Blueprints is a CAD-lite workspace for people who need a technical idea to keep its measurements and design intent. Makers can explore a simple part, students can learn how references and constraints shape geometry, and reviewers can inspect a design without separating the model from its discussion. The emphasis is controlled geometry, not merely producing a convincing picture of an object.
Choose Blueprints for Technical Design Intent
Blueprints works from units, references, sketches, dimensions, constraints, features, and diagnostics. Those pieces record why a part has its current form and make supported edits easier to understand later.
That purpose separates Blueprints from two nearby Live Apps:
Blueprints is 2D-first because a precise planar sketch is a practical starting point for a part. It is not limited to 2D: supported closed profiles can become simple 3D preview bodies inside the same design file.
Create, Open, and Recover a Design
Open Blueprints from Apps to browse files in the current space area and its folders. Normal space and area access decides which files you can discover and open. Creating and saving a Blueprint also requires Blueprints app access, and private-area membership continues to apply.
A new file opens as an editable draft with a grid, origin, base planes, and axes. It does not preload sample geometry. Sketches, features, bodies, drawings, assembly information, AI proposals, and command history begin empty, so the first geometry reflects your own design rather than a showcase model.
You can rename the open file from the title control. The file remains connected to its space area and has a reusable editor address, so refreshing or reopening returns to the same design when your access still allows it.
On desktop, creation tools flank the main workspace and supporting destinations such as Inspect, Status, Drawing, Article, and Comments open beside it. Phones and narrow windows keep those destinations in a compact drawer. The design remains available there, although sketch handles and 3D inspection are more comfortable with a larger viewport.
Blueprints automatically saves supported edits as recoverable design snapshots. A saved snapshot includes the title, sketch geometry, annotations, preview-solid intent, drawing information, selection, history, and review metadata needed to reconstruct the current workspace. It does not preserve a frozen picture of the viewport as the design itself.
Snapshot recovery is not professional CAD version control. Blueprints restores the latest accepted complete design state; it does not merge every simultaneous command, offer a user-facing backup browser, or provide branches, releases, and peer-safe undo. If an incoming saved version conflicts with pending local work, the app protects that pending save before refreshing rather than pretending the changes were safely combined.
Start With Units and References
Every design is expressed in document units and precision. The grid, major spacing, snap state, origin, base planes, and X, Y, and Z axes give a sketch a stable frame of reference. Construction geometry and datum points can add non-part references when a design needs guidance without turning every line into a physical edge.
References are visible in the workspace and the Tree. Selecting one lets the Inspect panel describe its position, visibility, and locked state. The built-in origin, planes, and axes are anchors for the design rather than ordinary geometry to move casually.
The current workspace displays these settings and uses them in readouts, dimensions, and drawings. It does not yet provide a complete unit-conversion or precision-configuration workflow, so verify the shown document units before relying on a value in a review.
Build the Part in Sketch
Sketch is the authoring surface for planar geometry. The current tools can add:
New geometry becomes part of the document structure and can be selected from the viewport or Tree. A supported selected entity exposes an edit handle. You can also copy, cut, paste, or duplicate eligible sketch entities, including an Alt- or Option-drag clone on desktop. Locked geometry refuses changes instead of accepting an edit that cannot be honored.
Undo and redo restore local command snapshots, including affected sketch geometry, preview solids, selection, and related drawing state. This is useful for trying a construction or feature parameter, but the history belongs to the local editing flow. It should not be treated as a collaborator-aware record that can safely reverse only one person's work after concurrent edits.
Dimensions and constraints need especially honest interpretation. The dimension command creates a value suited to the selected geometry, while the constraint command currently creates a horizontal constraint for an eligible selection. Diagnostics can distinguish under-defined, fully constrained, over-constrained, failed, or unsupported states, and dimension editing adjusts a stored local value. The current diagnostic solver does not fully recalculate sketch geometry from typed parameters. A displayed value communicates intent and supports review, but it is not yet proof of robust parametric regeneration.
Turn a Closed Profile Into a Model Preview
A closed rectangle or circle can provide the profile for a simple extruded add feature. The resulting feature and body appear in the document structure, and changing the supported feature value updates the preview, local history, inspection information, and linked drawing state together.
This is where the workspace moves from sketch intent into model inspection:
The model view is useful for checking the overall result and discussing a part in three dimensions. You can pan the view, inspect the automatically framed body, and see selection feedback. Orbit, complete zoom and fit behavior, persistent camera setup, and dependable face or edge picking are not current modeling controls. Selection is strongest at the sketch, feature, and body level.
Preview bodies are approximations. They preserve supported feature intent well enough for CAD-lite modeling and review, but they are not generated by a manufacturing-grade solid engine. Complex operations, stable face and edge identity, robust downstream regeneration, and production validity are outside the current trust boundary.
