SweeperCAD

Videos

0, the idea: most 3D software picks a tool - extrude, revolve, loft or sweep. SweeperCAD has one: a profile along a spine, with a scale graph and an end profile. Cube, cone, ball and torus morph one into the next by moving those handles. Everything is a sweep - hence the name.

Profile, spine, scale graph, booleans, fillets and arrays in 50 seconds - every picture made by SweeperCAD itself.

Part 2, the deeper tools: editing live in 3D, drawing, start and end profiles, twist and roll, chains that morph, placing on surfaces, blends, measuring, lattices and references.

Part 3, non-destructive hard surface: a mech arm built from 35 nodes - intersect, subtract, arrays, blends - then a part dragged and the very first profile changed, and everything after it follows.

Part 4, precise - loose when you want it, exact when you need it: drag points and handles right in 3D, then place on a surface, measure and keep a distance, and link profiles across nodes; the sketch editor's live dimensions, angles, constraints and corners (sharp, chamfer, round, bezier); the dials and the pivot; and variable-radius fillets to G2.

Part 5, work with what you have: a mesh as a reference, the section plane cutting it, five cuts becoming a stack of linked sweeps that rebuild it as editable CAD - then the same mesh worked on directly as a polygon part, read as a smooth CAD surface, and a STEP imported and slotted.

Part 6, math, names & links: every number field is a small calculator - type 360/3 and it is 120; use another object's own numbers by its name (tube.length + 2, tube.radius + 1 for a clearance) and names of your own, and everything that uses them follows; click a part to drop its number into the field; and the measure tool now links rotation and scale between two parts - with their offset kept, turn or grow either one and the other follows.

Part 7, check it: look inside with the section slider, the numbers (size, surface, volume, weight in a material), walls thinner than you allow, a bracket held and pushed with the stress on it, and zebra stripes that show whether a blend is really smooth.

Part 8, shape it: a profile built from several shapes - pick a preset, add it, and the outline is their live Boolean, every shape still editable; draw on surfaces and fill a closed loop with a texture that follows the curve, carve it with a stroke; drop parts and let them settle; a route that finds its own way around; patch holes in a scanned mesh and sweep it into smooth CAD; the casting check - where a part sets last and how it fills from the gate - with a runner routed from the gate; and machining: toolpaths for a 3-axis router, simulated on the stock, checked, then G-code.

Part 9, unfold: lay a part out flat at true size to print and cut. Paper and card come out exact, with glue tabs, numbered seams and fold lines; fabric and leather as panels with a stretch map, seam allowance and notches. Place your own seams and darts, keep any automatic split joined, then print at 100 % (the 50 mm bar checks it), or save a PDF or an SVG for a cutter or laser.

Part 10, glasses, moulds and making: lenses from a prescription, cut the way an optician cuts them, checked against the curve of your face, with a data sheet for the optician - a study tool, not medically approved. Moulds for any part: a thin eggshell to print, cast into and crack away - or split along one or more cuts, pie-wise or on a plane you place, with flanges, registration bumps, a funnel, vents, a core, engraved text, and cracks only where the mould would lock; or a cradle, a box or a pour box around it. A part too big for the printer is cut to fit, with tenons and mortises or dowel holes. And parts cut from flat sheets: stacked layers, a slotted waffle, or a box with finger joints and a living hinge - as pages to print or an SVG straight to a laser cutter or cutting plotter. And metal: round parts turned on the lathe (G-code, or the diameters and a 1:1 template for a manual lathe), and tube, wire and flat bar as bends - a bend sheet, the table for a CNC bender, G-code for a wire bender - even a route laid over a part's surface, ready to bend.

Part 11, the bridge node: join any number of shapes with one smooth piece - select them and press ⋔. The end caps disappear into one solid and every seam runs on smoothly. Ends side by side, like fingers on a hand, get a real U between them; Reach and Bulge set how far it runs out and how full the middle is. One shape on its own gets a rounded end, two are joined by a smooth tube, and for each shape you choose which end joins.

Part 12, share your parts: keep them on the asset shelf, put one back in place, share a folder with others, bring in a whole file - and the free online library: share a part from SweeperCAD, a robot checks it, and anyone can download it straight onto their shelf.

Part 13, a personal message: why SweeperCAD exists, what I promise, and how you can help.