solvecraft/docs/book/src/guide/getting-started.md

Getting started

The desktop executable is solidcraft, the CLI is solidcraft-cli, and designs are saved as .solidcraft. Designs, settings and setups from builds released under the previous product name keep working (see the compatibility notes).

Desktop

Download the installer for your system from the Download section of the README or the releases page, or build it yourself with stable Rust (1.95 or newer):

git clone https://github.com/bherbruck/solidcraft && cd solidcraft
cargo run --release -p solidcraft -- --sample   # opens with a sample part

solidcraft part.step opens a STEP, IGES, 3MF, STL or OBJ file as a new design, and solidcraft design.solidcraft opens a saved design. Windows builds cross-compile from Linux with cargo xwin build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc -p solidcraft.

macOS

Open the release .dmg and drag SolidCraft.app onto Applications.

When updating from a build released under the previous product name, follow the macOS upgrade notes so you replace it rather than install a second copy.

Linux AppImage

The first time you open the AppImage it adds a menu entry and icons under ~/.local/share (applications/ai.storyteller.solidcraft.desktop, icons/hicolor), so the desktop shows the right name and icon. It adds nothing if appimaged already made an entry for the file, or if a launcher such as Gear Lever or AppImageLauncher started it (and removes the entry SolidCraft added before). To turn it off for good, create an empty file ~/.local/share/solidcraft/no-desktop-integration, or start the AppImage with SOLIDCRAFT_NO_DESKTOP_INTEGRATION=1.

Linux Flatpak

Install Flatpak using your distribution's package manager. For an installation that receives updates, add Flathub for the required Freedesktop runtime and the SolidCraft application feed to the same user installation:

flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists solidcraft https://docs.solidcraft.io/flatpak/solidcraft.flatpakrepo
flatpak install --user solidcraft ai.storyteller.solidcraft
flatpak run ai.storyteller.solidcraft

A SolidCraft remote added before the project moved to docs.solidcraft.io (from bherbruck.github.io) no longer finds updates. Point it at the new address, then update: flatpak remote-modify --user --url=https://docs.solidcraft.io/flatpak/repo/ solidcraft and flatpak update --user.

Releases up to 0.7 used the application ID ai.storyteller.solvecraft. If you installed one of those from the SolidCraft remote, flatpak update --user reports it as end-of-life and offers to replace it with ai.storyteller.solidcraft; accept, and your settings and autosaves move with it. If you installed a .flatpak bundle, install the new bundle, launch it once (it copies your settings), then run flatpak uninstall --user ai.storyteller.solvecraft (see the compatibility notes).

Alternatively, download the release's .flatpak file for your architecture and run flatpak install --user ./solidcraft-VERSION-linux-ARCH.flatpak. The bundle supplies the Flathub runtime repository address; installation still needs internet access to fetch any missing runtime. Launch with flatpak run ai.storyteller.solidcraft, rather than looking for a host solidcraft binary. Files chosen through Open/Save use the desktop file-chooser portal; command-line paths outside Documents may need a specific additional filesystem permission.

Linux Snap

On Ubuntu and other distributions with snapd:

sudo snap install solidcraft
solidcraft                # or open SolidCraft from the app menu
solidcraft.cli --version  # the CLI, for scripts and `solidcraft.cli mcp`

The snap can open designs in your home folder (not hidden folders) and, through the file chooser, anywhere else. For USB drives and other mounted disks, run sudo snap connect solidcraft:removable-media once. A release's .snap file installs without the store with sudo snap install --dangerous ./solidcraft-VERSION-linux-ARCH.snap; it then doesn't update automatically.

Web

The same app runs in the browser: open SolidCraft on the web (?sample opens the sample part, ?webgl forces WebGL2 where WebGPU is missing or misbehaves; the browser remembers it until ?webgpu, and an app installed from Chrome or Edge starts with it too). Designs are saved in the browser's private file storage, which needs HTTPS or localhost. Planned worker and tiered-storage integration is described in web-runtime.md (design; not yet wired in the shipped wasm build).

