What JetCad3 Does

The parts of JetCad3 that every workspace shares: themes and display scaling, mouse and keyboard customization, the built-in calculator, project and machine file formats, cloud storage, and how updates reach your shop. Runs fully offline — no account required.

Unlimited for free and hobby use — no account, no sign-in, and no credit card. The Design workspace is a dedicated 2D vector environment for signage, artistic layouts, and machine prep: import artwork, organize shapes on color-driven layers, trace raster references into clean contours, and refine geometry with familiar transforms. The view is flat and stays flat — Design pans and zooms like a drawing board, and no mouse or trackpad gesture will tip your artwork into 3D.

Full parametric 3D solid modeling. Design parts with 2D sketches on construction planes, then build solids with extrude, revolve, sweep, and boolean operations. Your model history stays editable — go back and change any dimension at any time.

Full 2D plasma cutting CAM with a top-down sheet view. Import parts from DXF, SVG, SheetCAM .job files, or directly from your Drafting workspace, nest them manually or with two automatic nesting algorithms, use Common Grid for qualifying rectangular parts to cut a grid with shared separator lines, configure machine profiles, cut recipes, and supported factory plasma marking, define geometry-based contour rules that adjust feed, THC, leads, and pierce behavior before toolpath generation, generate toolpaths with arc-preserving kerf compensation and lead-in/out, simulate the cut with a live DRO, then post selective parts for production.

Full 2D oxy-fuel flame cutting CAM, built on the Plasma workspace and sharing its whole toolset — DXF, SVG and SheetCAM .job import, manual and automatic nesting, Common Grid, contour rules, scribing, quoting and cut simulation all work exactly as they do in Plasma. What differs is what flame cutting demands: you select a torch and JetCad3 loads that torch's factory cut charts, every program takes its full fire cycle — preheat height and delay, pierce height and its timed-descent delay, cut height, speed and kerf — from the chart row for the plate you are cutting, small holes get extra wall clearance before switching to a centre pierce, and every lead-in eases into the plate at a creep feed before winding up to cutting speed. There is no arc voltage and no torch height control, because a flame torch has neither. Ignition, preheat flame and cutting oxygen run through two G-code subroutines you write once, so a hand-lit torch, an auto igniter, and a table with separate idle and preheat fuel circuits all drive the same program. Oxyfuel ships first as a pre-release for test users — it is available on the pre-release channel from v2.4.4 and reaches the main release shortly after.

Laser cutting, engraving, and direct Fiber Galvo marking on one familiar sheet canvas. CO₂ workflows import or create vector work, assign layer operations, generate toolpaths, and post G-code or Ruida-ready output. Experimental Fiber Galvo profiles use their installed lens field, connect directly to JCZ / Balor LMC controllers on Windows and Linux, and run live Light and Mark controls without a G-code post or separate Generate step. macOS hardware testing is still pending.

2.5D CNC router CAM on a nesting-first sheet canvas—built for signs, panels, cabinet parts, and nested production jobs. Import DXF, SVG, or SheetCAM .job files, arrange parts on sheets, assign contour, bore, drill, chamfer, pocket, and engrave operations, preview toolpaths and run cut simulation, then post GRBL- or MASSO-ready G-code. Included on the Drafting + Full CAM subscription tier.

GcodePilot turns JetCad3 into a full g-code sender and machine-control station. Connect a GRBL 1.1 or FluidNC (ESP32) controller over USB serial and stream programs from the same app that drew and posted them — live DRO and toolpath view, work offsets, Z probing, tool offsets, jogging, a wireless pendant, run history, and crash-recovery hooks. Any machine using a GcodePilot post shows up automatically as a Motion workspace and stays a CAM post target.

Mill is JetCad3's setup-based CNC milling CAM — a Fusion/HSM-style workflow that sits right next to Drafting. Bring a modeled part in as a Setup, wrap it in stock, set your work zero, then cut real toolpaths driven straight from the model's own edges, faces, and sketches: 2D contours, drilling and boring, zig-zag and high-speed dynamic pocketing, facing, chamfering, and engraving. Pick geometry, hover, and measure exactly the way you do in Drafting; toolpaths draw onto the model while they compute, update the moment the part changes, and post ready-to-run G-code with proper work offsets for GRBL, FluidNC, LinuxCNC, or MASSO. Included on the Drafting + Full CAM subscription tier.

Planned setup-based CNC turning and lathe CAM — facing, roughing, finishing, grooving, threading, drilling, boring, and lathe post output.

Parametric geometry as portable .jshape files — JavaScript modules that declare parameters in setup() and emit 2D geometry in generate(). Over 225 parametric shapes ship in the box — gears, sprockets, pulleys, splines, flanges, tool profiles, scannable barcodes, and the complete Boxes.py collection — and you can add unlimited custom .jshape files anytime. The Shape Generator dialog lists every installed shape for quick insertion into Drafting Sketch, Design, Laser, and Plasma. Output flows through the same DXF import path as ordinary artwork, so results stay editable in the host workspace.

Capture and simulate the circuit, then carry the same design through physical pin verification, board layout, native autorouting, populated-board 3D and a reviewed fabrication bundle. Parts travel with the project — symbol, footprint variants, simulation model, sourcing identity and actual 3D assets — so the design reopens offline without hunting for libraries. PCB rules, manual routing, copper fill, independent connectivity checks and the full-board autorouter use the same native geometry. When the board is ready, inspect the exact Gerber, drill, BOM, placement, drawing and STEP files and deliver the retained bytes as a ZIP, folder or selected files for JLCPCB, PCBWay or a generic profile.

Experimental: eCAD is ready for hands-on evaluation, but its authoring, import, routing and manufacturing workflows are still being refined. Refill copper zones, run a complete PCB DRC, inspect the generated bundle, and review the fabricator preview before ordering a board.