Zoo Design Studio

Zoo Design Studio is a CAD modeling platform that supports both traditional parametric workflows and programmatic, API-driven design. It runs in browser and desktop environments, with a quickstart process that guides new users through account creation and workspace setup.

The platform is built around three interaction modes: point-and-click 2D sketching, conversational AI assistance through Zookeeper, and direct code authoring in KCL (the KittyCAD Language). According to Zoo's documentation, KCL is a custom programming language for geometry creation — users can write it directly or let Zoo's UI and Zookeeper generate it behind the scenes.

The sketching workflow follows familiar CAD conventions. Users set their preferred units (millimeters or inches), select a work plane, and enter 2D sketching mode. The quickstart guide recommends extruding a main solid shape before cutting holes — using extrude-cut or Boolean subtraction on a face of the existing body — which mirrors parametric modeling best practices.

Zookeeper serves as an in-application AI assistant. Zoo's getting-started materials describe it as a conversational tool that can perform actions, explain design decisions, and guide users through changes, functioning as a co-pilot embedded in the modeling environment.

Import and export capabilities cover common engineering exchange formats. The documentation confirms support for STEP, SLDPRT (SolidWorks), and STL file import. Models created with Zookeeper are auto-saved to the project folder and can be exported to any supported format at any time — no lock-in to a proprietary save format.

Behind the desktop and browser application, Zoo exposes three API families: Engine API, Agent API, and File Format API. These APIs, described as offering access to cutting-edge design and machine learning tools, allow developers to automate modeling operations and integrate Zoo's capabilities into external pipelines. An OpenAPI schema endpoint is available for client generation, and a CLI tool provides command-line management.

API pricing uses a free-first, metered model: $10 of free API calls per month, then $0.0083 per second of compute. According to the pricing page, failed API calls are not charged — customers pay only for successful calls.

Zoo also maintains related products, including an Aquarium CAD Gallery for model sharing and a downloadable desktop app with release notes tracking updates. Community support, terms, a privacy policy, and security documentation are publicly accessible.

For teams evaluating API-driven design tools, Zoo sits within the growing AI API Design space. Tools like Dr7.ai and You.com offer different approaches to AI-assisted workflows, though their design-domain specializations differ substantially from Zoo's CAD focus.

The combination of a conversational AI assistant, a code-first geometry language, and programmatic APIs places Zoo Design Studio at an unusual intersection: it targets traditional CAD users seeking smarter tools while also appealing to developers building automated design pipelines. Whether the KCL language and Zookeeper are mature enough for production engineering workflows cannot be determined from vendor documentation alone — independent evaluation would be needed to assess surface quality, constraint solver robustness, and API reliability under real workloads.