2.5D CAD/CAM for
real-world CNC work.
PureCutCNC is a 2.5D + 3D CAD/CAM workspace for designing parts, defining machining operations, and verifying toolpaths — before you cut a single chip. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux as a native desktop app, or in the browser. No registration, no cloud project storage. New here? Follow the Quick Start guide to go from a blank project to exported G-code in minutes.
The browser app needs a tablet or desktop. On phones, use Desktop Downloads above.
How the cut happens, not just where.
Two operations can remove the same material and treat your machine completely differently. PureCutCNC gives you control over the motion itself — how the tool gets into the work, how hard it is loaded while it's there, and what it leaves in the corners.
Helix & Ramp Entries
Stop plunging straight down. Pocket, Surface Clean, and 3D Surface Rough can ease into each level along a helix or a zig-zag ramp, placed automatically where the tool actually fits and falling back safely when it doesn't. Entries start one clearance above the previous floor instead of from global safe Z, so deep pockets waste far less time in the air.
Seeded Circle Clearing
Choose Offset, Parallel, or Seeded circles for pockets and 3D roughing. Seeded circles clear the largest open areas first, then hand off cleanly to offset rings — a fully covered path that is not tied to one arbitrary spiral centre.
Smoother Offset Links
When offset rings can be joined safely, PureCutCNC uses a tangent arc-line-arc link instead of a sharp dogleg. Where that curve does not fit, it keeps the proven straight transition, so the toolpath stays predictable.
Engagement-Aware Feeds
Feed reduction can slow full-width slots or follow actual cutter engagement on the emitted path. The planner only lowers feed where the cutter is working harder, and the same scale appears in preview, simulation, export, and the setup booklet.
Trochoidal Roughing
Rough an edge route with overlapping loops instead of one heavy full-width cut. Radial load and heat drop sharply, small cutters survive material that would otherwise snap them, and every span is entered with a helix — no fragment ever re-enters material with a vertical plunge.
Trochoidal Slotting
Engrave gains a slot strategy that cuts a channel wider than the cutter — for T-track, inlay, dado, and wire routing. A live channel-width readout tells you exactly how wide the groove will be before you cut it.
Helical Boring
Bore a hole larger than any drill you own. A flat endmill spirals down a centre-locked bore with no core left in the middle and a finishing revolution at the bottom. Unsupported tools fall back with a warning rather than doing something surprising.
Corner Relief
Dogbone, T-bone, or T-bone on the longest edge — cut as its own stepped pass after the main path so square-cornered parts actually seat in a milled pocket. Excursions end where the cutter touches the corner, not where its centre reaches it, so they take the least material the geometry allows.
G-code Controllers Accept
Arc output is validated against the controller's own arithmetic on the formatted numbers actually written to the file, and exports are checked by feeding them to GRBL 1.1 and LinuxCNC's real parsers — not to a re-implementation of what those controllers are believed to do.
Full details for every strategy and its parameters are in the user guide.
Everything in one place.
From geometry to G-code — draw, import, assign operations, preview in 3D, simulate material removal, and export when it looks right.
Sketch Geometry
Rectangles, circles, ellipses, polygons, splines, composite profiles, and text features — all editable directly on the canvas with snapping, measurements, and direct node editing.
Feature Distribution
Turn selected sketch features into a deliberate grid, radial array, or path-following pattern. Keep or follow the source orientation, taper the scale, then create the result in one undoable step while every copy stays individually editable.
SVG, DXF & 3D Import
Import 2D source geometry from SVG or DXF with Auto, Paths, and Solid-regions modes and nesting-aware Add/Subtract classification, or bring in 3D models from STL, OBJ, and STEP files. Multi-body meshes split into one feature per body automatically. A model that came in lying on its side can be re-oriented in place — per-axis rotation, quarter-turn buttons, and a lift control — instead of being deleted and re-imported. Imported geometry can be transformed and machined like hand-drawn features.
