Open source alternative to Planner 5D and RoomSketcher
Last verified
Build and share 3D architectural projects in your browser. MIT-licensed editor for walls, floors, furniture, and rooms with self-hosting and MCP support.
Sketch walls, swap furniture, and walk through a room before any work begins. Pascal runs in the browser with no account required, stores projects locally in IndexedDB, and lets you share a design as a link.
You need a large curated furniture library or a polished mobile app to show contractors on site. Planner 5D's consumer-focused library and iOS/Android apps serve that workflow better.
Install @pascal-app/viewer and @pascal-app/editor from npm to embed a 3D scene editor in a React application. The MCP server exposes scene data to AI agents for automated analysis, query, and modification.
You need server-side scene rendering, WebGL-only support without WebGPU, or a stable embedding API with long-term backward compatibility commitments. Pascal's API surface is still evolving.
Pascal's CSG geometry system lets you carve, blend, and merge parametric shapes at the layout stage. Plugin authors can add new node types with custom renderers, making the editor extensible for non-architectural use cases.
You need game-engine-native tooling with physics, LOD, and material workflows integrated. Pascal is a browser editor, not a game engine level designer.
Pascal's first-person presentation mode lets clients experience a space as if it already exists. Projects share as browser links without requiring software installation on the client side.
Your client workflow requires printed floor plans, dimensioned exports, or deep BIM compatibility. IFC import is available via @pascal-app/ifc-converter, but the full BIM workflow is limited compared to dedicated BIM tools.
Commercial 3D home design tools hold your project data in their cloud, gate advanced features behind paid subscriptions, and offer no path to self-hosting or scripting. Tools like Planner 5D and RoomSketcher run well in the browser, but exporting high-quality floor plans, managing multiple projects, and sharing designs without watermarks require a subscription. Your layouts live in a format you cannot access programmatically or move freely.
For developers and technical teams, the gap is wider. Existing commercial tools are consumer products with no embedding API, no scripting surface, and no way to integrate scene data into other applications. Building a property app, a digital-twin viewer, or a spatial analytics tool on top of a closed commercial editor is not possible.
Draw walls, slabs, ceilings, and roofs across multiple levels. Place furniture, doors, and windows with spatial collision detection. The scene hierarchy runs from Site to Building to Level, with zones and guide images for reference.
The @pascal-app/mcp package exposes scene tools, resources, and prompts to any MCP-compatible AI host. Agents can read room dimensions, reshape layouts, and query building systems programmatically, making Pascal the only open source 3D building editor with native AI agent integration.
The viewer, editor, and core packages are published on npm under the @pascal-app scope. Drop @pascal-app/viewer into a React application to render existing scenes, or include @pascal-app/editor for full editing. The capture-viewer package adds support for live 3D scan sessions.
New node kinds, 3D renderers, and side panels ship as plugins using the same Plugin manifest the built-in tools use. The pascalorg/plugin-trees repository is a starter template with procedural trees and a presets panel. No separate internal API exists: plugins and built-ins share the same surface.
The Zustand scene store includes 50-step undo/redo via Zundo and persists projects to IndexedDB automatically. State syncs across components without manual save actions, and transient nodes are excluded from persistence to keep snapshots clean.
The viewer uses Three.js with a WebGPU renderer via React Three Fiber. CSG and SDF shapes blend, merge, and carve naturally for parametric geometry. Iridescent, holographic, glass, and procedural materials are supported for high-quality presentation renders.
Both are browser-based tools for designing home interiors and floor plans in 3D. Planner 5D is a commercial product with a free tier and paid plans for HD renders, larger project libraries, and collaboration features. Pascal Editor is MIT-licensed, open source, and self-hostable.
| Feature | Pascal Editor | Planner 5D |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
| Self-hosting | Yes | No |
| Source access | Full TypeScript source | None |
| MCP / AI agent support | Yes | No |
| Mobile app | No native app | iOS and Android |
| Object library | Community-contributed | Large curated catalog |
Pascal Editor wins when you need programmatic scene access, want to embed the editor in your own product, or need to self-host for data ownership. Planner 5D is still the stronger choice for non-technical users who want a polished consumer experience with a large built-in furniture library and mobile app support.