After the first visit the web app works offline: the browser keeps a copy of it. Online, each launch gets the latest published build (the browser downloads it once when it changes); offline, when the network doesn't answer within a few seconds, or when a new build can't be downloaded whole, the kept copy starts (and the download carries on for the next launch).

Browsers that can install web apps add Install app… to the File menu: it installs SolidCraft as an app with its own window and launcher icon, working offline like the page. In Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers it shows the browser's install prompt, and once SolidCraft is installed the item is gone. Safari has no such prompt, so the item shows its steps instead: Share › Add to Home Screen on iPhone and iPad, File › Add to Dock on a Mac (Safari 17 or later).

To build it yourself:

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
cd apps/solidcraft-web && trunk serve --release --no-autoreload

Offline use needs --no-autoreload: Trunk's live reload changes the page as it serves it, so it no longer matches the build the browser would keep. Debug builds (trunk serve) never keep a copy.

Self-hosting with Docker

The web app is also a container image, ghcr.io/tangency-labs/solidcraft-web, for Linux on x86_64 and ARM64: latest is the latest release, 0.14.0 or 0.14 a release, edge the newest main. It serves the app with nginx on port 8080 and keeps nothing on the server: designs stay in each visitor's browser.

docker run -d --name solidcraft -p 8080:8080 --restart unless-stopped ghcr.io/tangency-labs/solidcraft-web:latest

Or with Docker Compose, using packaging/docker/compose.yaml (SOLIDCRAFT_PORT picks another port):

docker compose -f packaging/docker/compose.yaml up -d      # start
docker compose -f packaging/docker/compose.yaml pull && docker compose -f packaging/docker/compose.yaml up -d   # update
docker compose -f packaging/docker/compose.yaml up -d --build   # build the image from your checkout instead

Then open http://localhost:8080/. On another machine the browser only saves designs over HTTPS, so put a reverse proxy with a certificate in front (Caddy, Traefik, nginx); the app works under any URL path, such as https://example.com/cad/. To build the image without Compose, from the repository root: docker build -f packaging/docker/Dockerfile -t solidcraft-web .

3D mouse in the browser

The web app reads a 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse or SpaceNavigator through the browser's Gamepad API, with the same switch and speed in Preferences › Navigation as the desktop app. Edge and Chrome read the device as it is. A browser shows a gamepad to a page only once it has been moved there, so if nothing happens at first, push the cap firmly once. 3DxWare also turns the cap into mouse-wheel zoom in browsers; while the cap moves, the web app ignores the wheel and reads the cap itself. Before the browser shows the cap to the page, that zoom still gets through, so the first push after opening the page may zoom a little.

