Zoo
Text-to-CAD and GPU-native design APIs for hardware engineers, formerly KittyCAD.
About
Zoo (renamed from KittyCAD in January 2024) builds a hardware-design ecosystem around its Geometry Engine. Its standout capability is Text-to-CAD: unlike mesh-based text-to-3D tools, it generates B-Rep CAD surfaces, so the resulting STEP files import into existing CAD programs as editable geometry rather than amorphous blobs. The open-source Text-to-CAD platform combines the KittyCAD design API with the ML-ephant machine-learning API, trained on Zoo's proprietary datasets.
Zoo also ships a Modeling App, a GitHub diff viewer for CAD, client libraries for Python, TypeScript, Go, and Rust, and KCL (KittyCAD Language) code export. Founded by Relativity Space and Markforged veterans Jessie Frazelle and Jordan Noone. Limitations: Text-to-CAD remains in alpha and is a starter-model generator, not a replacement for detailed engineering work; generation can take minutes per part; and output quality depends heavily on prompt specificity.
What it can do
- Text-to-CAD generation producing editable B-Rep geometry
- GPU-native design API with Python/TS/Go/Rust clients
- Modeling App with KCL code export
- CAD diff viewer for GitHub workflows
Setup
Sign up at zoo.dev, install the Modeling App, or grab an API token for the design API.
Prerequisites
An account; API token for programmatic use.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 7/10
Scored 7/10 (metrics tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: Verified via vendor site/docs/GitHub and reputable coverage, wave 69; Trending score 72/100 from researcher assessment.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.