Documentation · Version 1.0

Rhea is a computational design toolkit for Blender.

A powerful Blender extension for procedural and parametric geometry generation. It brings real-time tessellation, polyhedral operators, attribute fields, pattern simulation, constraint-based form finding, and fabrication output into one non-destructive workflow, where every operation remains editable, animatable, and reversible at any stage of the process.

Read the documentation Your first result in one click

At a glance

One-click effects: 27
Starting shapes: 32
Conway operators: 19
Field generators: 11
Shipped presets: 26
Extra downloads needed: 0

Rhea needs nothing but Blender. No wheels, no pip, no compiler, and no “install this to make it fast” button that fails behind a corporate proxy.

Simple mode

Pick a shape. Pick an effect.

Thirty-two starting shapes and twenty-seven effects, each with a thumbnail. Click one and it happens. Then keep turning the dials: nothing is baked until you say so, and every effect can be stacked on the last.

See the effects gallery

Advanced mode

Every parameter, exposed.

The same engine with nothing hidden: mapping modes, rotation sources, thickness drivers, merge tolerances, seed distributions, solver weights. Simple mode is a set of presets over this, not a different product.

Open the tessellate reference

What is inside

Nine modules that all speak to each other.

The connective idea is the field: a number per vertex. Any generator can write one, and any tool can be driven by one. That is why a reaction-diffusion pattern can decide how tall each scale on a shell grows, without either module knowing the other exists.

Tessellate

Repeat a shape across every face of a surface and bend it to fit. Four mapping modes, from flat panels to a weave that runs continuously across face boundaries.

Conway operators

Nineteen polyhedral operators, chainable, with a picker so you never have to learn the notation. Turn a cube into a soccer ball, or into something nobody has a name for.

Fields

Curvature, occlusion, thickness, geodesic distance, noise, and your own formulas. Every field drives every other tool, so patterns respond to the shape they sit on.

Growth and reaction

Differential growth that folds like coral, and Gray-Scott reaction-diffusion solved across the surface itself rather than faked with a texture.

Form finding

A constraint solver for minimal surfaces, hanging chains, inflated cushions and planarised quad meshes. Structures that would actually stand up.

Fabrication

Contour slices, interlocking waffles with kerf tolerance, unrolled strips, and nested SVG or DXF sheets ready for a laser cutter.

The difference

It stays live.

Most tools in this category hand you a finished mesh and a rebuild button. Rhea keeps the recipe attached to the result. The controls stay in the panel, they can be keyframed, and the base surface can go on changing underneath — the pattern follows it while you scrub the timeline.

When you do want a plain mesh, one button gives you one. Nothing traps you inside the system.

How live and baked results differ

Adjustable after the fact

Change the count, the twist, the height, the seed. The result rebuilds as you drag, and it can be animated.

Fast without extras

The whole core is vectorised numpy. A million-vertex tessellation lands in about two seconds with nothing installed.

Output you can use

Optional strict quad and tri output, welded seams, preserved UVs, vertex groups and materials. Game-ready when you need it to be.

Start with the introduction, or jump straight to the guided tour and walk every module in order.

Open the documentation