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Grainbook Studio is where you design what you build — a cutting board, a sign, a box, a table, a bookcase or a whole kitchen — and turn it into a cut list, a price for the customer, and the files your CNC router or laser runs.

It speaks shop: sizes in fractions (type 3-1/2 or 23/32), board feet, grain direction, dados and rabbets. It's part of the Grainbook family with Grainbook Mill, the sawmill and inventory program.

The screen

Your first project in five minutes

1. Studio opens on the start screen. Tap Cutting board. Leave the sizes or type your own. Tap Start.
2. Tap Make it on the right. The juice groove and cut-out are already there.
3. Tap Preview the cut to see it carved in wood, or ▶ Play the cut to watch the bit move.
4. Tap Price to see what it costs to make, then Save.

Studio on your phone, iPad and the web

Studio can run on your own computer, or on a server so you can use it on any phone, iPad or computer, anywhere. On a server every project, your Library and your customers live in one place, so what you start on the computer is there on the iPad.

Signing in

1. The very first time, the owner opens Studio's address and sees Set up Studio: type the setup code (from whoever set up the server), your name, and a PIN only you know (4 to 8 numbers).
2. Each new phone or computer shows New phone or computer: type your name and tap Ask the owner. The owner sees it in People and devices (and gets a reminder in Studio) and taps Let in. Until then that phone sees no names at all.
3. After that: tap your name, type your PIN on the number pad, Go. Five wrong PINs lock that name for a minute; ten wrong from one place lock it out for 15 minutes.

Sign out is on the start screen. On your own computer Studio asks nothing until you add the first person.

People and devices (owners)

On a phone

The top bar keeps ↶ ↷, Save and ☰ (New, Open, Import, Library, Export, sizes and Help). The settings that sit on the right on a computer pull up from the bottom: tap Sizes and settings ▴, and Back to the drawing ▾ to put them away. Pinch to zoom, drag with two fingers to move around. On an iPad Studio looks as it does on a computer.

On the home screen: in Safari tap the Share button → Add to Home Screen. Studio then opens full screen like an app, with its own icon.

CNC files on a phone or iPad go to the Files app (Downloads). Send them to the machine's computer with AirDrop, a USB stick, or a shared folder.

Backups

On a server Studio copies everything — projects, Library, customers, people and tile photos — every night and keeps 30 days. The keys you paste (Anthropic for Describe it, Grainbook Mill's) are never copied; paste them again if Studio ever moves.

Starting a project

Studio opens on its start screen, the way a drawing program does. Tap New (or the Grainbook Studio name in the top left) to come back to it at any time.

Open lists the projects saved on this computer, newest first. Save (⌘S) keeps the project under its name, with a picture for the start screen; "not saved" beside the name means there are changes since.

Undo and redo

↶ at the top undoes the last change; ↷ puts it back. Keys: ⌘Z undo, ⇧⌘Z (or ⌘Y) redo, or type undo / redo. It covers everything in the project — drawing, moving and sizing shapes, design sizes and choices, toolpaths and tabs — back to the last 200 steps. The buttons go grey when there's nothing to undo or redo. Your Library, your machine and your customers aren't part of a project, so they aren't undone.

Describe it: Claude designs it for you

New → Describe it: say what you want to make, in plain words, and Claude (Anthropic's AI) designs it as real, buildable furniture — every part with its size, the material from your Library, where it sits, joinery notes, the steps to build it, hardware and labor hours. It opens as a design like any other, so the 3D view, cut list, sheet layouts, price, Render and 2D drawings all work on it.

1. Describe it. The more you say, the closer it gets: size, wood, style, what it's for. "A walnut coffee table, 48 by 24 and 17 high, tapered legs, a lower shelf of slats, breadboard ends on the top."
2. Design it. It takes about a minute. Then the piece opens in 3D.
3. Check it. The Design tab lists what Claude assumed (sizes, wood, joinery you didn't mention). Turn it, use Pull apart, tap parts to see their sizes, and read the cut list on Parts. A warning shows if parts pass into each other more than a joint would.
4. Describe a change. "Make it 2 inches taller and add a drawer under the top." Back to the last version undoes a change you don't like.
5. Price it, render it, draw it, cut it — the same as any other design.

Your API key

Describe it uses your own Anthropic account. The first time, tap Add my API key…: make a key at console.anthropic.com → API keys, paste it in, and Save. Studio checks it and keeps it on this computer only — never in the browser or in a project file. Anthropic bills the account for each design (usually a few cents to a dollar). To change or remove it, use Add my API key… again.

It's a starting point, not a guarantee. Claude is good at proportions and joinery, but check sizes, wood movement and strength the way you'd check a drawing from anyone else before you cut. Hardware it names has no price until it matches an item in your catalog.

Drawing

Changing shapes

Pick shapes and the right side shows their sizes (type new ones) and these buttons:

Arrow keys nudge the picked shapes 1/16″ (with Shift, 1″). ⌘Z undoes, ⌘⇧Z redoes (see Undo and redo).

Measuring

Pick Measure on the left. A row of choices appears over the drawing; pick what to measure, then tap. The pencil snaps to ends, middles, corners and centres as it does when drawing, so measurements land exactly. While you're tapping, the numbers follow the pointer.

When a measurement is done: Keep it on the drawing puts a measurement line (distances and gaps) or a note (everything else) on the Measurements layer; Copy puts the numbers on the clipboard; Measure again (or just tapping again) starts over. Esc clears it. You can also type sizes while measuring a distance, as when drawing a line (12, 12<45).

