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name: pascal-editor description: >- Build and extend 3D building editor apps with Pascal Editor, an open-source React Three Fiber and WebGPU editor whose scene is a flat Zustand node store (site, building, level, wall, door, window, slab, zone). Use when building a 3D architectural tool or BIM-like editor, generating floor plans from code or an AI agent, extending Pascal with custom node plugins, or running its MCP server. license: MIT compatibility: "Node.js 22.13+, React 18 or 19, three 0.186, @react-three/fiber 9, @react-three/drei 10" metadata: author: terminal-skills version: "1.1.0" category: design tags: [pascal-editor, 3d, react-three-fiber, architecture, bim] repository: https://github.com/pascalorg/editor

Pascal Editor Integration

Overview

Pascal Editor (pascalorg/editor, MIT) is a 3D building editor built on React Three Fiber with a WebGPU renderer. The scene is a flat dictionary of typed nodes held in a Zustand store (useScene); parent/child links are ids. It ships as npm packages: @pascal-app/core (zod node schemas, stores, registry), @pascal-app/viewer (3D rendering), @pascal-app/nodes (built-in node definitions, renderers and systems as a plugin), @pascal-app/editor (tools and panels) and @pascal-app/cli (local editor plus MCP server). There is no @pascal-app/ui package. Versions checked: core and viewer 1.0.3.

Instructions

Run the editor locally, or let an agent drive it

npm install --global @pascal-app/cli
npx @pascal-app/cli editor        # editor + authenticated MCP service, projects in ~/.pascal/data/pascal.db

An agent can be pointed at pascal mcp connect (no browser needed). To embed instead of run, install into a Next.js app:

npm install @pascal-app/core @pascal-app/viewer @pascal-app/nodes @pascal-app/editor
npm install next react react-dom three @react-three/fiber @react-three/drei lucide-react zustand

Node hierarchy

Site -> Building -> Level -> Wall -> Door / Window / Item
                          -> Slab, Ceiling, Roof, Zone, Stair, Guide, Scan ...

Every node has id (prefixed, e.g. wall_4muwxrhv...), type, parentId, visible, optional metadata, and containers have children (ids). Properties are flat on the node: there is no props wrapper. Units are metres; plan coordinates are [x, z] pairs.

Stores

import { useScene } from '@pascal-app/core'   // nodes, rootNodeIds, dirtyNodes, CRUD
import { useViewer } from '@pascal-app/viewer' // selection, levelMode, wallMode, camera mode

useScene actions include createNode(node, parentId?), createNodes, updateNode(id, data), updateNodes, deleteNode(s), markDirty, setScene, clearScene. The scene persists to IndexedDB with undo/redo (Zundo). useEditor (active tool, layers, panels) lives in @pascal-app/editor.

Create nodes: parse with the zod schema, then store

Schemas are exported from @pascal-app/core and fill defaults and ids. Verified in Node 24:

import { useScene, SiteNode, BuildingNode, LevelNode, WallNode, DoorNode, SlabNode, ZoneNode } from '@pascal-app/core'

const scene = useScene.getState()
const site = SiteNode.parse({ polygon: { type: 'polygon', points: [[0, 0], [30, 0], [30, 30], [0, 30]] } })
scene.createNode(site)
const building = BuildingNode.parse({}); scene.createNode(building, site.id)
const level = LevelNode.parse({ level: 0, height: 2.7 }); scene.createNode(level, building.id)

const wall = WallNode.parse({ start: [0, 0], end: [10, 0], thickness: 0.2, height: 2.7 })
scene.createNode(wall, level.id)

// Door position is the centre in wall-local coordinates; y = half the height
const door = DoorNode.parse({ position: [3.5, 1.05, 0], width: 1.0, height: 2.1, wallId: wall.id })
scene.createNode(door, wall.id)

The parent's children array is updated by createNode. Other useful fields: WindowNode has position, width and height (default 1.5), windowType, sill; SlabNode has polygon, holes, thickness, elevation; ZoneNode has name, polygon, ceilingHeight (2.7), color, spaceRole. LevelNode uses level (index), baseElevation and height, not an elevation per level. updateNode schedules work with requestAnimationFrame, so it only runs in a browser, not a bare Node script.

Render

import { loadPlugin } from '@pascal-app/core'
import { builtinPlugin } from '@pascal-app/nodes'
import { Viewer } from '@pascal-app/viewer'

const registryReady = loadPlugin(builtinPlugin)   // register node definitions before rendering

export function BuildingViewer({ ready }: { ready: boolean }) {
  return ready ? <div style={{ width: '100vw', height: '100vh' }}><Viewer /></div> : null
}

Set ready after registryReady resolves. Viewer creates its own canvas and accepts children such as camera controls. Geometry is rebuilt by systems (WallSystem, ZoneSystem, ...) for nodes in dirtyNodes.

Extending

New node types are plugins registered with loadPlugin; the reference example is pascalorg/plugin-trees. Look up a node's 3D object through useRegistry; components talk through the exported emitter (mitt).

Examples

Example 1: "Generate a 10 m x 8 m ground floor from a script"

1. Parse and create site, building and a level (height: 2.7) as above.
2. Create four walls with WallNode.parse({ start, end, thickness: 0.2, height: 2.7 }): [0,0]->[10,0], [10,0]->[10,8], [10,8]->[0,8], [0,8]->[0,0].
3. Add SlabNode with polygon [[0,0],[10,0],[10,8],[0,8]], thickness 0.25.
4. Add an entry DoorNode (width 1.0, height 2.1) at wall-local x 3.5 on the first wall, and a WindowNode on the east wall.
5. Add two ZoneNodes named "Living Room" and "Bedrooms" for labels and area.

Result: Object.keys(useScene.getState().nodes) lists the new ids, and the level's children holds walls, slab and zones.

Example 2: "Let Claude Code edit the model through MCP"

npx @pascal-app/cli editor

The CLI prints the editor URL and starts the MCP service on free ports. Add an MCP server entry whose command is pascal mcp connect to the agent's configuration, then ask it to "add a 1.2 m window to the south wall of Ground Floor". The agent uses the exposed tools (see @pascal-app/core/agent-tools) and you see the change in the open editor.

Guidelines

• Node.js 22.13+ is required to build the monorepo; peer versions are three ^0.186, fiber ^9, drei ^10.
• WebGPU is needed for the renderer; check browser support before blaming your code.
• Dimensions are metres. Door and window position is relative to the wall, not the level.
• Always create nodes from the schema (XNode.parse) so ids and defaults are valid; parent them with the second argument of createNode.
• Wall height and thickness are optional with no schema default, so pass them explicitly.
• Do not copy the old @pascal-app/ui, registerSystem or props: examples found in older posts; they do not exist in 1.0.x.
• Pre-1.0 saved scenes may need scene-migrations (@pascal-app/core/scene-migrations).
• Pair with the architectural-dimensions skill for real-world size checks.