BRL-CAD: The Design Software Created for Defense

With so many 3D design and modeling tools available, finding the right fit can be overwhelming. Enter BRL-CAD, an open-source, cross-platform software built on constructive solid geometry (CSG)—a method that delivers highly accurate, optimized renderings. While useful for general CAD work, BRL-CAD stands out for its role in the defense sector, where it enables the simulation of physical phenomena like ballistic penetration and thermal transport. Naturally, its designs can be exported for 3D printing.

BRL-CAD was born as an internal project of the United States Army Research Laboratory in 1979. At the time, they were looking for tools to digitally simulate combat vehicles and analyze their systems. Unable to find any tool that suited their needs, the researchers decided to turn the search into an initiative, and after a few years of development, they launched the CAD package in 1984. However, it wouldn’t be until 2004 that BRL-CAD became an open-source project. The team in charge of developing it was led by scientist Mike Muss, and in that first version, they managed to create an interface for viewing, editing and interrogating geometric models.

What Features Does BRL-CAD Have?

BRL-CAD was built with a clear purpose, and decades of refinement have made it a powerful design tool. With over 30 years of active development, it goes beyond simply preserving your design—it also enables performance analysis of the systems you create. In practice, that means you can not only visualize a model but also integrate functional components, such as an engine or bike wheels, to see how they interact. Thanks to these capabilities, BRL-CAD is especially suited for complex, high-precision 3D printing projects.

BRL-CAD also features an interactive geometry editor that verifies, validates, and measures the performance of shapes, ensuring exceptional precision. Its high-performance ray tracing delivers impressive rendering quality, as shown in the image below. Users can access a vast library of both simple and complex shapes to easily incorporate into their designs, and since becoming open source, BRL-CAD has grown to include over 400 tools. The software is available for download across a wide range of operating systems, including Linux, macOS, Windows, BSD and Solaris.

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The BRL-CAD rendering is very detailed.

In short, BRL-CAD is a robust and highly accurate software, making it ideal for complex modeling tasks. If you think it’s a solution that suits your needs and you want to start designing, you can find a beginner’s guide and another for more advanced users on the BRL-CAD website. Finally, it’s worth remembering that BRL-CAD is open source, so if you have programming experience, you can examine its source code, make modifications, or distribute it.

The CAD program interface

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*All Photo Credits: BRL-CAD