Typing sizes and points

Type sizes the way you'd write them on a board — in any box, or on the Type line at the bottom.

While drawing, the Type line also takes points and commands:

Sizes show as Fractions (to the nearest 1/32″; a ~ means it's rounded), Decimals or Millimetres — pick at the top right.

Text and signs

Pick Text, tap where the text starts (its lower-left corner), then type it. Any font on this computer works; the preview shows how it looks. Capital letter height is how tall the capitals stand. Several lines: press Return in the text box.

Text becomes outlines the CNC and laser can follow. To change the words later, pick it and tap Change the text. Turning or mirroring text turns it into plain outlines.

A carved sign, start to finish

1. New → Blank drawing, the size of your board (say 24 × 8).
2. Draw a Rectangle for the outline (type 23 x 7) and give it a Corner radius.
3. Text → type the name. Pick it and use Line up → Centre and Middle.
4. Make it → pick the text → + Add toolpath → V-carve with a V-bit.
5. Pick the outline → + Add toolpath → Cut out, all the way through, tabs on.
6. Preview the cut, then Save CNC file.

V-carved lettering: deeper where the letters are wider, crisp in the corners.

Importing and exporting

Import (or drag a file onto the screen) brings drawings and pictures in. Export sends your drawing to other programs and machines.

Imported drawings land centred on your stock. If they're bigger than the stock, the stock grows to fit. Text inside DXF and SVG files isn't brought in — retype it with the Text tool.

Tracing a picture

Import a logo or drawing (JPG, PNG). Move Dark enough until the preview shows what you want, set Smooth and the Width, and tap Use the traced shapes. Clean, high-contrast pictures trace best. Use it as a photo (laser) keeps the picture itself for photo engraving instead.

Shaper Origin

Set up toolpaths on Make it as usual, then Export → Shaper Origin SVG. Each shape is coloured the way Origin reads it, with its depth written in:

Copy the file to a USB drive and plug it into Origin, or upload it to Shaper Hub. Check the depth on Origin's screen before cutting.

Cabinets and furniture

Pick a design on New, fill in the sizes and tap Start. Grainbook Studio works out every part, its joinery and where it sits — and shows it in 3D.

Drag the model to turn it, scroll or pinch to zoom, tap a part to see its size and joinery. Pull apart spreads the parts so you can see how it goes together. Change any size on the right and everything follows.

Your choices

How the boxes are built

• Boxes from prefinished maple plywood (change it under Box material): sides full height, bottom (and top on wall and tall cabinets) in 1/4″ dados, back in a groove 3/4″ in from the back edge, two 4″ stretchers on base cabinets.
• Doors and drawer fronts default to MDF for paint; pick plywood or solid wood for a natural finish.
• Drawer boxes: 1/2″ plywood (or solid wood) with the bottom in a groove. With undermount slides (Blum TANDEM, MOVENTO) the box is the opening less 42 mm, its bottom 1/2″ up, with the back notched and drilled for the slide.
• Tall cabinets have a fixed shelf (in dados) where the upper and lower doors meet.
• Edge banding on the front edges that show (frameless).

Cabinet by cabinet

For a single cabinet, a kitchen run or a whole room, the Parts tab has a sheet for each cabinet (cabinets built alike share one sheet, marked × 2, × 3…, with their parts listed for one cabinet): its name and what it is (base, sink base, wall, tall…), its width × height × depth, drawers and doors, which ends are finished, its own parts (sizes and materials), its hardware, and its price. A cabinet's price is its own parts, hardware and labor plus its share of the sheets and CNC time, with your overhead and profit; anything not in one cabinet (moldings, tile, extra labor) is its own line, so they add up to the estimate. On the Price tab, Show each cabinet's price → Yes puts the list on the printed estimate.

Front view and part labels

Parts starts with a front view drawn to scale with the overall width and height (and each cabinet's code in a kitchen) — good for the customer to approve. Part labels prints a label for every part (Avery 5160, 30 to a sheet): part, cabinet, size, which sheet it's on, which edges get banding, and whether it's been machined.

Parts: the cut list, sheets and lumber

The Parts tab shows everything you need at the saw: the cut list (finished sizes, length with the grain, how many), the sheet layouts, and for solid wood the board feet to buy.

• Sheets: parts are laid out biggest first, leaving room for the bit between them. On grain-matched plywood, parts keep their grain with the sheet's length; MDF and melamine parts can turn to fit.
• Lumber: rough thickness is the next stock size that leaves 3/16″ to flatten and plane (a 7/8″ apron comes from 5/4), plus 1/4″ in width, 1″ in length, and your waste allowance.
• How many on the Design tab multiplies everything.
• Print prints the cut list and layouts.

CNC files for each sheet

On Make it, each sheet shows its parts and toolpaths with the cutting time. Each sheet gets: the joinery first (dados and grooves, with the biggest end mill that fits; grooves exactly as wide as a bit are cut in one pass down the middle), then every part cut out with two small tabs, smallest parts first, ramping into each cut. Zero on the sheet's front-left corner, Z on top of the sheet. Tap Save CNC file on a sheet.

End-grain boards

Pick End-grain board and type the strips across the board — wood and width, separated by commas, like walnut 1-1/2, maple 1-1/2, cherry 1. The list repeats until the board is wide enough. Woods come from your lumber list (Shop prices).