2.5D + 3D CAM
Pocket, edge route inside/outside with optional rounded outside corners and corner relief, drill with V-bit countersinking, V-Carve offset, V-Carve medial, surface clean, and engrave for 2.5D parts — plus 3D Surface rough, finish (parallel, waterline, or constant scallop), and cleanup for imported models. Rough and finish passes, helix and ramp entries, trochoidal roughing and slotting, helical boring, region-limited rest machining, tabs, clamps, and per-tool feeds and speeds throughout.
3D Preview & Export
Live CSG evaluation builds a 3D solid from your feature tree. Inspect entry/exit points and toolpath direction before cutting, then export the assembled model as STL (binary or ASCII) with selectable curve quality.
GPU Simulation
Replay toolpaths against stock in a fully GPU-rendered heightfield simulation. The cut state lives in a texture and is displaced in a vertex shader, with incremental per-frame updates — high-density grids (up to 1500 cells) stay interactive while you scrub. Dock or center the draggable playback bar to keep stacked XYZ coordinates and the live feed percentage where you need them.
G-code Export
Export clean G-code for Grbl, GrblHAL, LinuxCNC, Mach3, and UCCNC. Post-processor support for custom machine configurations. Preview with syntax highlighting before you download — and arcs are validated against the controller's own arithmetic so a GRBL-family machine won't abort mid-job on an arc it can't accept.
Text as Features
Text is an editable feature, not exploded letter geometry. Single-line text with skeleton and outline styles, built-in font selection, and full transform support.
3D Surface Operations
Import an STL, OBJ, or STEP model and generate 3D rough, finish (parallel, waterline, or constant scallop), and targeted cleanup toolpaths directly from it. Roughing shares Offset, Seeded circle, and Parallel clearing with 2.5D pockets; overhang protection, region clipping, surrounding-feature avoidance, gouge protection, and adaptive waterline refinement keep every pass within its declared cutting domain.
Rest Machining
Follow a roughing pass with a smaller tool and use regions to limit the follow-up operation to material the larger cutter could not reach. Create regions manually or from a pocket operation; the approach works with supported 2.5D and 3D operations.
Tool Library
Define your endmills, ball mills, V-bits, and drills once. Assign tools to operations and override feeds and speeds per operation as needed. Or start from the bundled library of 34 standard metric and imperial tools — search it, filter by type and unit, and import several at a time from a dedicated dialog.
Linked Features
Duplicate a feature as a linked reference and they share one geometry definition — edit the shape once and every instance updates. Make any copy unique to break the link when it needs to differ.
Parametric Gears
Generate spur gears from a dedicated creation workflow — set the outside radius, tooth count, and tooth profile, then adjust the available flank and root settings. The result is an editable feature you can machine like any other profile.
Construction Geometry
Add sketch-only reference features — layout guides and helper geometry that stay out of the solid model and never generate toolpaths, so you can build accurate drawings without affecting the cut.
Print & Vector Export
Print the 2D design with CAD-style paper, scale, and margin controls, or export the design as SVG for documentation and downstream vector tools.
Machine Library
Save a machine once and it's there in every project — a persistent My Machines list separate from the single definition each project carries. Edit, duplicate, import, and export definitions in-app with a focused form, a raw-JSON escape hatch, and live validation. A project you share stays exportable on a machine the recipient has never seen.
Works in the Browser, Too
No installation, no registration, and no cloud-stored project data. Open the app in a modern desktop browser when a quick session is faster than a download — or use one of the native desktop builds.
Tablet & Touch
Tablet shell layout activates automatically on touch devices with a vertical tool rail, drawer-based panels, snap popover, and pinch / two-finger pan / long-press gestures. Constraint creation, dimension entry, and feature placement all run from canvas workflow panels designed for touch.
Desktop Builds
Native desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux, alongside the browser version. Same project files everywhere — work offline and keep everything local. Grab the latest from the Downloads page.