RoomSketcher focuses on professional floor plans with 2D and 3D switching and HD photo exports on paid tiers. Pascal Editor is 3D-first without a dedicated 2D drafting mode, but compensates with an open, extensible architecture.
| Feature | Pascal Editor | RoomSketcher |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
| Self-hosting | Yes | No |
| 2D floor plan drafting | Limited | Full 2D and 3D modes |
| Developer API | npm packages plus MCP | No public API |
| Plugin system | Yes (MIT plugin API) | No |
RoomSketcher is better suited for real estate professionals who need polished 2D floor plan deliverables and HD photo renders without any setup. Pascal Editor is the stronger pick for developers, digital-twin teams, and users who want to extend the editor with custom node types or integrate it into their own stack.
Install the Pascal Editor packages from npm to embed the 3D viewer or full editor in a React application.
```bash
npm install @pascal-app/core @pascal-app/viewer @pascal-app/editor @pascal-app/nodes
```Yes. Pascal Editor is MIT-licensed and free to run locally or self-host on your own infrastructure. There are no paid tiers for the core editor. The hosted version at editor.pascal.app offers AI-powered features that use AI credits, but the editor itself has no subscription requirement.
Run npx @pascal-app/cli editor with Node.js 22.13 or newer. The CLI installs a versioned standalone editor, starts an authenticated MCP service, and stores projects in ~/.pascal/data/pascal.db. You can also clone the GitHub repo and run bun dev from the root directory for a full development setup.
Planner 5D is a commercial consumer product with a polished mobile app, a large furniture library, and cloud storage. Pascal Editor is MIT-licensed, self-hostable, and developer-focused, with npm packages and an MCP server for AI agents. Planner 5D is better for non-technical users who want a finished consumer product; Pascal is better when you need source access, embedding, or scripting.
Yes. Pascal ships @pascal-app/mcp, an MCP server that exposes scene tools and resources to any MCP-compatible AI host. Agents can load a building file, query rooms and their dimensions, and reshape the scene programmatically. Configure your agent host to connect using the pascal mcp connect command.
Yes. Pascal's plugin system lets you ship new node types, 3D renderers, and side panels using the same Plugin manifest the built-in tools use. The pascalorg/plugin-trees repository on GitHub is a working starter example with procedural trees and a presets panel. New node kinds ship via plugins rather than edits to the built-in source.
Alternative toVerse
Word-by-word lyrics for Mac, nine players, Last.fm built in
Alternative to
Napkin AI
Editorial diagrams for Claude Code, no Figma or Mermaid required
Alternative toFlightradar24
Real-time global intelligence on a 3D globe
Alternative to
Font Awesome Pro
6,238 free MIT-licensed SVG icons for web and app design
Alternative to
Google Maps
OpenStreetMap and Google data, no account, no Play Services
Alternative to
Plasmic
Your design canvas is backed by real files in git
Featured
Alternative to
Grok Bot
AI teammates you own: your keys, your model, your machine.
Alternative to
Superhuman
AI email assistant that drafts replies and clears your inbox
Alternative toClaude Managed Agents
Open-source agent deployment API. Self-host or use Omnara Cloud.
The projects we add and every new guide. Free, unsubscribe any time.
Claude Code to 
OpenCode
Jira to 
Windshift
Notion to 
AppFlowy
Slack to 
Mattermost
Linear to 
GitLab
Wispr Flow to 
Handy
CapCut to 
Concat
Grok Bot to 
rakazo
Superhuman to 
Inbox Zero
Airtable to 
AITable
Muse to 
OpenClaw
GitHub Copilot to 
Cline
Datadog to 
Netdata
Microsoft Teams to 
Rocket.Chat
Pinecone to 
Qdrant
Zapier to 
n8n
Devin AI to 
OpenHands
Firebase to 
Supabase
1Password to 
KeePassXCConfluence to 
Docmost
Contentful to 
Strapi
Adobe Premiere Pro to 
Shotcut
ChatGPT to 
AnythingLLM
LangSmith to 
Langfuse