• Strip thickness is how thick you mill the strips. It sets the rows: each slice, turned up on end, adds that much to the board's length.
• Pattern: Checkerboard flips every other slice end for end; Brick slides every other slice half a strip; Stripes keeps them all the same way.
• Saw kerf and Extra for flattening make the strips long enough for every slice.

The 3D view shows the finished pattern. Parts lists the strips to mill, the board feet to buy, and the steps in order — rip, first glue-up, crosscut, flip, second glue-up, flatten. Price includes the wood, finish and the shop time for each step.

Kitchens

Pick Kitchen run and type the cabinets left to right, separated by commas.

Cabinets built exactly alike share one name. Three B24s with the same parts, ends, holes and hardware are all B24 — the cut list says B24 × 3 and they get one cabinet sheet marked × 3, priced each and in total. The same code built differently gets a letter: a B24 with a finished end beside two plain ones becomes B24 and B24A × 2 (after a code ending in a letter, a dash: B24D-A). In a whole room, alike cabinets share a name across every wall and the island; their sheet says which walls they're on.

Crown molding (3″ or 4-1/2″) runs along the tops of the wall cabinets and light rail under them, in the face frame wood; both are drawn and priced by the foot with their installing time.

Appliances are drawn at standard sizes (a 24″ dishwasher, a 30″ range, a 36″ fridge…) — check the model's installation guide. Appliances and the countertop are listed under By others on the Parts tab, with the countertop's square feet, but aren't in the cut list or price. A sink base gets a sink and faucet when there's a countertop. Ends next to a range or fridge are finished automatically.

Base height and depth, wall depth, where the wall cabinets start, and the materials apply to the whole run. The cut list groups identical parts across cabinets and says which cabinets they're for; sheets, CNC files and the price cover the whole kitchen.

A whole kitchen room

New → Kitchen room lays out the room: its walls, floor, doors and windows, cabinets on each wall, and an island — in 3D, with the walls nearest you left out so you can see in (turn it and they swap).

Walk in (Design tab) stands you inside the room at eye height: drag to look around, scroll or use the arrow keys to step forward and back (↑ ↓) and turn (← →). Back outside returns to the overview. Save picture downloads what you see — handy for the customer — and printed estimates include the 3D picture and the front view. For a picture that looks like a photograph, use Render.

You'll see a warning if a run is longer than its wall, or cabinets cover a door or window — use an open space code like X36 in the wall row over a window. The cut list, sheets, CNC files, labels and price cover every cabinet in the room; appliances and countertops are listed under By others.

Photo-real pictures (Render)

Render (Design tab, next to Save picture) makes a picture that looks like a photograph of the finished piece: real light bouncing round it, soft shadows, light through the windows, the shine on stone, steel, glass and paint, and real wood grain in each species' colours. Use it to show a customer what they're buying before you cut anything. It works for every furniture, cabinet, cutting board, kitchen and room design.

The picture starts grainy and gets cleaner every pass — you can watch it settle. It uses the same view as the 3D picture, so turn and zoom the 3D view first (or Walk in to a room) and then press Render.

Start again renders again with the settings. Save picture downloads it as a JPG. Use on the estimate puts it on the printed estimate in place of the 3D view (on the Price tab, Render a picture opens Render too, and Use the 3D view instead takes your picture off again). Changing any setting starts the picture over. Close goes back to your design.

How things look: wood is a real wood photo coloured to each species and laid along each part's grain at its real size; the ends of parts show end grain. Painted parts, stained parts, plywood boxes (prefinished or raw), countertops, stainless appliances, glass and pulls each get their own surface. Standing inside a room, Studio adds a ceiling with lights in it.

Render needs a graphics card that runs WebGL 2 — any Mac from the last several years does. If the picture stays on "Setting up the scene…", close it and try again with Quality Quick.

Backsplash tile and flooring

Kitchens and rooms can show backsplash tile and a floor from your own catalog: each item drawn at its real size in 3D and in Render, measured, and put on the bill of materials and the estimate with its manufacturer, colour and item number.

Your catalog: Library → Tile & flooring

Backsplash tile, floor tile, laminate, hardwood and vinyl plank. Studio comes with a few plain examples (no store, no price) to start from; add the products you actually use. Tap an item to change it, or + Add.

Why not just bring in the stores' whole catalogs? Their product photos belong to them and the makers, and their prices change daily — so you add the products you actually sell, with a link back to the store, and your own photo if you have one.

On a kitchen or room

On a Kitchen run or Kitchen room, pick the Backsplash tile and its Backsplash height (full, up to the wall cabinets; 18″; or a 4″ splash). The tile runs behind every stretch of counter — not behind a fridge or a tall cabinet, and not behind an island. On a room, Floor from the catalog covers the whole floor.

Supplied by (backsplash and floor): Us prices it; The customer still draws it in 3D and Render and lists it — maker, colour, how much to buy — marked supplied by customer at $0, so they buy the right amount. An install rate is still charged if you're installing it.

Bill of materials and estimate

The Parts tab lists Tile and flooring: manufacturer, item and colour, where it goes, the area, what to buy (with waste, in whole boxes) and where to get it. The Price tab adds a Tile and flooring group to the estimate (and a warning if an item has no price yet). Send to Grainbook Mill carries every line, by name, to the project there, so the invoice shows them too.