Firefox doesn't list 3D mice (Mozilla bug 1226575). On Windows it does list 3DxWare's virtual joystick, which can carry the cap instead. Save this as %APPDATA%\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg\Firefox.xml, then restart Firefox (and 3DxWare, if the cap still only zooms). It changes Firefox only: there 3DxWare sends the cap's six axes to the joystick instead of the mouse wheel. Delete the file to undo it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<AppCfg Default="false" xmlns="" CfgFormatVersion="1.3" ThisFileVersion="1.1">
  <AppInfo>
    <Signature>
      <Name>STR_FIREFOX</Name>
      <ExecutableName>FIREFOX.EXE</ExecutableName>
      <Transport>KMJ</Transport>
    </Signature>
    <Options/>
  </AppInfo>
  <CfgProperties>
    <ID>ID_STR_FIREFOX</ID>
    <Name>STR_FIREFOX</Name>
    <InheritsFromID>ID_STR_FIREFOX</InheritsFromID>
  </CfgProperties>
  <Devices>
    <Device>
      <ID>ID_Standard_3D_Mouse</ID>
      <AxisBank>
        <Name>STR_DEFAULT_BANK</Name>
        <ID>Default</ID>
        <Axis><Enabled>true</Enabled><Input><ActionID>HIDMultiAxis_X</ActionID><Min>-512</Min><Max>511</Max><Deadband>0</Deadband></Input><Output><ActionID>HIDJoystick_X</ActionID></Output></Axis>
        <Axis><Enabled>true</Enabled><Input><ActionID>HIDMultiAxis_Y</ActionID><Min>-512</Min><Max>511</Max><Deadband>0</Deadband></Input><Output><ActionID>HIDJoystick_Y</ActionID></Output></Axis>
        <Axis><Enabled>true</Enabled><Input><ActionID>HIDMultiAxis_Z</ActionID><Min>-512</Min><Max>511</Max><Deadband>0</Deadband></Input><Output><ActionID>HIDJoystick_Z</ActionID></Output></Axis>
        <Axis><Enabled>true</Enabled><Input><ActionID>HIDMultiAxis_Rx</ActionID><Min>-512</Min><Max>511</Max><Deadband>0</Deadband></Input><Output><ActionID>HIDJoystick_Rx</ActionID></Output></Axis>
        <Axis><Enabled>true</Enabled><Input><ActionID>HIDMultiAxis_Ry</ActionID><Min>-512</Min><Max>511</Max><Deadband>0</Deadband></Input><Output><ActionID>HIDJoystick_Ry</ActionID></Output></Axis>
        <Axis><Enabled>true</Enabled><Input><ActionID>HIDMultiAxis_Rz</ActionID><Min>-512</Min><Max>511</Max><Deadband>0</Deadband></Input><Output><ActionID>HIDJoystick_Rz</ActionID></Output></Axis>
      </AxisBank>
    </Device>
  </Devices>
</AppCfg>

CLI

solidcraft-cli runs the same commands without a window:

cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- commands                       # every command, as JSON
cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- run examples/bracket.json --out bracket.step
cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- eval examples/bracket.json     # volume, area, faces…
cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- snapshot examples/bracket.json --out bracket.png
cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- exec solid.box '{"length": 20, "width": 10, "height": 5}'
cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- run mechanism.json --in arm.solidcraft  # with a motion.export_animation step: a GIF

A script is a list of commands:

{"commands": [
  {"command": "sketch.create", "params": {"plane": "XY"}},
  {"command": "sketch.rectangle.two_point", "params": {"p0": [0, 0], "p1": [40, 30]}},
  {"command": "sketch.finish", "params": {}},
  {"command": "solid.extrude", "params": {"distance": 20}},
  {"command": "solid.fillet", "params": {"edges": [[0, 0, 10]], "radius": 3}}
]}

snapshot looks at the model from the iso view. --view NAME takes another standard view (front, back, top, bottom, left, right) or the name of a view saved in the design with view.save. --camera JSON takes any camera, as the MCP screenshot tool does (its conventions are in the MCP page). A script that applies a view itself with view.apply sets the camera too. The ground grid lies on Z 0, so it cuts through a part that straddles it: --no-grid leaves it out of the picture, and --no-axes the origin's axes. The picture is drawn on the GPU with the viewport's own pipelines, so it shows what the window would (a surface analysis such as inspect.zebra included); a machine without a GPU uses a software one (Mesa's lavapipe on Linux, WARP on Windows), and with neither (a Mac without usable Metal, a Linux box without Mesa's Vulkan) the CPU rasterizer draws it, without surface analysis colours, and the reply's renderer says cpu with a warning. SOLIDCRAFT_GPU=auto|hardware|software|cpu chooses (hardware and software fail rather than fall to the CPU), and solidcraft-cli gpu lists the adapters and the tier a snapshot would use.

solidcraft-cli snapshot part.solidcraft --out photo.png --view Photo
solidcraft-cli snapshot part.solidcraft --out close-up.png --no-grid --no-axes --camera '{"target": [30, -20, 0], "yaw": 0.6, "pitch": 0.25, "distance": 60}'

Seeing what a cut or a join is about to do

A picture answers in a glance what a volume cannot: does the tool body reach through the material, and is it where you meant it to be? --body NAME:opacity=0.3 draws that body see-through, so whatever is inside it shows; --body NAME:color=#cc3333 gives it a colour. Either key on its own keeps what the design says about the other, and the option is a shortcut for appearance.assign, the command the Appearance dialog runs — the picture is the one the window would show with the same appearance assigned.

