@nativecad/kernel

Renamed in 0.2.0 — this package was published as @cadsolver/kernel. NativeCAD (formerly CADSolver) is the same code under a new name; the repository URL is unchanged.

Zero-dependency JavaScript solid-modeling kernel. STEP AP242 read/write, B-rep feature operations (extrude, revolve, loft, shell, manufacturing holes, fillets, chamfers, booleans (including selective/partial booleans with cell decomposition), patterns), watertight surface tessellation, constrained-Delaunay volume meshing, CAE export (Nastran / Abaqus / VTK), and mass properties. No WASM, no native binaries, no third-party geometry kernels — npm install and you are modeling, versus the request-an-evaluation sales cycle of traditional CAD SDKs.

For rendering in a page, use @nativecad/viewer — it bundles the browser build of this kernel plus a drop-in three.js viewer component. This package is the Node/server-side surface.

Install

npm install @nativecad/kernel

Quickstart — STEP file to mesh

const cad = require('@nativecad/kernel');           // or: import cad from '@nativecad/kernel'

const res = cad.solveStepFile('part.step', { targetCount: 20000 });
// res.mesh  = { vertices, indices, normals, lineIndices, triangleFaceIds }
// res.stats = { vertices, triangles, faces, solids }
console.log(res.stats);

const props = cad.MassProperties.compute(res.mesh); // volume, centroid, inertia

Build a part from code

const cad = require('@nativecad/kernel');

const { parser, solidId } = cad.ops.primitives.box(40, 20, 10);
cad.ops.blend.blendConvexEdges(parser, solidId, { radius: 2 });

const stepText = cad.writeStep(parser);             // STEP AP242 out

Or drive it with a declarative JSON command document (the same format the CADSolver viewer's AI panel executes):

const doc = {
  version: 1,
  ops: [
    { op: 'box', id: 'block', dx: 40, dy: 20, dz: 10 },
    { op: 'blend', of: 'block', radius: 2 },
    { op: 'save', path: 'out/block.step' },
  ],
};
const check = cad.commands.validate(doc);   // { valid, errors }
if (check.valid) cad.commands.run(doc);

Volume meshing + CAE export

const cad = require('@nativecad/kernel');
const res = cad.solveStepFile('bracket.step');

const mesher = new cad.VolumeMesher();
const tets = mesher.mesh(res.mesh);                  // constrained-Delaunay tets
const deck = cad.CaeExporter.toNastran(tets);        // or toAbaqus / toVtk

API surface

Everything on the package export is supported; see index.d.ts for the typed surface. Highlights: solveStep / solveStepFile / solveStl / writeStep (pipeline), StepParser / StepWriter / SurfaceTessellator / Topology (core classes), ops.* (feature operations), commands.* (JSON command layer), sketch.* (2D sketch + constraint solver), MassProperties, GeometryStats, VolumeMesher, CaeExporter.

ops.boolean includes the CADSF-236 selective/partial boolean + cell decomposition entry points (decomposeCells, selectiveBoolean, selectiveBooleanStage2) alongside the classic subtract/union/ intersect — see the repo's docs/SELECTIVE_BOOLEAN.md. ops/offset.js's general body offset (CADSF-262) is aggregated as ops.offset (offsetBody(parser, solidId, distance, opts) — uniform or, via opts.faceDistances, per-face variable; see the source header for the sign convention and the local/convexTrim construction paths). It is not yet a JSON command-document op (commands.run) — only the JS ops.* entry point reaches it today (CADSB-302).

Logging: the kernel is quiet by default as a library (CADSOLVER_QUIET=1); set CADSOLVER_LOG=1 for the diagnostics log. Every solve also returns its provenance lines in res.log.

Versioning

0.x: minor versions may include breaking changes to the deeper B-rep machinery; the pipeline surface (solveStep*, writeStep, mesh payload shape) is stable. From 1.0.0, standard semver.

License

Dual-licensed: free for evaluation, personal, academic, and other non-commercial use; any commercial use requires a paid license — see LICENSE and COMMERCIAL.md (Indie $999/yr if you ship software or $490/yr if you ship hardware, Team $1,900/yr, OEM from $9,500/yr — flat, published, royalty-free). Automatic Support — agent-answered, 24/7/365 — is $499/yr on any plan.