2D drawings and printing

Any design — a cabinet, a kitchen, a chair, a described design — can become shop drawings: 2D drawings on the Design tab (or Export → 2D drawings) makes the front, right side and top views, laid out the North American way (top above the front, side to its right), with hidden lines left out, overall sizes, each cabinet's width across a kitchen run, the view names and a title block.

The drawings open as their own project on a white sheet, made of ordinary lines, measurements and words, so you can change anything with the drawing tools: add a Measure where the shop needs one, add notes with Text, move a view, delete a line. Save it like any project.

Printing to scale

On a drawing, tap Print the drawing… (Design tab) or Export → Print the drawing (to scale). Pick the Paper (Letter either way round, or Tabloid); Studio picks the largest standard Scale that fits — 1:1, 1:2 (6″ = 1′), 1:4 (3″ = 1′), 1:8 (1-1/2″ = 1′), 1:12 (1″ = 1′), 1:16, 1:24, 1:48, 1:96 — or choose your own. The printout says its scale at the bottom, so a scale rule reads it true. To make a PDF, choose Save as PDF in the print window. This works for any drawing — a sign or cutting board layout too.

Making it on the CNC

Tap Make it. Your toolpaths are drawn over the design in colour, in the order they'll be cut.

Your machine

Tap the Machine button under Make it (or Your machine on the start screen) and pick yours from the list. It's remembered on this computer.

After you pick, the Machine section shows what that machine needs:

• ShopBot: tick Spindle speed set from the file if your router's speed is controlled by the ShopBot (TR), Tool changer if it has one (C9), Second head to cut with head 2. Inch files check the control is set to inches, and mm files to millimetres, before they run.
• Studio's own controllers: Tool changer and Program in inches or millimetres.
• A machine from the list: the units and file type are set by that machine. With a tool changer every bit is in one file; otherwise you get one file per bit.
• Circles and curves as true arcs (G2/G3) — on unless you turn it off. A circle goes to the machine as two half-circle arcs on its exact centre and radius, and rounded corners as one arc each, the way Vectric and AutoCAD send them — not hundreds of tiny straight moves. Files are much smaller and curves cut smoother. Turn it off only for an old controller that can't read arcs.
• Check first: some makers' files call little programs of their own that Studio can't run. Studio writes those moves plainly; read the file and run it in the air before cutting.

Rotary jobs (a 4th axis)

Pick a rotary machine from the list (it says rotary). Draw the job flat, as if the cylinder were unrolled: the stock's length front to back (or its width, for posts that wrap X) is the way around. Studio turns that direction into degrees on the rotary axis when it writes the file — all the way around is 360°.

Curves are written as short straight moves around a cylinder, never as arcs.

Tool changer: on the Avid CNC EX the whole job is one file either way — at each bit change the EX stops and asks for the next bit (and measures it if you use the touch-off routine), or the tool changer fetches it. On other controllers, No gives one file per bit, numbered in cutting order — run the first, change bits and re-zero Z, run the next; Yes puts the tool changes in one file. Fastest feed keeps suggestions within what your machine can do.

Zero

X and Y zero on the front-left corner of the stock, Z zero on the top of the stock — the red and green marks on the drawing. Safe height is how high the bit lifts to move between cuts.

Adding a toolpath

1. Pick the shapes to cut on the drawing.
2. + Add toolpath → choose What it does.
3. Pick the Bit and Depth (for parts, All the way through goes 1/32″ past the bottom, and follows the stock if you change its thickness later).
4. Check the feeds and speeds and tap Add.

More cut-out and pocket options

The preview of a dome (3D shape), a texture panel, and a mortise with dogbone corners.

3D shapes from an outline

Pick a closed shape — a circle, a rectangle, a drawn outline, even lettering — and add 3D shape. Studio works out how far each spot is in from the edge and carves a surface from that.

Raised shapes (prism, dome) leave the wood around them alone, or Clear down to the depth around them. Rough first with an end mill clears deep shapes quickly before the ball nose finishes.

Tabs

Tabs are short bridges of wood the bit leaves at the bottom of a cut-out, so the part can't come loose and get thrown when the last pass frees it. Cut them with a flush-trim bit or a chisel afterwards.

V-carve inlays

1. Draw the design on the board. Pick it → V-carve → Inlay: Inlay pocket, Deepest 1/4″, clear wide parts with an end mill.
2. Duplicate the design and Mirror ↔ the copy (the plug goes in face down). Move it onto the plug wood's drawing, or onto spare stock.
3. Pick the copy → V-carve → Inlay: Inlay plug, same V-bit, same Deepest. Plug start depth (about 0.1″) leaves a gap for glue.
4. Cut both, glue the plug in face down, clamp, and when dry saw or plane the plug's back off and sand flush.

3D carving from a picture

Import a picture → Use it as a photo, set its width, pick it, and add 3D carve a picture or model. Dark parts are carved deeper (or raised — your pick), down to Depth.

3D models (STL): Import an .stl file (from a 3D design program, or a model you bought). Choose which side faces up, whether the model is in millimetres or inches, and its width on the wood; Studio shows how deep it will carve. Place it and add a 3D carve puts the model on the drawing (as a height picture: white is the top of the model) and adds the 3D carve toolpath, finishing both ways. Studio carves what can be seen from above — undercuts can't be reached by a 3-axis machine.

