Start it the first time

The first start takes about three minutes, because the launcher downloads and sets up what the converter needs. Every start after that takes a second or two.

On Windows

1. Open the app folder and double-click start.bat.
2. A black window with white text opens. This is the launcher. Leave it open.
3. It works through four numbered steps. [1/4] Checking Python... looks for Python and prints the version it found.
4. [2/4] Checking local Python environment... creates the folder .venv (about 30 seconds) and installs the add-ons (one to three minutes). You need an internet connection for this step.
5. [3/4] Starting local server on http://localhost:4242 starts the small server that the app runs on.
6. The app opens in a window of its own and shows the start screen.

On macOS

1. Open the app folder and double-click start.command.
2. If macOS refuses with “Operation not permitted”, right-click start.command and choose “Open”. macOS blocks a double-click on a freshly unzipped script the first time.
3. A Terminal window opens. It creates the folder .venv, installs the add-ons, and prints Starting server....
4. The app opens and shows the start screen.

What you see

The start screen has the app’s name at the top, a place to drop a file, buttons to open a file or start an empty scene, four shapes to start from, and a list of recent files, which is empty the first time.

Good to know

• The launcher window is the server. If you close it, the app stops working. Keep it open while you work and see Stop, restart and update for the tidy way to quit.
• The app opens in a window with no address bar and no browser tabs when Chrome, Edge or Brave is installed. Without one of those, it opens as a tab in your usual browser. Both work the same.
• The address is normally http://localhost:4242. If something else on your computer already uses that number, the launcher tries another one and prints the address it chose.
• It uses your usual browser profile, so your settings and recent files are remembered between starts.

Start with a file

On Windows you can drag a .step or .glb file onto start.bat instead of double-clicking it. The app starts and opens that file. For a STEP file the launcher window first asks a few questions, such as the tessellation quality. Press Enter at each question to accept the suggested answer.