Nanquim

A browser-based 2D CAD editor built around editable SVG.

Live demo · Report a bug · Source code

Public-beta plan · Changelog · Capability status · Visual identity · Native document format · Editing transactions · Testing · Browser support

Warning

Nanquim is in active, pre-1.0 development. Features and saved metadata may still change, and some CAD and file-format edge cases are not covered by automated tests. Use copies of important drawings and please report anything that breaks.

About

Nanquim is an open-source 2D CAD editor for creating technical drawings directly in the browser. Its document model is SVG, so drawings remain inspectable, portable vector files rather than being locked into an opaque project format. Nanquim adds CAD-oriented precision tools, organization, Paper Space, reusable content, and procedural geometry on top of that SVG foundation.

The name is a reference to the technical ink pens (canetas nanquim) traditionally used by architects and engineers. The long-term vision is to explore a lightweight technical drawing workflow that can interoperate well with open design tools such as Blender and Bonsai. Direct Blender/Bonsai integration is not implemented yet.

Appearance and identity

Nanquim keeps its editor-oriented CAD workspace while using an original visual language based on technical ink, drafting marks, and restrained paper-like surfaces. Its project-authored SVG icons replace the prototype's inherited icon artwork and remain crisp and theme-aware at compact UI sizes.

Open Preferences → Appearance to choose Oxide Red, Verdigris Green, or Blueprint Blue. Selecting either color field creates a custom theme with independent accent and background colors; the interface automatically chooses a readable light or dark foreground. Appearance is stored only in the browser and never changes or dirties the drawing document. See the visual-identity guide for the design and icon rules.

Current capabilities

The list below describes the available surface. The capability ledger records which areas are stable, partial, experimental, or planned, together with their current evidence and limitations.

Drawing and annotation

• Lines, circles, rectangles, arcs, ellipses, polylines, and splines.
• Live text creation and editing.
• Hatches with selectable patterns, scale, color, opacity, and island-aware boundaries.
• Linear and aligned dimensions with reusable dimension styles.
• Distance measurement and enclosed-area calculation.

Editing and modification

• Move, Copy, Rotate, Scale, Offset, Fillet, Join, Mirror, Erase, Trim, and Extend.
• Group and Ungroup for ordinary SVG geometry.
• Directional window/crossing selection, multi-selection, and disambiguation when elements overlap.
• Direct editing grips for supported element types, including transformed geometry.
• Editable names, coordinates, geometry, stroke, fill, opacity, and dash properties.
• Match Properties and a shared Undo/Redo history for the main editing operations.

Precision workflow

• AutoCAD-style command terminal with aliases, autocomplete, prompts, and repeat-last-command behavior.
• Numeric input plus @x,y relative coordinates and #x,y absolute coordinates.
• Ortho and polar tracking with on-canvas guides.
• Configurable endpoint, midpoint, center, quadrant, intersection, extension, perpendicular, tangent, nearest, and grid snaps.
• Dynamic grid and axes, configurable interaction tolerances, and zoom-independent handles and snap markers.

Organization and reusable content

• Collections/layers with an active destination, inherited styles, visibility, locking, and opacity.
• A Blender-style Outliner synchronized with viewport selection.
• Nested SVG groups and element type indicators.
• Reusable Blocks that can be created, inserted as instances, and edited in place with Save or Discard.
• Reusable text and dimension styles, with locally bundled Inter, DM Sans, JetBrains Mono, and Fira Code families available to both the browser UI and PDF embedding. The provenance inventory documents portable variants and output limitations.

Paper Space and output

• A separate Paper Space with ISO A0–A4 and custom sheet sizes and portrait/landscape orientation.
• Multiple live model viewports with editable 1:N scales and model origins.
• Paper annotations and per-color print mapping, including grayscale and black presets.
• Paper export to standalone SVG and PDF.

SVG, DXF, and browser files

• Create, open, save, and Save As editable schema-v3 SVG documents with transactional replacement, dirty-state protection, and metadata for collections, specialized geometry, styles, blocks, Paper Space, and Geometry Nodes. Historical schema-v1/v2 documents migrate on Open.
• Import supported DXF geometry and export common DXF entities, including lines, circles, ellipses, arcs, polylines, and text. Numeric circular rectangle fillets survive exchange as polyline arcs, including after rotation and uniform scale. DXF text import is not supported yet; see the DXF profile and limits.
• Insert local PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP images with IMAGE (IMG, IMAGEATTACH) or drop an image into the Model viewport. Images are embedded in the drawing; see the image workflow and limits.
• Copy and paste Nanquim SVG elements with ID cleanup.
• Click the Nanquim icon in the top bar to reopen Welcome and browse the dated changelog with commit links. Recent disk files are also available where the browser supports persistent file handles.
• Ctrl+N, Ctrl+O, Ctrl+S, and Ctrl+Shift+S cover New, Open, Save, and Save As, with download/upload fallbacks when direct file access is unavailable. Because browsers cannot confirm a portable download was kept, download-only Save As conservatively leaves the drawing marked unsaved.

DXF is a broad format and round-trip support is not complete. Real-world SVG and DXF compatibility reports are especially useful.

Experimental Geometry Nodes

Nanquim includes a Blender-inspired Geometry Nodes MVP for procedural 2D SVG. A modifier can be attached non-destructively to selected SVG geometry, keeping its source while rendering an evaluated SVG result.

The current node library includes:

• Line, Circle, Rectangle, and Text primitives.
• Join Geometry, Transform Geometry, linear arrays, and polar arrays.
• Set Style.
• Float, Integer, Boolean, Vector 2D, Color, Math, Vector Math, Combine XY, and Separate XY utilities.