• Bit: a ball nose leaves the smoothest surface. Stepover 8–12% of the bit; smaller is smoother and slower.
• Rough first with an end mill clears deep carvings in flat layers, leaving 1/32″ for the ball nose to finish.
• Smooth softens grainy photos. Pictures with clear shading carve best — logos with a soft glow, drawings, portraits with good light.
• The bit never cuts deeper than the surface anywhere under it, so fine detail is limited by the bit's size.

Direction: Climb leaves the cleaner edge on a rigid machine; Conventional is gentler on one with play. Going down: Ramp in slopes into the cut instead of plunging — easier on bits and the machine.

Toolpaths are cut in the order listed; ↑ moves one earlier. New work goes before any cut-out that goes all the way through, and you're warned if a cut-out would free a part before the rest of its work is done.

Bits, feeds and speeds

Bits lists the bits in your shop — change it to match your rack. Feeds and speeds are suggested from each bit's size and flutes and the wood you're cutting: a chip load that suits the bit at 18,000 RPM, plunge at a third of the feed, a depth per pass of half the bit in hardwood. They're starting points — listen to the cut and look at the chips (good chips, not dust). Anything you type stays with that toolpath; Use the suggested numbers puts them back.

Preview, play and save

Preview the cut carves the toolpaths into the stock (darker is deeper, grey is through). ▶ Play the cut runs the bit through every move, faster than real time; Speed changes how fast.

Save CNC file writes the program to your Downloads folder. About … of cutting is the time at your feeds plus moves between cuts — the real time is a little longer.

Cutting boards

New → Cutting board draws the board and makes its toolpaths. Choose:

Underside work (side 2)

Grips and feet are on the underside: they save as their own file, marked "side 2 (flipped)", and are dashed on the drawing. Run the top first (but not the cut-out), turn the blank over left to right with the same end toward you, zero X and Y on the front-left corner and Z on the top again, and run side 2. Then run the cut-out.

Edge-grain and end-grain boards

Edge-grain board: type the strips across (maple 1, walnut 3/4, maple 1); each strip is ripped as wide as the board is thick and glued on edge. End-grain board: see End-grain boards. Both give the strips to mill, the board feet to buy, the steps, and a 3D view of the finished board.

Inlays in an end-grain board

• Make the board at least 1-1/4″ thick, and keep inlays thin (about 1/4″) with their grain running the same way as the board's.
• Use the V-bit first and clear the flat middle after (Studio does this for end-grain boards); slow the router a little.
• Test the depth and glue gap on a scrap of the same end grain first.

Hardware

The hardware catalog holds hinges, drawer slides, pulls, knobs, inserts, T-nuts, cam locks, magnets and more — each with its price and the prep it needs (the holes and pockets the CNC cuts). Open it from Price → Hardware catalog, or Insert hardware… on a drawing.

Items marked check use the makers' usual published sizes: check the maker's drawing for your exact model before a production run.

On a drawing

Insert hardware… → pick an item → Place → tap where its centre goes (type 90 to turn it). Its holes and pockets appear on the drawing, toolpaths are added on Make it (holes the size of a drill are drilled, others pocketed, through-holes go through), and the part goes on the Price.

Your own hardware (and McMaster-Carr)

+ My own hardware: name it, give the maker, part number, price and a link, then its prep — holes (with depth, or "thru"), holes with a counterbore, and pockets, measured from the point you'll place it. Read the prep from a DXF drawing takes every circle in a maker's 2D drawing as a hole. Find on McMaster-Carr opens their site so you can find a part, then add it with its number and price (McMaster-Carr offers DXF drawings for most parts). Copy on any item starts yours from it.

Colours and wood

Every design has a Finish: Natural wood, Stained or Painted. Tap Paint colour or Stain to pick from Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Behr, Valspar, PPG, Farrow & Ball, C2 and stains — search by name or number (they show as White Dove OC-17). Screen colours are close, not exact: check a real chip. + My colour adds any colour from a chip (maker, number, name, and the colour).

On painted cabinets the paint goes on the face frames, doors, drawer fronts, toe kicks and finished ends; the boxes stay their plywood. Wood is drawn with its grain at real size, running the length of each part, with end grain on the ends — change a size and the grain follows. Stains tint the grain. On a drawing, Looks like paints the stock or shows its wood.

Whole paint palettes from the paint makers

Studio has the most popular colours from Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Behr, Valspar, PPG, Farrow & Ball and C2 built in. For a maker's whole palette, bring in the colour file they publish for architects and designers:

1. On the paint maker's website, find their colour palette download for designers — usually Adobe swatches (.ase or .aco). A GIMP palette (.gpl) or a spreadsheet (.csv with name, code and hex, or R, G, B columns) works too.
2. Library → My paint colours → Import a paint maker's colour file… and pick the file (or several).
3. Check the Maker (Studio guesses it from the file name), choose Paint or Stain, and Import. Codes like SW 7006, OC-17 or 2125-10 are split from the names, so the maker's number shows beside each colour.

Imported colours appear in every colour picker under their maker; search by name or number. Importing the same file again just updates it. Remove these takes a whole maker off.

Screen colours are close, not exact — always check a real chip before the customer orders paint.

Ready-made shapes and combining

Ready-made (left side) has shapes made from sizes you type: bowtie (butterfly key), dogbone rectangle (a square-cornered mortise a round bit can cut), keyhole slot, slot, holes in a row (32 mm shelf pins by default), holes round a circle, polygon, star, box joint fingers, oval and arch. Fill in the sizes and tap where the middle goes.

