COMPAS — The Complete Guide: An Open Python Framework for Computational Design and Digital Fabrication

COMPAS is an open-source Python framework for research and computational design in architecture, engineering, digital fabrication and construction. It is not a program with windows and buttons but a code library — a shared foundation on which tools for algorithmic structural and architectural design are built.

COMPAS

COMPAS development team (compas-dev)

Open Python framework for computational design in construction — geometry, data structures and digital fabrication tools, also inside Rhino and Blender.

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What you get

Geometry — points, vectors, surfaces and transformations.
Data structures — meshes and graphs to represent structures.
Extensions — for example for structural form-finding and robotic fabrication.
Simple installation — through conda or pip.
Runs anywhere — any environment that runs Python, including Rhino, Grasshopper and Blender.

Licence and who it suits

The core library is released under the MIT licence and may be used for any purpose, including commercial work. COMPAS itself is free; Rhino, if you want to work inside it, is separate commercial software, while Blender is free. The framework suits researchers, students and engineers who write Python — if you are looking for design software with a graphical interface, you will not find it here.

Related tools

A free environment to run and display the geometry — Blender. To work with IFC models from Python — IfcOpenShell. For parametric CAD modelling in code — CadQuery.