Learn/Drafting/Shape Generator
Shape Generator
At a glance
- Opens from the sketch toolbar — the same dialog as Design, Laser, and Plasma
- Live preview with typed parameters and unit suffixes; inserts into the active sketch as editable geometry
- Generated output is auto-committed as a named group alongside sketch text
- See the Shape Generator section below for the built-in profile library and .jshape authoring
The Shape Generator button sits in the sketch toolbar's Utility group and opens the same parametric-shape dialog you'll find in Design, Laser, and Plasma — one library, every workspace. In Drafting it inserts into the active sketch, which makes it the path from "parametric sprocket" to "3D part": generate, dimension, extrude.
Generate into the sketch
Browse the searchable category tree, set parameters, and watch the live preview regenerate as you
type. Length fields take fractions and unit suffixes — 1-1/8, 28.575mm, and 1.125in are the
same value — with bare numbers following your preferred units. Generate drops the result into
the open sketch as ordinary editable geometry: lines, arcs, and polylines on their authored layers,
ready to constrain, trim, offset, or extrude like anything you drew by hand. Shapes authored in
millimeters (the whole Boxes.py pack, for instance) land at correct real-world size automatically.
The library, and your own shapes
The bundled library covers sprockets, involute gears, timing pulleys, trigger wheels, exhaust and
pipe flanges, tool and fastener-drive profiles, geometric primitives, and the full stable Boxes.py
generator set — and every shape is a readable .jshape file you can copy and modify. The deep
dive lives in its own section: start with
Portable Parametric Shapes, tour the dialog in
Live Preview, and write your own in
Create & Share.