The node editor supports pan/zoom, Fit, a searchable Shift+A menu, X/Delete, typed sockets, and undoable graph edits. Pulling a connection into empty space opens a search filtered to compatible nodes and sockets. Dropping an unconnected node over a wire inserts it into the flow; overlapping neighbors move apart with a short collision-aware animation.

Node graphs are stored in saved SVG metadata, preserve a last-known rendered SVG result, and can be muted, removed, or applied back into ordinary editable SVG geometry. This system is experimental: standard SVG primitives are the primary target, and attaching a modifier currently requires the selected source elements to share a parent.

Commands and aliases

Enter a command or alias in the terminal, then follow its prompt.

The left command palette exposes the same registry-backed commands as the terminal through icon buttons. Drag its right edge to resize it: the compact rail shows icons, while widths of 168px or more reveal tool names grouped by category. Use Tools in the application bar or press F4 to show or hide it.

Area	Commands
General	HELP (?)
Draw	LINE (L), CIRCLE (C), ELLIPSE (EL), RECTANGLE (REC), ARC (A), POLYLINE (PL), SPLINE (SP), TEXT (T), HATCH (H), IMAGE (IMG, IMAGEATTACH)
Modify	MOVE (M), COPY (CO), ROTATE (R), SCALE (S), OFFSET (O), FILLET (F), JOIN (J), MIRROR (MI), TRIM (TR), EXTEND (EX), ERASE (E)
Organize	GROUP (G), UNGROUP (UG), BLOCK (B), INSERT (I), MATCH_PROPERTIES (MA)
Measure and annotate	DIST (D), AREA (AR), DIMLINEAR (DM), DIMALIGNED (DA)
Paper Space	VIEWPORT (VP)

MOVE and COPY use the current selection and immediately ask for a base point. With no preselection, select the elements and press Enter first. Object Snap (F9 or the viewport button) is available when choosing the base and destination points.

DIST (D) measures two clicked or typed points in Draw or Paper Space. In Paper Space, distances and X/Y deltas use Paper SVG units, including inside a scaled Model viewport. Divide by the Paper settings' units per centimetre for the physical distance in centimetres. The measurement disappears on Esc, the next command, or a space switch and is excluded from saves and exports.

Useful keys

Key	Action
F1	Open the command and keyboard shortcut reference
Space or Enter	Confirm terminal input; blank Space repeats the previous command
Esc	Cancel the active command or interaction
Delete	Delete the current selection
Ctrl+N	Create a new drawing
Ctrl+O	Open an SVG or DXF drawing
Ctrl+S	Save the editable native SVG document
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save the editable document under a new name
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Undo / Redo
F2	Expand or restore the terminal
F3	Toggle all viewport overlays
F4	Show or hide the command tools palette
F7	Toggle the grid
F8	Toggle Ortho
F9	Toggle object snapping
F10	Toggle polar tracking

Browser support and current limitations

• Desktop Chromium stable and the previous stable release are the primary beta target. Firefox stable and ESR are supported through the upload/download file workflow. Safari/WebKit is currently best-effort and checked manually before prereleases; mobile and touch-first editing are not supported yet.
• Persistent recent-file handles and direct overwrite require a secure context (https or localhost) and Chromium's File System Access API. The portable path uses file upload and download.
• System clipboard access depends on browser permissions, a secure context, and user activation; native paste events remain the fallback where available.
• DXF import/export supports common drawing entities, not every DXF feature or vendor extension.
• Every registered command has a deterministic invocation/cancellation contract, with deeper geometry and Undo/Redo cases for high-risk editing tools. Coverage is ratcheted in CI, and stock Chromium and Firefox run the same production-build workflow harness. Specialized geometry and interoperability combinations still require broader qualification.
• Real-time collaboration, geometric constraints, direct Blender/Bonsai connectivity, and desktop/PWA packaging are future ideas rather than current features.

See the browser and file-API support policy for the exact tiers, fallbacks, and per-release verification record.

Local development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22.22.2 or newer in the 22.x line.
• pnpm 8.15.5 (the version pinned in package.json).

Run the editor

git clone https://github.com/elschilling/nanquim.git
cd nanquim
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Vite will print the local development URL in the terminal.

Tests and production build

pnpm test
pnpm test:coverage
pnpm test:browser:chromium
pnpm test:browser:firefox
pnpm build

Use pnpm test:watch while developing. See Testing and coverage for the fixture contract, current ratchet, browser requirements, and failure artifacts.

Release maintainers should use the release, deployment, and rollback checklist.

Road to 1.0.0

The immediate goal is reliability rather than adding every possible CAD command. The most valuable testing areas are:

• SVG and DXF round trips through real design applications.
• Trim, Extend, Fillet, and snaps on arcs, ellipse arcs, splines, transformed geometry, and block instances.
• Paper scales, annotations, dimensions, fonts, print-color mapping, and PDF output.
• Large architectural drawings, selection performance, and Outliner responsiveness.
• Save/reopen, recent-file behavior, and long Undo/Redo sessions across browsers.
• Geometry Nodes persistence, Apply/Remove, compatible-node search, wire insertion, and export behavior.
• International keyboard layouts and focus switching between the terminal, Properties, and node editor.

Contributing and bug reports

Ideas, focused pull requests, and reproducible bug reports are welcome. Please use GitHub Issues and include, when possible:

• Browser, browser version, and operating system.
• The steps needed to reproduce the problem.
• Expected and actual behavior.
• A small shareable SVG or DXF file.
• A screenshot or short recording.
• Relevant browser console errors.

Contributors and coding agents should also read AGENTS.md.

License

Nanquim is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. Bundled third-party code, fonts, and artwork retain their respective licenses; see Third-party notices and the asset provenance inventory.