Launch a program to only specific resources

Question: -- How can I launch a program such that it only uses X ram and Y CPU cores, etc? I happen to be using Ubuntu in this case, but since I often am on other distros, I need a general GNU/Linux solution. Example use: -- I have a program, openscad, which I want to use to convert an image from 2D to 3D. It runs snappy enough on 50x50, but I would like 500x500, and this effectively takes down an i7 such that I cannot use other programs easily - such as the file manager or firefox. On an older machine, it was basically only responsive to kernel level reboot not even switching to a different virtual terminal with F1 etc. Search so far: -- I think what I am looking for is something called a "quota" manager, but I keep finding stuff for hard disk space, and I just want the computer to remain usable. I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for but I know its effect. I found : https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/417506/what-is-the-effect-of-setting-cpu-cpu-quota-us-in-cpu-cgroup but it is unanswered - although it points to my solution maybe?