| ▲ | picoCAD – a tiny modeler for tiny models(store.steampowered.com) |
| 171 points by johanpeitz 12 hours ago | 29 comments |
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| ▲ | catskull 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| 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and picocad is the only one I’ve been able to actually pick up and use without unsuccessfully spending hours watching outdated tutorials.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! |
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| ▲ | hombre_fatal an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | 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 | |
| ▲ | johanpeitz 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | 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. | |
| ▲ | nickthegreek 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | That’s how I feel about tinkercad. |
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| ▲ | johanpeitz 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| 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 :) |
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| ▲ | Herbstluft 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | 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? | | |
| ▲ | johanpeitz 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | 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. |
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| ▲ | oefnak 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Does it have steam deck support? Can you export to .stl? | | |
| ▲ | johanpeitz 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | 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 |
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| ▲ | tym0 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | 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? | | |
| ▲ | johanpeitz 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | pico8 has the ability to export anything you make into native binaries. Simple as that :) |
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| ▲ | elldes 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | This looks so cool! Is there a workflow you would recommend for creating animations once the model has been created in picoCAD? | | |
| ▲ | johanpeitz 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | 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 |
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| ▲ | d--b 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Jesus fucking christ, you're good at this. |
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| ▲ | amne 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Looking at the video I was instantly teleported back here: https://playclassic.games/games/racing-driving-dos-games-onl... |
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| ▲ | WillAdams 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| 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) |
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| ▲ | phkahler 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | 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. | | |
| ▲ | WillAdams 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Did his rewrite of the Solvespace parser get integrated back into Solvespace? |
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| ▲ | hombre_fatal an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | 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. | | |
| ▲ | WillAdams an hour ago | parent [-] | | I was writing for folks expecting a "normal" CAD program which was a small download. |
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| ▲ | slopeloaf 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| 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 |
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| ▲ | 2mol an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| 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/ |
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| ▲ | j_4 an hour ago | parent [-] | | 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. |
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| ▲ | butz 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Building low poly models is easy. Hardest part is texturing. Even harder to draw textures that look great at low resolutions. |
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| ▲ | pjerem 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I really don’t have any usage for such a thing but I love the simplicity of the trailer. |
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| ▲ | Rygian 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The texture mapping UX looks so fun, great job! |
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| ▲ | hnarayanan 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This is super cute. |
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| ▲ | throawayonthe 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| oh that is sick edit: their website - https://picocad.net/ |
