Export Workflows

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1

I am doing a project where I am trying to CNC a rudder for a sale boat.

So I have my 2D sketch in Shapr3D, and I export it as a DXF, then convert it to gcode, cut it on the CNC, and that all works fine. But as I try to match the existing rudder it requires some level of iteration, so I need to keep repeating this process.

And one of the niggles in this is the process for exporting the DXF, which is quite tedious:

  • Select File ➤ Export…
  • Switch to Format
  • Click DXF (which thankfully is just on the edge of the scroll area, so I don’t have to scroll).
  • Click Next / Press Return
  • The Name is not taking from the drawing, so possibly name it.
  • Switch to Sketch
  • Thankfully the default settings are OK
  • Click Next / Press Return
  • Save the file.

Of course, I have automated this using Keyboard Maestro (which I wrote, so that’s not surprising), but this is fragile since it has to be done by controlling the UI.

Shapr3D has no AppleScript or Shortcut support, so there doesn’t seem to be any other way. So basically, this is a require for some sort of workflow support for exporting, either AppleScript or more likely Shortcuts, that would allow exporting the current document with specific format and configuration, so that such processes could be streamlined.

I just implemented Shortcuts in my app, and while it takes a little bit to get your head around it, they are relatively straight forward and once you’ve done one, doing more is easy, and I think they would add a lot of potential value to Shapr3D.

I hope you’ll consider it. Thanks.

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2

Thanks for the feedback. You’re absolutely right, this process is a lot more convoluted than it should be. We are working on simplifying many parts of it as we speak. The changes will first go out to Windows, but we want to bring them over to Mac as well.

Shortcuts support sounds interesting, we’ll look into that!

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