Scriptable CAD with Lua. Write parametric 2D and 3D models in Lua and export them to 3MF, STL, OBJ, PLY, OFF, AMF, or SCAD, or render them straight to a PNG.

LuaCAD embeds Lua 5.4 in a Rust engine that evaluates CSG operations directly (via Manifold ) or generates OpenSCAD code for external rendering.

Why Lua?

Similar syntax as the OpenSCAD language, but better: More powerful

More consistent

Faster

Easily embeddable

Operator overloading for natural CSG syntax ( a + b , a - b , a * b )

Already used in other CAD software like LibreCAD and Autodesk Netfabb

Example

LuaCAD:

my_cube = cube { size = { 1, 2, 3 } }

function my_sphere(radius) return sphere({ r = radius }):translate(5, 0, 0) end

model = my_cube + my_sphere(2)

render(model)

Equivalent OpenSCAD:

module my_cube() { cube(size=[1,2,3]); }

module my_sphere(radius) { translate([5,0,0]) sphere(r = radius); }

union() { my_cube(); my_sphere(2); }

Getting Started

cargo install luacad # CLI for running and converting LuaCAD scripts cargo…