With shapes picked: Round corners… rounds outside corners (and inside ones if you ask) to a radius. With two or more: Join makes one shape, Cut away takes the others out of the biggest, Overlap keeps only where they overlap.

Tool database

Make it → Tool database lists your bits with their size, kind and cut (upcut, downcut, compression…), cutting length, maker and part number, and the tool number in your tool changer (written as T1, T2… in the file). Open a bit to type your own feeds and speeds for each material — they replace the suggestions from then on. Export saves the database as JSON and CSV (for a spreadsheet or another computer); Import reads either back.

Laser

Laser work goes on the same drawing as router work. Pick shapes, + Add toolpath, and choose one of the laser jobs. They save as their own laser file.

Laser runs on: GRBL laser (most diode laser kits and machines run in laser mode) Avid CNC EX laser (power set by S from 0 to 100 on each cut, off to move — no M3), or Centroid CNC12. Full power is S is the number your controller uses for 100% (1000 on most GRBL lasers). Air assist turns on air with M8.

Your Library: materials, hardware, bits, colours, prices

Library (top bar) is everything your shop keeps, in one place. Studio saves it on this computer — not in the web browser, so clearing the browser or using a different one loses nothing. Every new project uses it. You don't need Grainbook Mill for any of it.

A sheet good

Lumber

Price a board foot is the price for any thickness. Fill in Price for each thickness (4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 8/4, 10/4, 12/4, 16/4) where thicker stock costs more; leave a box blank to use the main price. Cut lists and estimates buy the thickness each part needs and use its price. If Grainbook Mill is connected, Lumber prices from Grainbook Mill fills these in from your Mill's board prices.

Make a copy starts a new material from this one. Delete takes it out of the Library (saved projects that use it keep their own copy). Back returns to the list without saving.

Moving your library to another computer

Export library saves everything — materials, hardware, bits, colours, prices, your machine and your customers — as one file. On the other computer, Import library and choose Add to mine (keeps what's there; an item in both takes the file's version) or Replace mine (the file's library replaces everything).

Customers

Library → Customers is Studio's own customer list. Find anyone by name, company, phone or email; tap a name to change it; + New customer adds one.

Each customer has a Name, Company, Phone, Email, Address and Notes. Delete takes them out of Studio (if they're also in Grainbook Mill they stay there).

A project's customer: on the Price tab, tap Customer and pick them (type to find them, or + New customer). Their name, address, phone and email print at the top of the estimate, and Send to Grainbook Mill fills them in for you.

With Grainbook Mill

When Grainbook Mill is connected, both programs share one customer list, both ways, on their own:

• Someone you add or change in Studio is sent to Mill within a few seconds (and Mill sends new customers on to Square as usual).
• Customers added or changed in Mill (or in Square) come into Studio every five minutes. Sync now does it straight away.
• If the same customer was changed in both, the newer change wins.
• Next to each name: in Mill (linked), going to Mill (waiting for the next sync), Square (came from Square). A red note means Mill turned a change down — the note says why.
• Square customers keep their name, phone and email from Square: change those in Square. Notes you add in Studio go to Mill.
• Deleting a customer in Studio doesn't delete them in Mill.

Without Mill, nothing changes: the list is simply Studio's own.

Pricing your work

The Price tab works out what a project costs to make and what to charge, and prints a clean estimate with your shop's name.

Shop prices holds your rates: shop and CNC time per hour, overhead and profit, lumber waste, edge banding, finish, each kind of hardware, and every material's price. Set Charge part sheets to 1 to charge only the part of a sheet a job uses (to the next quarter sheet). Your shop's name, address, phone and website go at the top of printed estimates. Prices are kept in your Library and used for new projects. Tap Customer to pick who the estimate is for (see Customers); Render a picture puts a photo-real picture on the estimate.

For drawings like cutting boards and signs, pick what the Stock is (the wood and its price per board foot) and add your labor; How many prices a batch.

Working with Grainbook Mill

If you also run Grainbook Mill (the sawmill and inventory program), connect the two and Studio can use what Mill knows.

Connecting

1. In Grainbook Mill: Settings → Other programs → make a read and write API key named "Grainbook Studio". Copy it.
2. In Studio: Price → Shop prices → Grainbook Mill…. Type Mill's address and paste the key. Tap Connect.

The key stays on this computer and is never shown again. Disconnect forgets it; turning the key off in Mill stops it too.

What you can do

Reference: the screen, piece by piece

This part of the manual lists every button, box and choice in Grainbook Studio. The chapters before it show how to do things; these say what each thing is.

12345678910

Reference: every tool and the Design panel

Tools

Points snap to corners, ends, middles, centres and the grid (a small marker shows what it snapped to). Hold the space bar, or drag with the middle or right mouse button, to move the view with any tool.

Design panel: Project and Stock

Design panel: the picked shape

Change it (one or more shapes picked)

Line up

Left, Centre, Right, Front, Middle, Back line picked shapes up with each other — or, with one shape picked, on the stock. Arrow keys nudge picked shapes 1/16″ (with Shift, 1″).

Hardware and Snapping

Insert hardware… opens the catalog; pick an item and tap where it goes (its holes come with it). The list under it shows what’s on the drawing (and goes on the estimate). Grid on / off turns snapping to the grid on and off.

Reference: every typed command

Start typing anywhere — the Type box at the bottom picks it up — and press Enter. Sizes can be 12, 3-1/2, 3 1/2, 3.5, 90mm or 9cm.

