picoCAD
picoCAD 2 in development
First off - massive thanks to everyone who has supported this project. It has been pure joy seeing it from my own little project to something that is used daily all over the world.
For that very reason I am today announcing picoCAD 2! Powered by Love2D instead of pico8 it packs a serious punch for all your lowpoly and 3d pixelart needs. Here are some highlights:
🚀 No Project Limit
No more hitting walls — create as much as you like (or your computer can cope with).
🖼️ Built-in Texture Editor
Draw pixel art and see your model update in real time. No more switching tools.
🎨 Palette Editor
Customize the colors and how they behave with picoCAD’s unique shading system.
🗂️ Visibility & Organization
Neatly organize large projects with folders, visibility toggles, and more.
🖥️ Refined Interface
Now running at glorious 192×192 pixels — better layouts, better fonts, more clarity.
I need your help!
To make sure this new era of lowpoly modelling takes off in the best possible way, please add your wishlist to the Steam page: https://s.team/a/3675940
As mentioned, this will be released on itch.io as well, but the more traction I can get on Steam the better. Thank you! ❤️
Take care and keep the models tiny.
Johan
Comments
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Awesome! This will make my current project so much easier! I posted in the Discord some questions and if there are any tester positions left. If the release goes well, any future improvements you hope to get to add in post release?
I will admit I think this would be a perfect Touch Device modeller! For iPad or Tablets on the go.
Would love to to post-release updates with both QoL as well as new features. Depends a lot on what it is used for and how it sells though
Is this meant to like replace picocad 1 or are they both their own thing? like if I buy picocad 2 can I still use picocad 1. I don't own it, that's why I'm asking, should I wait for picocad 2 or buy the first one?
picoCAD 2 will be able to do everything the original can.
I'm guessing Picocad 2 is designed to be used for projects in Picotron since it doesn't have the limitations of Pico-8. I'll be buying Picocad 1 soon!
Awesome! :D
picoCAD 2 hos nothing to do with Picotron, you can use it for whatever you want :)
Looking forward to this! I have always wanted to try doing pixel art textures on my lowpoly models, but absolutely do not enjoy how finicky it is to do right in blender.
Will there be character bones?
Sorry to bug you, Johan, but any ETAs for PicoCad 2? I'm in the middle of a new project and I'm kind of dying to get my hands on this!
no worries! Initial plan was this year but Icy Tower took most of my focus so now early Q2 2026 feels more realistic
Aw, shucks. I was hoping for an early January-February release... Still, I'd rather wait and get a finished product than rush the deadline and have it full of bugs. In the meantime, I'll join your Discord to keep an eye on the updates! Thanks for your reply!
Hii, i have question, im i buying here the picocad 2 or 1? im kinda confused D:
This page is for picoCAD 1. picoCAD 2 has not been released yet
Oh ok, thank uu, great work in the program btw! soo cool
TY!
That's so cool! :o Are you planning on adding a slice export too like in magica voxel?
i have no idea what that is 😊
Will there be an Itch release as well as a Steam release? I try to purchase from Itch as much as possible! :)
That's the plan!
Amazing!! Thanks for the reply, can't wait to pick it up on here! :)
yo, r ya doin' this with pico-8? is it posible push it this far?
Nope, I've switched to love2d.
That said, feature-wise a lot of this could be done in pico8, but I would probably have to go multicart
Oh i see, i can't wait for Buy It, im interested in al those features
Hyped for this. Will use this in conjunction with Unity 😎
Is there any way I may apply for the alpha? I'm torn between paying for Picocad or waiting for Picocad 2
Picking testers from the discord community mostly. Not trying to go wide yet, but feel to jump in!
me llama mucho la atencion este programa que quiero hace un juego con esto, cuando sea posible claro
Cool, this should be much easier with the sequel!
Why are you blocked me??? Bro??? You're not cool???
I have some questions.
Will it support other export formats? glTF, FBX, etc.
Will it support adding PBR texture maps, or would I have to export and add those using other software?
Is there a texture size limit?
Hopefully I have some answers!
It already supports OBJ, and I plan to add other formats as well. glft is on the top of that list.
Textures in the program will remain as 128x128 pngs with 16 colors. Any colors though!
Should be easily replaceable with something else in your own pipeline or workflow.
Exciting! Was it relatively easy for you to get up and running in Love2D? It uses a Lua based language as well, yeah?
I've rewritten the whole thing from scratch, but yes I found love2D very easy to get into. It works very close to how I like to do things. It uses standard Lua, while pico8 has a few things extra (that I dearly miss).
WOW
this will be awesome
this is so hype
I brought picoCAD a few days ago and I liked it a lot, my only problem was it was difficult to see what am I clicking on at time due to the windows scale, even in fullscreen.
hopefully picoCAD 2 would address this issue.
picoCAD 2 has a bigger resolution and is much more readable
I'm so excited for this, looking forward to trying to get a shader working in godot to match the style in editor.
Cool!
oh hell yeah, please share if you end up getting a cool shader working
The only thing on Steam I would gladly play $80 for.
I’ll make a special price only for you! 😊