Download formacOS

How to Set Up

From a download to a printed part.

  1. What you need

    • A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) on macOS 27.
    • An AI to work with: a Claude or ChatGPT account for a cloud model, or, to run a model on your Mac, 128 GB of memory (recommended).
    • Internet for the first project: it installs ShapeFab's design engine, a few minutes, once.

  2. Install ShapeFab

    1. Download ShapeFab (0.1 Alpha 4, 47 MB) and double-click the zip.
    2. Drag ShapeFab-0.1-Alpha4.app into Applications, then open it.
    3. The alpha isn't notarized yet, so macOS stops the first launch ("Apple could not verify…"). Let it through once, either way:

      In System Settings

      Open System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, click Open Anyway next to ShapeFab and confirm.

      In Terminal

      Take the quarantine off the app with the command below. It also fixes "is damaged and can't be opened".

      xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/ShapeFab-0.1-Alpha4.app

  3. Choose your AI

    ShapeFab's agent is a coding agent you run in a terminal. Pick a cloud model or one on your Mac.

    Cloud

    Claude Code or Codex. Install one and sign in.

    On your Mac

    OpenCode with Strata or Ollama. Tested with Qwen3.8 Flash Next; 128 GB of memory recommended.

    With Strata, this connects OpenCode to it:

    strata connect opencode --write

  4. Start a project

    Click New project, give it a Name (change the Location if you like), and the project opens. Drop in what you have: STEP or STL files, photos, sketches. Open project and Recent bring back what you made before.

  5. Connect the agent

    1. In the Agent tab, click Terminal (⌘T): a terminal opens in the project folder.
    2. Start your agent there: claude, codex or opencode.
    3. Click Start line to copy it, paste it to the agent and press Return.

    The agent introduces itself in the chat, and the status line at the top shows it's connected.

  6. Design

    Say what you need
    Write in the chat the way you'd brief a designer: what the part is for, what it has to fit, how it should look.
    Approve the plan
    The agent posts a plan first: its steps, a time estimate, often a picture. The card says Plan ready — needs your OK; reply "go ahead" or say what to change. Heavy simulations (airflow, FEA) run only when you say yes to that run.
    Review and steer
    Every step becomes a revision you can open, compare and go back to. Annotate points at a spot on the model with a note for the agent; Checks shows wall thickness, overhangs, clearances and fits; Stop halts the agent at any time.

  7. Export

    Ask to export when the design is right. The agent publishes a Print files release: one STL per printed part, turned the way it goes on the bed, one combined STL, and a list of the hardware to buy. Slice them in PrusaSlicer, Bambu Studio or Cura and print.