The Model tree keeps references, sketch intent, features, the preview body, and drawing structure beside the 3D review surface.
Inspect What the Design Is Telling You
Selection connects the viewport, Tree, Inspect, Tools, and Status surfaces. Instead of scanning the whole document, choose the sketch entity, dimension, feature, body, reference, or drawing item you want to understand and let the supporting panels follow it.
Depending on the selection, inspection can show coordinates, lengths, radii, diameters, bounds, document-wide extents, and estimated preview volume in the document units. Measure mode reads the design without changing it.
Inspection pairs useful local measurements with visible warnings about the preview body's limits.
Diagnostics add the context that a measurement alone cannot provide. Blueprints can call attention to:
Measurements, volume, section information, and model bounds are local approximations or placeholders where labeled. Use them to catch obvious design problems and guide discussion, not as certified metrology, mass-property analysis, or manufacturing validation.
Derive a Drawing and Export SVG
When a supported closed profile produces a valid positive-size preview body, Blueprints derives model-linked drawing information. The Drawing panel describes an A4 landscape sheet with a title block, revision details, notes, dimensions, and front, top, right, and isometric views. A section entry is included as an explicit placeholder rather than a computed cut through the body.
The Drawing panel stays tied to the saved model and clearly separates the supported SVG output from unavailable formats.
The drawing follows the source body. Supported feature edits, undo, and redo regenerate its derived measurements and model references, keeping the output connected to the current design instead of leaving behind an unrelated snapshot.
The current output action is Export SVG. It saves the drawing sheet as an .svg file when the device provides a local file-save dialog. The file is useful for lightweight technical communication and review, but it does not make the underlying preview body manufacturing-ready.
SVG drawing is the only current export. Blueprints does not currently export PDF or PNG drawings, DXF geometry, STL or 3MF prototype meshes, GLB or GLTF previews, or STEP and IGES CAD exchange files. There is also no current 3D model export path hidden behind the visible preview.
Review the Design Beside Its Context
Each Blueprint is paired with Visual Space document context. The Article panel keeps that context beside the design, while Comments provides the shared discussion surface. Review status, notes, conflict information, design alternatives, and supported comment-link metadata can remain with the saved Blueprint state.
Presence is scoped to people viewing the same Blueprint. The workspace can report remote participation and share lightweight context such as an active tool or selected design target without adding those transient signals to the saved model history.
When another collaborator's newer snapshot is accepted, Blueprints can refresh viewers toward that complete saved state. This helps a review group reach the latest design, but it is a complete saved-state refresh, not command-by-command co-editing. Concurrent unsaved geometry changes are not automatically merged, and undo does not yet isolate one collaborator's commands from another's. For consequential edits, agree on who is actively changing the part and use comments to coordinate the handoff.
Know the CAD-Lite Boundary
Blueprints is most useful for approachable concept parts, exercises, early enclosure or bracket studies, and design review. Its limits are part of the product contract:
These boundaries make Blueprints a practical learning and review tool without presenting early geometry as a production authority. If a part must drive fabrication, certified documentation, simulation, or supplier exchange, validate and recreate it in an appropriate manufacturing workflow.
Common Questions
Should I use Blueprints or Poly for a 3D idea?
Use Blueprints when units, sketch intent, dimensions, features, diagnostics, and a technical drawing matter. Use Poly when you want to arrange and review a visual 3D scene with objects, transforms, materials, and cameras.
Is a Blueprint saved when I leave the workspace?
Supported design state autosaves as recoverable snapshots and can return after refresh or reopen once the save is accepted. This is not a complete version history or a guarantee that simultaneous unsaved edits will merge.
Can I enter a dimension and expect the whole sketch to solve around it?
Not currently. Blueprints can create and display supported dimensions and adjust a selected local value, while diagnostics report constraint state. Full typed, solver-driven geometry regeneration is outside the current capability.
Why is there no drawing for my sketch?
The drawing requires a supported closed profile, a valid extruded preview feature, a matching body, and positive body dimensions. An open line, unsupported feature, or invalid preview size will leave the Drawing panel empty or show a diagnostic instead.
Can I export the 3D body for printing or manufacturing?
No. The only current export is the model-linked drawing sheet as .svg. The 3D body is a review preview, not an STL, 3MF, STEP, IGES, or other manufacturing artifact.
Can several people edit the same Blueprint at once?
People can open the same design, see who else is viewing that Blueprint, discuss it through comments, and converge on newer accepted snapshots. Individual geometry commands are not merged safely in realtime, so coordinate active editing when changes overlap.
Can I use Blueprints during a meeting?
No. Blueprints is currently available as a standalone Live App, not as a meeting activity.
Continue With Blueprints
Follow Sketch, model, and review a Blueprint for the connected journey from an empty references-first file to a reviewed model and SVG drawing. Return to Live Apps to compare Blueprints with the other focused creative workspaces.