BuildersJig: 3D Woodworking Shop Simulator

We've been there

Your design process may be costing you wood, money, and confidence.

You've watched the YouTube videos. You've bought the lumber. But between the plan in your head and the finished piece in your shop, something always goes wrong. A board comes up short. A joint doesn't fit. And that $60 piece of walnut becomes a $60 lesson.

10–15%

The overage experienced woodworkers add to every lumber order to cover miscuts, kerf, and stock misjudgment. You pay for it whether you track it or not.

Kerf

Every pass through the blade turns wood to dust: ⅛" for a full-kerf blade, 3/32" thin-kerf, or whatever you run. BuildersJig tracks the blade you actually own. Eight cuts can be an inch of wood gone, and no drawing accounts for it.

Pencil and paper can't keep up

Sketching by hand is slow, hard to revise, and impossible to share in a way that inspires confidence.

CAD wasn't built for you

SketchUp is for architects. Fusion 360 for engineers. You spend more time learning software than building furniture.

Quoting is guesswork

You can't answer "how much?" if you can't calculate material cost. So you guess. And you guess low. Then the walnut bill comes in and you're working for free.

The Answer

Pull lumber. Mill it. Cut it. Join it. Experiment.

BuildersJig doesn't ask you to think like an engineer. It asks you to think like a woodworker.

✓

Start with stock, not shapes

Pull a board from 50+ species and varieties of building materials. Choose rough dimensions, just like picking lumber at the yard.

✓

Operate, don't draw

Mill boards. Make cuts. Route joints. Every action transforms the material, just like in your shop.

✓

Know before you go

Cut lists, material costs, and waste tracking generate automatically from your work.

✓

Grain that behaves like real wood

Procedural grain, not textures. Cut a board and the grain follows through both pieces.

The Output

You do the building. BuildersJig hands you the deliverables.

Walk out of the virtual shop with the three things every build needs: the drawing, the shopping list, and the picture that sells it.

Shop-ready blueprints

Dimensioned, multi-view line art with a title block, generated straight from what you built. Print it, pin it to the shop wall, and cut.

A shop-ready BuildersJig blueprint sheet: dimensioned line-art views with a title block

Photorealistic renders: see it finished before it exists

This is the showstopper. Hand your finished build to the AI renderer and get back a photograph of a piece nobody has built yet: your exact geometry, your chosen species, studio light. Show the client. Price the commission. Post the listing before you buy the lumber. Below is a real pair from the app: the 3D model as built, and the render it came back as.

The 3D model as built in the BuildersJig shop — What you build in the shop

The photorealistic AI render of the same build, in walnut — The photograph it comes back as

Free includes about 2 renders a month. Pro includes 15.

Cut list, costs & waste

Every board, dimension, board-foot and dollar, pulled from the build itself, never typed by you.

The auto-generated cut list with board feet, per-species cost, and waste tracking

Only in BuildersJig

Your shop. Your tools. Your advisor.

Two features that create a moat no competitor can cross.

The Equipment Feasibility panel flagging cuts against the user's own saw, planer, and bandsaw limits

Equipment-Aware

Feasibility Analysis

Tell BuildersJig what's in your shop: your bandsaw, your table saw, your planer. The software checks every operation against your actual equipment and flags anything your tools can't handle.

"Your 14" bandsaw with a 1 hp motor can't resaw this 10" walnut board. Consider resawing in two passes on the table saw, keeping the same face of the board against the fence for the top and bottom pass."

Advisor panel preview coming soon

AI-Powered

Workshop Advisor

An AI that sees your build, every board, every joint, every dimension, and answers questions, points out problems, and suggests better approaches. Like a master woodworker looking over your shoulder.

"This mortise leaves only 3/16" of cheek at the board's edge. At this depth you risk blowing out the side wall. Move it inward, or size the tenon down to leave more shoulder."

The Shop Floor

Walk through the build before you walk into the shop.

Same sequence you'd use on a real build. Stock → mill → cut → join → finish.

Pull Stock

Start with real lumber

Choose from 50+ species and varieties of building materials. Select rough dimensions the way you'd pick boards at the yard.

