Curv

Curv is an open-source programming language and geometric modelling tool for Linux. It is designed for creating mathematical art and building two-dimensional and three-dimensional models, with support for full colour, animation, and 3D printing. The software fits the Graphics & Design category and can serve both beginners exploring shape construction and experienced users who want to program geometry directly.

Curv uses a simple, dynamically typed, pure functional language for describing models. Beginners can combine predefined shapes from its standard library with operators that transform and join them, assembling designs in a way comparable to connecting building blocks. Coloured shapes use Function Representation, or F-Rep, which can describe infinitely detailed and infinitely large forms, as well as mathematically defined colour patterns. This representation allows shapes and their colours to be specified exactly when they can be expressed mathematically.

Advanced users can access the underlying F-Rep programming model rather than relying only on the standard geometry library. The library itself is written in Curv, and techniques from demonstrations on shadertoy.com can be reproduced with shorter, simpler programs or packaged as higher-level operations for beginners. Rendering is GPU accelerated because Curv programs are compiled into fragment shaders that run on the graphics processor. Example geometries are available in the project repository at https://github.com/curv3d/curv/tree/master/examples.

Curv can export meshes in STL, OBJ, and X3D formats for 3D printing. Its exported meshes are watertight and manifold, with no self-intersections, degenerate triangles, or flipped triangles, while X3D supports full-colour 3D printing on Shapeways.com, at least. MirrorNest stores the official build directly on its own storage and scans it for malware before publishing, but this listing is an unofficial package and is not related to the Curv project. In this snapped version, the -e command-line option for opening an external editor is not supported, so the editor must be opened separately, and some GPU setups have known issues.