Reference: every way to start a project

New shows six kinds of work. Pick one, then its type in the row underneath, fill in the boxes, and press Start. You can change every size later.

Reference: Base cabinet

Frameless, doors or drawers, toe kick.

Every cabinet design also has Name and How many at the top of the panel.

Reference: Wall cabinet

Frameless, doors, shelves.

Reference: Tall cabinet

Pantry or utility, upper and lower doors.

Reference: Bookcase

Fixed shelves in dados, back in a groove.

Reference: Box

Keepsake box, bottom in a groove, lid.

Reference: End-grain board

Strips, two glue-ups, checkerboard.

The Parts tab gives the strip list, the two glue-ups and the crosscut rows. See End-grain boards.

Reference: Edge-grain board

Strips on edge, one glue-up.

Reference: Kitchen run

A row of base and wall cabinets.

Each cabinet in the run is a whole cabinet with every choice above; codes set its type and width. See Kitchens.

Reference: Kitchen room

Walls, doors, windows, cabinets on every wall, an island.

All the kitchen run choices apply to every wall and the island. See A whole kitchen room.

Reference: Table

Solid top, legs, aprons with tenons.

Reference: Chair

Side chair: legs, seat rails with tenons, stretchers, slatted back.

Reference: cabinet and appliance codes

Kitchen runs and rooms take a list of codes, left to right, separated by commas. The number is the width in inches (fractions like 15.5 are fine). Upper or lower case.

Countertops: Quartz, Granite, Marble, Quartzite, Soapstone, Butcher block, Laminate, Solid surface, Concrete, Stainless steel, Porcelain slab, Terrazzo, Recycled glass.

Reference: every Make it setting

Machine and job

Buttons

Kinds of toolpath

Toolpath boxes

Only the boxes that apply to the kind you picked are shown.

Laser boxes

Bits (Tool database)

Controllers

Avid CNC EX controller follows Avid’s own setup for the EX: the whole job is one file (.cnc); at each bit change it asks for the next bit (T# M6), lifts to the top of Z first (G53 Z0), and numbers every line. With a tool changer the machine fetches the bit instead.

Laser: Avid CNC EX laser (power by S, 0 to 100); GRBL laser ($32=1: LightBurn-style lasers, Shapeoko/Onefinity/Sienci laser kits); Centroid CNC12 laser (Avid CNC EX laser kit).

Materials for feeds and speeds: Hardwood (maple, oak, walnut, cherry), End grain (cutting boards), Softwood (pine, cedar, poplar), Plywood, MDF, Plastic (HDPE, acrylic).

Cabinets and furniture

On designs, Make it shows one CNC file per sheet: joinery first with the biggest end mill that fits, then every part cut out with two small tabs, smallest parts first. Zero X and Y on the sheet’s front-left corner and Z on top of the sheet. Save CNC file under each sheet. Solid-wood parts aren’t nested on sheets.

Reference: the 3D view and the Parts tab

Reference: every ready-made shape

The Shapes tool: pick one, fill in its sizes (the picture changes as you type), Place it, then tap where its middle goes.

Reference: hardware, colours, text, tracing and Grainbook Mill windows

Hardware catalog

My own hardware (and Change / Copy)

Paint and stain colours

Text

Tracing a picture (Import a .png or .jpg)

Grainbook Mill

Reference: every kind of file

Reference: Shop prices and the Price tab

Shortcuts

On Windows, use Ctrl where this says ⌘.

