New Feature Fridays: Part Lab Enhancements

We're excited to introduce three powerful new features to our Part Lab that will streamline your design workflow and give you more precision and control over your parts.

1. Line Tool

The new Line Tool brings vector drawing capabilities directly to Part Lab, allowing you to create custom paths and geometry with precision. Key Features:

• Freehand Drawing: Click and drag to create smooth, curved paths
• Straight Line Mode: Hold Shift while drawing for perfectly straight lines
• Grid Snapping: Automatically snaps to your grid for precise positioning
• Closed vs Open Paths: Automatically detects when you close a path to create filled shapes
• Integration Ready: Lines integrate seamlessly with your existing part geometry

How to Use:

1. Select the Line tool from the toolbar
2. Click to start drawing, drag to create your path
3. For straight lines, hold Shift while dragging
4. Close the path by connecting back to your starting point to create a filled shape
5. Open paths become construction lines, closed paths become cuttable geometry

Perfect for creating custom brackets, complex curves, or adding construction lines to guide your design process.

2. Advanced Fillet Tool

Our new Fillet tool brings professional CAD-level corner rounding capabilities to Part Lab, with support for multiple fillet types. Three Fillet Types:

• Round Fillets: Classic curved corners using precise Bézier curves
• Chamfers: 45-degree angled cuts for clean, modern edges
• Dogbones: Circular reliefs perfect for CNC machining inside corners

Smart Corner Detection:

• Automatically identifies adjacent segments
• Works with any path geometry - rectangles, custom shapes, imported SVGs
• Handles both interior and exterior corners appropriately

Precision Controls:

• Adjustable radius for rounds and dogbones
• Variable distance for chamfers
• Real-time preview as you adjust parameters
• Automatic size validation to prevent invalid geometry

CNC-Ready: The dogbone feature is specifically designed for CNC machining, creating circular reliefs that allow your router bit to properly clear inside corners - eliminating the need for manual finishing work.

3. New and Improved Offset Tool

The redesigned Offset tool provides professional-grade path offsetting with improved reliability and new capabilities. Enhanced Algorithm:

• More reliable offset calculations for complex geometry
• Better handling of self-intersecting paths
• Improved performance on detailed shapes

Flexible Options:

• Inward Offset: Shrink your geometry for tool clearance or stepped profiles
• Outward Offset: Expand your geometry for overlapping joints or larger cutouts
• Custom Distance: Precise numerical control over offset distance
• Preview Mode: See your offset before committing to the change

Smart Geometry Handling:

• Automatically handles corner resolution
• Maintains smooth curves and clean transitions
• Works with both simple shapes and complex compound paths
• Preserves important geometric relationships

Perfect for creating tool clearances, stepped profiles, or generating multiple sizes of the same part.

Getting Started

All three tools are available now in Part Lab's main toolbar. Each tool includes contextual controls in the properties panel, allowing you to fine-tune settings and see real-time previews of your changes.

These enhancements represent our commitment to bringing professional-grade design tools to makers and manufacturers alike. Whether you're prototyping a new idea or preparing production files, these tools will help you work faster and more precisely. Try them out in your next project and let us know what you think! As always, we're constantly improving based on your feedback.

Part Lab continues to evolve with powerful new features every week. Stay tuned for more New Feature Friday announcements, and don't forget to check out our latest updates in the app.