Multi-Language Interface
Full UI localization with built-in English, German, French, Spanish, and Simplified Chinese translations. Switch languages anytime — it never touches your project, undo history, or saved .camj data. Build or import your own language pack with the in-app Language Manager.
Dark, Light & Custom Themes
Choose Dark, Light, or Follow-System appearance, or design your own with the Theme Manager's guided editor. Canvas colors, the 3D viewport, simulation, and print output all follow the same theme tokens, so a custom theme is consistent everywhere.
Toolpath Optimizer & Arc Fitting
An always-on linear-move optimizer collapses redundant collinear moves on every export. Turn on export-stage arc fitting per operation to replace approximated circles with true G2/G3 arcs where the machine supports them. Inspect the G-code preview and verify the resulting program for your controller before cutting.
The operations you actually need.
A focused set of 2.5D operations — including drilling where it matters — each with rough and finish variants, configurable tooling, selectable cutting strategies, and toolpath preview.
- Pocket Rough
- Pocket Finish
- Surface Clean Rough
- Surface Clean Finish
- Edge Route Inside Rough
- Edge Route Inside Finish
- Edge Route Outside Rough
- Edge Route Outside Finish
- Edge Route — Trochoidal
- Corner Relief — Dogbone / T-bone
- Drill
- Drill — Helical Bore
- Drill — V-Bit Countersink
- Engrave
- Engrave — Trochoidal Slot
- V-Carve Offset
- V-Carve Medial
- 3D Surface Rough
- 3D Surface Finish — Parallel
- 3D Surface Finish — Waterline
- 3D Surface Finish — Constant Scallop
- 3D Surface Cleanup
Start to finish, one window.
A linear workflow that mirrors how machinists think — geometry first, operations second, verify before you cut.
Define Stock
Set your stock dimensions and origin. Use a rectangle or a sketch feature as the stock outline.
Draw or Import
Draw geometry directly on canvas, import SVG, DXF, STL, OBJ, or STEP, pull in folders from another .camj project, or trace from a backdrop image. 2D imports become editable sketch features; 3D imports become Model features for 3D operations.
Organize Features
Reorder features in the feature tree. The CSG evaluation order determines what material gets removed or added — get it right visually before moving on.
Add CAM Operations
Select geometry, pick an operation type, configure tool, stepdown, and stepover — then choose how it cuts: contour or trochoidal, plunge or helix entry, and whether the corners get relieved. Repeat for each operation.
Verify in 3D & Sim
Preview in 3D. Run the simulation and watch material come off. Check tabs, islands, and carving behavior match expectations.
Export G-code
Choose your machine controller, preview the G-code output, and download the
.ncfile when it looks right.
Three views, one project.
Switch between views as your work progresses. All three stay in sync with the same project state.
Author & Inspect
Primary drawing surface. Edit geometry, inspect 2D toolpath projections, check snapping and feature ordering.
Preview in 3D
CSG-evaluated solid derived from your feature tree. Inspect toolpaths spatially — entry/exit points, path direction, depth layers.
Verify Before Cutting
GPU-rendered heightfield replay. Scrub through the toolpath sequence — with a live XYZ readout — to catch problems before they hit the spoilboard.
See the sequence, not just the result.
Playback makes the simulation view useful for more than a final beauty shot. Scrub through the cut order to catch rapid moves, drilling sequence, tab behavior, and material removal issues before you export G-code.
In active development.
Open it and start cutting.
No account. No remote project storage. Download a native desktop build for macOS, Windows, or Linux — or open the browser version for a quick start.
The browser app needs a tablet or desktop. On phones, use Desktop Downloads above.
Found a bug? Have an idea?
PureCutCNC is in active development and your input shapes what gets built next. If something isn't working, feels off, or you have a feature you'd love to see — open an issue on GitHub. All feedback is welcome.
Open an Issue on GitHub