When something's not right

What's new

• Nov 9, 2026 — Studio on the web: sign in with your name and PIN, each new phone or computer let in once by the owner, People and devices for owners, a phone layout (☰ menu, settings that pull up from the bottom), an app icon for the home screen, and nightly backups on the server.
• Nov 9, 2026 — More toolpaths: Flatten / surface (slabs and the spoilboard), Quick engrave with sharp corners, Thread milling, Texture, and 3D shapes from any outline (prism, dome, bowl, tray, and roundover, cove, ogee and chamfer edges). Cut-outs get onion skin and lead in/out; cut-outs and pockets get dogbone and T-bone corners; pockets can clean their corners with a smaller bit; 3D carving finishes across, front to back or both. Import reads 3D models (STL) for 3D carving.
• Nov 9, 2026 — True circles: circles, round holes, round pockets and rounded corners are cut on exact circles and go to the machine as true arcs (G2/G3) on every controller that reads them. The tools Shape and Shapes are now Polyline and Ready-made.
• Nov 9, 2026 — Start screen: Studio opens on a home page with a tile for each kind of project, your recent projects with pictures, search, and your machine, Library, Customers and Help on the side. New and the Studio name come back to it.
• Nov 9, 2026 — Undo and Redo buttons at the top (also ⌘Z, ⇧⌘Z, ⌘Y).
• Nov 9, 2026 — Measure anything: distances, everything about a shape (sides, corner angles, area), angles, circles and arcs through three points, areas, and the gap between two shapes. Keep, copy or measure again.
• Nov 9, 2026 — Machines: pick your machine from several hundred routers, engravers and lasers by maker, use a post file of your own, ShopBot options (spindle speed, tool changer, second head), rotary jobs and arcs.
• Nov 9, 2026 — Toolpaths: cut on the line, allowance and a finishing pass on cut-outs; pockets cleared in rows at any angle; holes bored to size; new Chamfer an edge and Fluting; ramped tabs, and tabs you place by tapping the drawing. A cut that goes through with no tabs is flagged.
• Nov 9, 2026 — Cabinets built exactly alike now share one name (B24 × 3) on the cut list, labels, cabinet sheets and estimate; the same code built differently gets a letter (B24A).
• Nov 9, 2026 — Solid-wood drawer boxes (any species) and drawer fronts in their own material; finished-end marks on kitchen codes (/L, /R, /LR, /A, /0); All sides finished cabinets and island choices; Cabinet by cabinet sheets with each cabinet's price, and on the estimate if you want.
• Nov 9, 2026 — Backsplash tile and flooring: your own catalog (manufacturer, colour, store, item number, price by the square foot or box, waste, install, layout, photo), drawn at real size in 3D and Render, with Find at Lowe's / Home Depot, a bill of materials and estimate lines; supplied by customer shows at $0. Whole paint palettes from the makers' .ase, .aco, .gpl or .csv files.
• Nov 9, 2026 — New project in six kinds: New project, Cutting boards, Cabinets, Boxes, Custom furniture and Describe it. New Chair design. Glue-up boards take every board option and open their CNC cut-out. Describe it: Claude designs a piece from your words. 2D drawings of any design, printable to scale. New Avid CNC EX controller from Avid's own setup: one file per job, the EX asks for each bit.
• Nov 9, 2026 — The manual now has a Reference: every button, box and choice on every screen, every design option, every typed command, toolpath, controller, shape and file type, with pictures.
• Nov 9, 2026 — Fixed: grain in the 3D view no longer leaves a pale strip on faces seen at an angle; the island’s seating side is painted all the way across; Crown molding and Light rail are now choices on Kitchen run and Kitchen room.
• Nov 9, 2026 — Library (top bar): materials with sizes, per-thickness prices, supplier and look; hardware, bits, colours and prices in one place, saved by Studio (not the browser), with Export / Import for another computer. Customers: Studio’s own list, on estimates, shared both ways with Grainbook Mill when it’s connected.
• Nov 9, 2026 — Render: photo-real pictures of any design — real wood grain, stone, steel, glass and paint, three kinds of light, sizes for printing and phones, and a picture you can put on the estimate.
• Nov 8, 2026 — Walk in to a kitchen room at eye height; Save picture; estimates show the 3D picture and front view; blind corner cabinets, fillers, crown molding and light rail.
• Nov 8, 2026 — Kitchen room: the whole room in 3D — walls in your paint colour, wood or tile floor, doors and windows, cabinets on every wall, an island with seating; warnings when cabinets cover a window or run past a corner. Wall cabinets, fridges, microwaves and hoods now sit back against the wall.
• Nov 8, 2026 — Cabinets: toe kick built in, separate ladder base or legs; frameless or face frame; slab, 5-piece Shaker or CNC MDF Shaker doors; tall cabinets; finished ends (painted or applied panels); prefinished maple boxes; hinge cups, press-in pins, hinge plates, shelf pins, slide and pull holes drilled on the CNC; front view and part labels. Kitchens: countertops of every common type, appliances (dishwasher, ranges, cooktop, fridge, wall oven, microwave, hood) and sinks. Hardware catalog with prep (Blum, Salice, Accuride, pulls, fasteners), your own hardware, McMaster-Carr. Paint and stain colours and real-size wood grain. Tool database. Shapes, join/cut/overlap, round corners. Cutting boards: shapes, grips, feet (side 2), edge-grain designer. 3D carving from a picture.
• Nov 8, 2026 — 3D carving from a picture: dark parts carved deep or raised, finished with a ball nose, optional end-mill roughing.
• Nov 8, 2026 — V-carve inlays: make the inlay pocket and the plug that fits it, with a glue gap.
• Nov 8, 2026 — End-grain boards: pick strip woods and widths and a pattern (checkerboard, brick, stripes); get the steps, strips to mill, board feet and a price, with a 3D view of the finished board.
• Nov 8, 2026 — Grainbook Mill: connect with an API key to use Mill's lumber prices (per thickness), design on a Mill slab with its real shape, and send an estimate to Mill as a project.
• Nov 8, 2026 — Laser: line cutting and scoring, fill engraving and photo engraving, for GRBL and Centroid lasers. Text in any font. Import DXF and SVG, trace pictures; export Shaper Origin SVG, a full-size PDF template and HPGL. Changing shapes: offset, copies, mirror, turn, size, line up and nudge. Ramping into cuts, V-carving with a flat clear-out, ▶ Play the cut. Kitchen runs from cabinet codes.
• Nov 8, 2026 — Furniture and cabinets: base and wall cabinets, bookcase, box and table from a few sizes, with a 3D view, cut list, sheet layouts, lumber list, CNC files for each sheet, and a Price tab with shop prices and a printed estimate.
• Nov 8, 2026 — Make it: toolpaths (cut out with tabs, pocket, groove, drill, V-carve), bits with suggested feeds and speeds, a carved-wood preview, cutting time, and CNC files for Centroid CNC12 (Avid CNC EX), GRBL, Mach3/4, UCCNC, LinuxCNC, Masso and ShopBot.
• Nov 8, 2026 — First version: cutting boards from sizes, drawing tools, fractions, save and open, DXF and SVG export.

Render uses three.js, three-mesh-bvh and three-gpu-pathtracer (MIT licence). Wood photos and light pictures from Poly Haven (polyhaven.com, CC0, free for any use).