This is your guide to Shapr3D’s design user interface on Mac.
When you open a design, you’ll see three different areas:
- Title bar
- Items manager
- Orientation cube
- Menu
You can find more details about each area:
If you're using Google Chrome to view this article, select each list item below to see the details.
Title bar
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Sidebar | Opens the Items manager in the Sidebar. You can see all items — including sketches, 3D bodies, images, reference geometries, and meshes — in the design space, and organize them. If you’ve created 2D drawings, then they are stored in the Items manager, too. |
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Home | Brings you to the Discover screen, where all your designs are stored and Shapr3D news and videos are linked. |
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Section view | Hides everything in front of the current grid so you can view a section of your design. This article details this view. |
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Snaps / Guides | Opens a popover where you can turn on or off snapping to the grid, sketch guide lines and points, and 3D guide points. You can also show guide points and snapping hints. For more details, read this article. |
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Units |
The place to set your desired unit, and customize specific format settings with inches and degrees. Find out more in this article. |
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Help |
Opens a popover with links to announcements about the latest new features, Manual, keyboard shortcuts, Shapr3D Forums, and tutorial videos. You can also trigger the command search from the popover and track your progress with basic app tutorials. |
Items manager
| Icon | Name |
Description |
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Items | Bodies, sketches, planes, axes, and images in your design space are considered items. You can rename, search, zoom, and delete your items. |
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Folder |
A folder that groups together items. |
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New folder |
Creates a new folder. |
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Bodies |
Shows that the item is a body. |
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Planes and Axes |
Shows that the item is either a plane or an axis. |
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Images |
Shows that the item is an image. |
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Visibility |
You can select this to display or hide the selected items in your design. |
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Mesh |
Shows that the item is a mesh body. |
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More |
Opens a popover with an additional function for selected items: Zoom to Selection. |
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Create drawing |
Opens the 2D drawing module. You can select bodies in the workspace to include in your technical drawing. You can read about this feature here. |
Orientation cube
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Orientation Cube |
Changes the view orientation of your design. Select one side of the cube to switch views. Select Top for example, to switch to a top view. To revert to a default orientation, select the orientation cube twice or press the Command key and 1. |
Menu
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Sketch | Opens a menu with all 2D tools and constraints. |
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Add | Opens a menu where you can add construction geometry (axis or plane), images, or files to your design. You can also create 2D drawings and add text as 2D sketches from this menu. |
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Transform | Opens a menu with the following tools: Move/Rotate, Scale, Translate, Pattern, Rotate Around Axis, Mirror, and Align. |
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Tools | Opens a menu with powerful modeling tools you can use to create and modify bodies: Boolean commands (Union, Intersect, Subtract), Loft, Shell, etc. |
Tools
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Close | Closes the Tools menu. |
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Offset Face | Adds or removes a 3D body's thickness. You can read about the tool here. |
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Chamfer/Fillet | Blends the selected edges with chamfer or fillets. You can read about the tool here. |
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Extrude | Creates extruded bodies from planar faces or closed sketches. You can read about the tool here. |
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Shell | Hollows out or creates bodies with a specified wall thickness. You can read about the tool here. |
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Loft | Connects the profiles of two or more faces or closed sketches on different planes. You can read about the tool here. |
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Union | Fuses two intersecting bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Subtract | Subtracts the common parts of one or more bodies from another (intersecting) body. You can read about the tool here. |
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Intersect | Keeps only the common parts of two or more bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Split Body | Cuts apart 3D bodies with construction planes, grid planes, sketch fillings, faces, or images. You can read about the tool here. |
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Revolve | Creates bodies from closed sketches by revolving them around an axis. You can also set a height to create helical bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Sweep | Creates a body by dragging the profile of a face or closed sketch along spines. You can read about the tool here. |
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Replace Face | Replaces a face of a body with another face. You can read about the tool here. |
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Project | Translates your sketches, edges, faces, and bodies to another face, either as sketches or edges. You can read about the tool here. |
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Offset Edge | Creates a parallel sketch line, curve, or loop of an existing sketch or edge. You can read about the tool here. |
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Visualize | Adds color to faces and bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
Add
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Close | Closes the Add menu. |
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Construction Axis | Adds construction axes to your workspace to help your modeling process. You can read about this option here. |
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Construction Plane | Adds construction planes that will help you position your sketches and bodies. You can read about this option here. |
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Image | Adds a photo so you can use it as a reference for sketching. |
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Text | Adds text to the design space as a 2D sketch. You can read about this tool here. |
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File | Offers you a list of file formats you can import: STEP, X_T, IGES, STL, SHAPR, 2D DWG, 2D DXF, SLDPRT, and SLDASM. You can also import images from your computer into Shapr3D. For more details, refer to our articles about imports. |
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Drawing | Opens the 2D drawing module. You can select bodies in the workspace to include in your technical drawing. You can read about this feature here. |
Transform
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Close | Closes the Transform menu. |
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Move/Rotate | Moves or rotates your sketches and bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Scale | Scales your geometry. You can read about the tool here. |
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Translate | Moves your shapes precisely from one specific point to another. You can read about the tool here. |
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Pattern | Creates linear patterns of your bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Rotate Around Axis | Rotates your shapes around an axis. You can read about the tool here. |
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Align | Aligns 3D bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Mirror | Mirrors your sketches and bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
Sketch
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Close | Closes the Sketch menu. |
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Line |
Creates a line. |
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Arc |
Creates a three-point arc. |
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Spline | Creates a spline. You can click to add spline points. For more details, read this article. |
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Rectangle |
Creates a rectangle. You can create the shape using one of three methods: “Center,” “Diagonal,” and “Three Points.” For more details, read this article. |
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Circle | Creates a circle. You can adjust the size of the circle by specifying the radius. For more details, read this article. |
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Ellipse | Creates an ellipse. You can adjust the size of the ellipse by specifying the vertical and horizontal radii. For more details, read this article. |
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Polygon |
Creates polygons: triangle, pentagon, hexagon, or octagon. You can change the number of sides and adjust the polygon’s size. For more details, read this article. |
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Offset Edge | Creates a parallel sketch line, curve, or loop of an existing sketch or edge. You can read about the tool here. |
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Trim | Trims your sketches at intersections. For more details, read this article. |
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Delete | Deletes the selected sketches or entire bodies. |
Constraints
| Icon | Name | Description |
| Auto-Constraint | If you turn on this switch, that means your sketches will automatically be defined as much as possible. For example, if you draw a line and then connect it to an arc, the Tangent constraint is automatically applied. | |
| Show Constraints |
If you turn on this switch, you can see the badges for each applied constraint directly on your sketch.
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Parallel | Makes two or more lines parallel to each other. |
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Perpendicular | Makes two lines perpendicular. |
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Tangent | Adjusts sketches so they are tangent to each other. |
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Coincident | Makes a point overlap with another point or an edge (or the extension of an edge) so they are connected in a single location. |
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Midpoint | Snaps points to the midpoints of edges. |
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Concentric | Adjusts multiple circles, arcs, or circular edges so they share the same center point. |
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Horizontal/Vertical | Fixes your lines so they are parallel to the axes of the sketch plane. |
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Equal | Makes your lines the same length, and your circles and arc share the same radius. |
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Symmetry | Makes your sketches symmetric to a line or linear edge. |
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Disconnect | Disconnects one or more sketch points. |
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Lock | Fixes the position of your sketch points. |