--tool NAME is the common case in one option: that body solid in the tool colour, every other body see-through around it. --section z=27 cuts the model at a plane so the inside shows, as inspect.section does: an axis and the world coordinate to cut at, ,flip to keep the other side, XY, XZ or YZ for a plane through the origin, or the command's own JSON.

# The pin the cut would remove, inside the plate it stops 6 mm short of.
solidcraft-cli snapshot plate.solidcraft --out preview.png --tool Pin
solidcraft-cli snapshot plate.solidcraft --out cut.png --tool Pin --section z=12
solidcraft-cli snapshot plate.solidcraft --out glass.png --body "Plate:opacity=0.25" --body "Pin:color=#1a7f4b"

A body drawn see-through is drawn see-through everywhere a picture is drawn, not only here: an appearance with an opacity below 1 (Glass - Clear in the library, or any opacity you assign) now reads as glass in snapshot, in MCP screenshots and in a design's thumbnail, as it always has in the window. A face painted with a see-through look of its own still draws at its body's opacity.

Windows PowerShell 5.1 drops the double quotes inside an argument it passes to a program: write them as \" there.

A command that fails stops the script. A feature can also fail later, when a parameter change rebuilds it; run then exits with status 1, lists the failing features and writes none of its --out and --save files, because the bodies lack what those features should have made. --allow-errors writes them anyway.

run prints each command's result with --results (otherwise the measurement), and eval prints the measurement, as JSON on stdout. --json-out FILE writes that JSON to a file instead. The file is plain UTF-8, which is not what a redirect gives you everywhere: Windows PowerShell's > re-encodes a program's output, as UTF-16 or as UTF-8 with a byte-order mark depending on its settings, and strict JSON readers such as Python's json.load then refuse it.

cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- run examples/bracket.json --results --json-out results.json
cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- eval examples/bracket.json --json-out measures.json

To find the slow steps of a script, --timings prints how long each command took instead of the measurement: {"timings": [{"index", "command", "ms"}], "total_ms"}, with index counted from 0. --profile adds each command's profile: {"boolean_ms", "tessellate_ms", "other_ms"}, its wall time in the kernel's booleans, in tessellation and in everything else. With --results as well, the results go in the same object as results; --results alone still prints a plain array.

cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- run examples/bracket.json --profile

A design's history turns into a script that rebuilds it, which makes a bug that only shows on one design a one-file reproduction:

cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- script part.solidcraft --out repro.json
cargo run --release -p solidcraft-cli -- eval repro.json               # the same part

The script starts with the user parameters (parameters.add) and the design's units, sheet metal and plastic rules and materials, then adds each timeline feature with timeline.add, exactly as the design file holds it: same ids, names and parameter names, so later steps still find the sketches and bodies they use, and a feature that failed in the design fails the same way. Edit a step's values to try a change, or delete the steps after a feature to see the design as it was there. Appearances, folders, named views and configurations are left out (the CLI notes which), and designs with components or joints are not supported yet. In the app and over MCP the same script comes from timeline.export_script.

Units are millimetres and degrees unless an expression says otherwise ("1 in", "30 deg"), and Z is up.

Name and compatibility

SolidCraft was renamed from an earlier working name. Since 0.5.0 everything uses the new name: the solidcraft and solidcraft-cli programs, .solidcraft designs, SOLIDCRAFT_* environment variables, settings folders and the solidcraft MCP server. Upgrading keeps working: designs, settings, recovery files, environment variables and CLI/MCP setups from earlier builds carry over. Every compatibility shim is listed in the compatibility notes.

Use the SolidCraft documentation and web-app URLs. GitHub redirects links to the renamed repository; old-name Pages and Flatpak URLs are not maintained as permanent aliases.