX looks so fun, great job!

Thanks! A bit fiddly sometimes but very rewarding

This is super cute.

oh that is sick

edit: their website - https://picocad.net/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com