Vector-first workflow
Updated v2.5.0At a glance
- Built for artistic shape layout and layer-based output prep—not parametric history trees
- Top-view editing with the same camera habits as Plasma and Laser
- Full undo and redo on the document stack — every edit is reversible
The Design workspace is a dedicated 2D vector environment for signs, artwork, and cut-file prep.
There is no feature tree and nothing to regenerate: you draw shapes, push them around, and what you
see on screen is exactly the geometry that exports. The viewport is a true top view with the same
camera behavior as Plasma and Laser, including the shared ViewCube strip and a Fit command
(F) that frames everything visible on visible layers.
Direct geometry, not features
Every Design shape is stored as plain open or closed polylines. Rotation, mirroring, scaling, and
stretching are baked straight into the vertices the moment you commit them — there is no hidden
transform stack to flatten later and no history to replay. That keeps the workspace fast and
predictable on dense artwork, and it means a DXF you export is exactly what was on screen. Every
mutation lands on the document undo stack, so Cmd/Ctrl+Z walks back through anything — draws,
transforms, traces, imports.
One toolbar, grouped
Tools sit in labelled clusters: Draw (creation tools and text), Modify (Node Edit, Trim, Join, Fillet, Bridge, Offset, Simplify, Smooth, Pattern, Trace), Boolean, plus Align, Distribute, and Arrange. There are no floating parameter popups — tool interaction stays in the viewport and the top HUD.
The boolean operations, Join and Simplify have keyboard shortcuts: Shift+W Weld, Shift+U Union, Shift+S Subtract, Shift+I Intersect, Shift+J Join, and Shift+Y Simplify (Offset is O; Smooth ships unbound — assign it a key if you use it often). The keys act on the current selection, match the Drafting workspace's boolean shortcuts, and are all rebindable in Settings → Keyboard.
Simplify and Smooth are opposite cleanups for imported or traced artwork. Simplify removes vertices — the result is a subset of the points the shape already had, thinned to a tolerance. Smooth adds vertices: it runs the outline onto a continuous curve through every original point and re-draws it at an even spacing you choose, so a faceted polyline flows like the curve it was meant to be. Both preview live (gray dots mark the original vertices) and commit as normal undoable edits.
From layout to the table
Layers carry the output intent: assign shapes to colors with the bottom palette, then export the whole design or a single layer as DXF or SVG in your preferred units. The Plasma, Laser, and Router workspaces can also import Design geometry directly — no intermediate file needed to go from layout to toolpaths.