50+ species & varieties

The materials library: wood species with procedural grain swatches

Mill

Thickness, rip, crosscut

Run 12/4 stock through the planer and watch it become 2.5". That half-inch is tracked as waste.

Material lineage

Video coming soon

Cut & Shape

See the kerf. Track the waste.

Make cuts and watch your blade's kerf disappear: ⅛" full-kerf, 3/32" thin-kerf, whatever you run. Route profiles. Scroll saw curves. Every offcut accounted for.

Kerf tracking

Video coming soon

Join & Glue

9 joint types, plus three more on the way.

One-click parametric joint creation: pick two boards, pick the joint, and BuildersJig cuts both halves to fit, sized to your stock, adjustable by the numbers, and recut automatically when a board changes. Butt, mitre, domino, biscuit, dowel, box joint, dovetail, half-lap, and dado.

One-click joinery

A dovetail joint mid-assembly in the 3D shop, grain visible through the cut

Know Everything

Cut list. Cost. Waste. Confidence.

Explode your assembly into a complete cut list. Know stock, waste, and cost before spending a dollar.

Auto-generated

Materials Library

This isn't an art package. It's an engineering one.

Let's be straight about the grain: hand-painted textures would look prettier, and that's not what this is. BuildersJig draws grain procedurally so every board is visually distinct, species-recognizable at a glance, and continuous through every cut you make. It's working grain, not gallery grain. The part that matters is underneath: every material below carries real data, Janka hardness, density, bending and crushing strength, workability, and current price per board foot, and the app actually uses it when it checks your build. When you want the beauty shot, hand your finished piece to the AI renderer at the end.

Hardwoods

American BeechAmerican ElmBasswoodBlack CherryBlack WalnutButternutCherryHard MapleHickoryPecanPoplarRed AlderRed OakSoft MapleSycamoreWhite AshWhite OakYellow Birch1x Poplar (S4S)1x Red Oak (S4S)Chicago Bar Rail - PoplarChicago Bar Rail - Red Oak

Softwoods

Bald CypressDouglas FirEastern White PinePinePonderosa PineRedwoodSitka SpruceSouthern Yellow PineWestern Red Cedar1x Cedar (S4S)1x Pine (Common #2)1x Pine (Select)Doug Fir–Larch 2x (#2 & Btr)Doug Fir–Larch 2x (Select)SYP 2x (#2 Prime)SYP 2x (Select Structural)SPF 2x (#2 & Btr)SPF 2x Select StructuralSPF 2x StudPT 2x Above Ground (.15)PT 2x Ground Contact (.40)

Exotics

African MahoganyAfromosiaBloodwoodBocoteBubingaCocoboloEbony (Gaboon)Indian RosewoodIpeJarrahJatobaKingwoodKoaLeopardwoodLignum VitaeMerbauPadaukPink IvoryPurpleheartSapeleTeakWengeYellowheartZebrawoodZiricote

Sheet Goods

ACX Sanded Pine PlyBaltic Birch PlyBirch PlyCDX Sheathing PlyMaple PlyMarine Grade PlyMDFMelamine (White, 2-Sided)OSBPressure-Treated PlyRed Oak PlySande Ply (Utility)Tempered HardboardWalnut Ply

All 82. That's the whole library today, and it grows.

How We Compare

Built different. Priced different.

	BuildersJig	Shapr3D	SketchUp	SketchList 3D	SolidWorks	Fusion 360
Purpose-built for woodworking	✓	✗	✗	✓	✗	✗
Runs in your browser	✓ No install	Desktop	Web (limited)	Desktop	Desktop	Desktop
Simulates real shop operations	✓ Mill, saw, joinery	Draw geometry	Draw geometry	Design layout	Draw geometry	Draw geometry
Procedural wood grain	✓ Generated	Textures	Textures	Textures	Textures	Grain direction
Built-in kerf & waste tracking	✓ Built-in	✗	Free plugin	✓	✗	Partial
Auto cut list & cost	✓ Built-in	✗	Plugin	✓	Weldments	✓
AI workshop advisor & renders	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
Equipment feasibility checks	✓ Your tools	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
Price	Free, or Pro $9–29/mo	~$299/yr	$0–399/yr	~$600/yr	~$2,820/yr	~$680/yr*

	Made for woodworking	Runs in browser	Simulates shop ops	Procedural grain	Kerf & waste built in	Cut list & cost	AI advisor	Feasibility checks
BuildersJig	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Shapr3D	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
SketchUp	✗	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
SketchList 3D	✓	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	✗	✗
SolidWorks	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
Fusion 360	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	✗	✗

BuildersJig: free, or Pro $9–29/mo. The others: ~$299 to ~$2,820 per year.

