CHANGELOG
What changed, and when.
GrainDraft updates in place at graindraft.com/app. Your projects stay in your browser across updates.
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Faster resizing and safer projects
Resizing a joined table now keeps up with the pointer, and your work is better protected.
- Resizing a model whose joints are seated takes milliseconds per change instead of about a second. GrainDraft only checks boards that can touch and reuses parts it has already cut.
- Shop packets are laid out in the background, so a long packet no longer freezes the editor.
- The Project shelf says whether this browser will keep your projects, with a Keep projects button.
- If GrainDraft hits an unexpected error, a recovery screen lets you download the model that was open, including unsaved changes. Saving stops at the error, so your last good version stays in the browser.
- A damaged .graindraft file is refused before import, naming the affected parts. Your open project is not changed.
- Faster first load and lighter wood textures.
- Links from graindraft.com can open the side-table example. GrainDraft asks first and saves the project you have open to the Project shelf before switching.
- On a phone, GrainDraft says once that it is built for a computer or tablet, with a link to what it makes.
- Joint pages in the shop packet name the joint in words ("Mortise and tenon") instead of an internal label.
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Readable drawings, a shop guide and sheet layouts
- A new drawing engine for packet illustrations: clean visible edges without triangle artifacts, and labelled detail windows.
- The default shop packet is now a step-by-step guide with stock layouts, exact machining depths, face datums, enlarged box joints and CUT/KEEP patterns. The technical reference is still available.
- Lay out plywood and MDF parts on quarter (24 × 48), half (48 × 48) or full (48 × 96) sheets.
- A pencil-marking PDF for sheet goods: every sheet, each part's position measured from a datum corner, dotted construction guides, and any parts that did not fit.
- Enter kerf in millimetres or inches. The project keeps the exact value.
- Shaper Origin box-joint files no longer put dogbones on open stock edges, and enclosed corners keep their relief. Download older box-joint SVGs again.
- CSV and clipboard cut lists no longer add kerf to each part's dimensions.
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Preferences and a simpler Project menu
- One Preferences window for appearance, measurements, grid and snapping. Preferences stay in this browser and never change a project.
- A simpler Project menu. Portable .graindraft files are imported from Open.
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Sharper sketching and a reliability pass
- The sketch grid lines up with the sketch's datum corner. Snap markers and a crosshair show exactly where a fine snap lands.
- Crisper edges on cut parts in the 3D view.
- Two open tabs can no longer overwrite each other's saves. The tab that loses keeps its changes and tells you.
- Duplicate and Pattern make fully independent copies, including sketches and cuts. Mirror refuses shapes it cannot reflect exactly.
- Renaming a dimension updates every formula that uses it, and deleting something still in use asks you to review what depends on it first.
- STL and OBJ exports are in inches; glTF exports are in metres.
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Exact moves, display styles and a new address
- Move parts by typing exact inches, in World or Part directions, with snapping and collision limits. Nothing moves until you Apply.
- On tablets, Move adds an axis pad, nudges, Fine mode, fraction keys and larger controls.
- A Display panel with Shaded, Outlines and Joinery X-ray styles. X-ray can focus on the selected parts.
- Move a whole component as one group.
- Shaper Origin setups mark their datum corner on the setup page and the SVG.
- GrainDraft now lives at graindraft.com/app/. The old hobbybuddy.ca address stays available so projects saved there can be downloaded.
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The right tools for each stage
Design, Assemble, Inspect and Make have focused layouts, with camera and panel memory during your session.
- Add a board by entering exact dimensions and stock, without starting from an empty sketch.
- Preview which parts and joints a dimension change affects before applying it, and save named size presets.
- Stock length, width and thickness use consistent fraction or decimal display, with approximation marks where a value is rounded.
- Step through findings, preview supported fixes and save inspection views with your project.
- Search parts and commands by name, material, joint or operation with Cmd/Ctrl K.
- The Make navigation reaches stock, materials, machining, assembly, sheet layouts and shop-packet options.