alt Hacker NewsI've been using zoo and its KCL language with some success for boundary-representation CAD writing. If I understood correctly, µcad serves the same purpose. Comparing code samples between both of them, I personally enjoy KCL's pipelined approach more.
My main beef with zoo is the fact that they are promoting vendor lock-in by forcing users to use their cloud-hosted geometry kernel with absolutely no local alternative. It's not clear to me how µcad solves this problem.
[1] Lego brick in KCL: https://zoo.dev/docs/kcl-samples/lego
[2] Lego brick in µcad: https://microcad.xyz/index.php/2025/11/12/lego-bricks/
[3] Gear in KCL: https://zoo.dev/docs/kcl-samples/spur-gear
[4] Gear in µcad: https://microcad.xyz/index.php/2025/11/12/gears/
Replies
Doesn't it solve the problem by being local? https://codeberg.org/microcad/microcad
Zoo has said it's open to local hosting of the kernel for years. I believe it's a matter of time because it's mostly about legal tape.
ucad is based on Manifold, so unfortunately, not really comparable, since it's all meshes vs brep, like OpenSCAD.
Note KCL could be completely augmented with another kernel. There are people who've already tried :)
Lego brick in build123d: https://build123d.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial_lego.htm...
Gear in build123d: https://github.com/GarryBGoode/gggears