OpenVCAD

Volumetric, Multi-Material, Programmable CAD for Additive Manufacturing

OpenVCAD is an open-source volumetric geometry compiler for the design and fabrication of functionally graded, multi-material objects. It brings advanced implicit modeling and programmable parametric design into the world of additive manufacturing.

Quick Start

pip install OpenVCAD

Wheels are published for Python 3.12–3.14 on 64-bit Windows, Linux (glibc 2.39+), and macOS 15+ on Apple silicon. The install includes pyvcad, pyvcad_compilers, pyvcad_rendering, pyvcad_medical, pyvcad_attribute_resolver, and pyvcad_metamaterials.

import pyvcad as pv
import pyvcad_metamaterials as mm
import pyvcad_rendering as viz

# Define a 30x30x30 mm block
block = 30.0

# Create a cell map for a 3x3x3 lattice
cell_map = mm.rectangular_cell_map(
    (
        pv.Vec3(-block / 2.0, -block / 2.0, -block / 2.0),
        pv.Vec3(block / 2.0, block / 2.0, block / 2.0),
    ),
    cells=(3, 3, 3),
)

# Build a bcc strut lattice
root = mm.graph_lattice(cell_map, "bcc", beam_radius=1.0)

# Apply a modulus gradient in MPa from 10 MPa (soft) to 2000 MPa (stiff)
# mapped across the Z axis from -15 to +15.
modulus_expr = "10.0 + (z + 15.0) * (2000.0 - 10.0) / 30.0"
modulus = pv.FloatAttribute(modulus_expr)
root.set_attribute(pv.DefaultAttributes.MODULUS, modulus)

viz.Render(root)

Resources

Examples

Clone this repo to get runnable example scripts:

git clone https://github.com/MacCurdyLab/OpenVCAD-Public.git
cd OpenVCAD-Public/examples

See the Getting Started tutorial in the documentation for a walkthrough.

License

OpenVCAD is released under a non-commercial open-source license. See the LICENSE file for details.

Citing OpenVCAD

If you use OpenVCAD in your research, please cite the relevant papers below.

@article{wade2026gradingslicing,
  title = {Functionally Grading the Slicing Process by Compiling Design Intent into Slicer Projects},
  author = {Wade, Charles and Beck, Devon and MacCurdy, Robert},
  journal = {arXiv Pre-print},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2607.25326},
}

@article{wade2026attributemodeling,
  title = {Design-Intent Compilation for Heterogeneous Fabrication},
  author = {Wade, Charles and Beck, Devon and MacCurdy, Robert},
  journal = {arXiv Pre-print},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2607.22741},
}

@article{wade2025pyvcad,
  title = {Implicit Modeling for 3D-printed Multi-material Computational Object Design via Python},
  author = {Wade, Charles and Beck, Devon and MacCurdy, Robert},
  journal = {Proceedings of the 10th ACM Symposium on Computational Fabrication},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2509.15562},
}

@article{wade2025implicit,
  title = {Implicit Toolpath Generation for Functionally Graded Additive Manufacturing via Gradient-Aware Slicing},
  author = {Wade, Charles and Beck, Devon and MacCurdy, Robert},
  journal = {Additive Manufacturing},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.addma.2025.104963},
}

@article{wade2024openvcad,
  title={OpenVCAD: An open source volumetric multi-material geometry compiler},
  author={Wade, Charles and Williams, Graham and Connelly, Sean and Kopec, Braden and MacCurdy, Robert},
  journal={Additive Manufacturing},
  volume={79},
  pages={103912},
  year={2024},
  publisher={Elsevier}
}

See the publications page in the documentation for a short summary of each paper.