Competitor pricing and features as of 2026, from public sources; each tool's core/native capabilities. *Fusion 360 is free for qualifying personal use.

Simple Pricing

Start free. Upgrade when you're ready.

Free

^$0/mo*

No credit card. No commitment.

✓ Complete 3D shop: mill, saw, router, scroll saw, joinery
✓ AI workshop advisor: conversations use only a couple of credits each
✓ Cut lists, blueprints & cost tracking: always free
✓ 54 wood species with procedural grain
✓ 250 credits / month (refilled monthly) ≈ 2 AI renders
✓ Browser-based, no download

Start Free

Pro Monthly

^$29/mo*

Month-to-month · Cancel anytime

✓ Everything in Free, plus:
✓ 15 AI renders / month included
✓ 1,350 credits / month — over 5× the Free allotment
✓ Priority rendering
✓ Unlimited saved projects
✓ Commercial-use license
✓ Top-up packs available (~$5 / 10 extra renders)
✓ All future updates included

Go Pro Monthly

Best Value

Pro Annual

^$9/mo*

billed annually ($108/yr*)

Save 69% vs monthly

✓ Everything in Free, plus:
✓ 15 AI renders / month included
✓ 1,350 credits / month — over 5× the Free allotment
✓ Priority rendering
✓ Unlimited saved projects
✓ Commercial-use license
✓ Top-up packs available (~$5 / 10 extra renders)
✓ All future updates included
✓ 2 months free vs month-to-month
✓ Price locked for your billing year

Go Pro Annual

* The math is simple: at 15% waste, a woodworker spending $600/year on hardwood loses $90 in bad cuts. Pro costs as little as $9/month. If it saves you two boards this year, it paid for itself and bought you a new blade.

Common Questions

Questions, answered.

How does the AI Advisor work?

Meet Norm: an AI shop advisor built on the best publicly available knowledge of master woodworking. He sees your entire build, every board, joint, and dimension, and you can ask him anything — each conversation uses only a couple of credits. And he doesn't just wait to be asked. When he notices you headed for a jam, he comes to you first and leaves a note on the board before you cut it.

Is this like other CAD software?

no. While BuildersJig is technically computer-assisted drawing, it's nothing like traditional CAD. Other CAD starts with abstract geometry on a grid. BuildersJig starts with real lumber: you mill, cut, join, and glue actual boards, and the cut list, waste, and cost fall out of the build. Gridless, shop-first, no geometry degree required.

Do I need 3D experience?

If you can use a table saw, you can use BuildersJig. The interface follows shop operations you already know.

What about equipment checks?

During setup, you tell BuildersJig what's in your shop. It flags any operation your tools can't handle before you try it for real.

What's procedural grain?

We generate grain mathematically: unique per board, species-accurate, continuous through every cut and joint. Not photos on boxes.

What do I need to run it?

A modern browser. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari. No download, no install. If it plays YouTube, it runs BuildersJig.

What's free, and what costs money?

The whole shop is free: building, cut lists, and blueprints don't touch your credits. Credits cover the AI features — advisor conversations use only a couple of credits each, and the big sink is AI renders. 1 render = 90 credits, and Free includes 250 credits/month (about 2 renders). Need more? Pro includes 1,350 credits/month, about 15 renders.

How much is Pro?

$9/month billed annually ($108/year), or $29 month-to-month with no commitment. Cancel anytime. One email, done. Pro unlocks 15 AI renders/month, priority rendering, unlimited saved projects, and a commercial-use license.

Do I need a credit card to start?

No. The Free plan is permanent: no credit card, no commitment. Build all you want — advisor chats cost only a couple of credits from your free 250. Upgrade to Pro only when you want more AI renders and the commercial features.

Make the cut before ever touching the wood.

50+ species and varieties of building materials. 9 joint types. Waste & cost tracking.