Waste pixels, not walnut. BuildersJig is a 3D shop simulator that lets you mill, cut, join, and glue virtual lumber — so you walk into your shop knowing exactly what to do, what to buy, and what it'll cost.
*$9 is the effective monthly rate when billed annually ($108/year). Pay-as-you-go monthly is $29/mo. Both Pro tiers include 1,350 credits/month (about 15 AI renders).
Equipment-aware feasibility checks. AI workshop advisor. No download required.
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.
Sketching by hand is slow, hard to revise, and impossible to share in a way that inspires confidence.
SketchUp is for architects. Fusion 360 for engineers. You spend more time learning software than building furniture.
You can't answer "how much?" if you can't calculate material cost. So you guess. And you guess low.
BuildersJig doesn't ask you to think like an engineer. It asks you to think like a woodworker.
Pull a board from 54 species. Choose rough dimensions — just like picking lumber at the yard.
Mill boards. Make cuts. Route joints. Every action transforms the material — just like in your shop.
Cut lists, material costs, and waste tracking generate automatically from your work.
Procedural grain — not textures. Cut a board and the grain follows through both pieces.
Two features that create a moat no competitor can cross.
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 1hp motor can't resaw this 10" walnut board. Consider resawing in two passes or starting with thinner stock."
An AI that sees your project — 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 is 3/16" from the board edge. At this depth, you risk blowout. Consider moving it inward or switching to a dowel joint."
Same sequence you'd use on a real project. Stock → mill → cut → join → finish.
Choose from 54 species. Select rough dimensions the way you'd pick boards at the yard.
54 speciesRun 12/4 stock through the planer — watch it become 2.5". That half-inch is tracked as waste.
Material lineageMake cuts and watch ⅛" disappear. Route profiles. Scroll saw curves. Every offcut accounted for.
Kerf trackingButt, mitre, domino, biscuit, dowel, box joint, dovetail, half-lap, and dado. Grain continuity preserved.
9 joint typesExplode your assembly into a complete cut list. Know stock, waste, and cost before spending a dollar.
Auto-generatedNot textures on boxes. Grain generated mathematically — unique per board, continuous through every cut.
Hardwoods, softwoods, exotics, sheet goods. Each with species-accurate procedural grain.
| BuildersJig | Design Software | General CAD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simulates shop operations | ✓ Full simulation | Insert / resize / locate | Draw geometry |
| Tracks kerf & waste | ✓ Every cut | — | — |
| Equipment feasibility | ✓ Your tools | — | — |
| AI workshop advisor | ✓ Sees your project | — | — |
| Procedural grain | ✓ | Pasted textures | Pasted textures |
| Joint types | 9 | 5 | Manual |
| Species | 54 | 10+ | N/A |
| Runs in browser | ✓ No download | Desktop install | Desktop install |
| Learning curve | Minutes | Hours–days | Weeks |
| Price | Free · $29/mo · $108/yr | $50–80/mo | "Free" + plugins |
Photoreal renders are a Pro feature. Free tier is the full shop, every time — just without the camera.
Start Building FreeNo card. No expiration. No catch.
Cancel anytime. Access through period end.
$29/mo × 12 = $348. You pay $108. You save $240.
Pro includes 1,350 credits on the first of each billing cycle. That covers 15 photoreal renders. Norm conversations use only a couple of credits each. Unused allotment credits don't carry over — but purchased top-up credits do.
Starter Pack ($5) adds 200 credits. Builder Pack ($10) adds 500. Workshop Pack ($25) adds 1,500. Purchased credits never expire and stack on top of your monthly allotment.
One board of 8/4 walnut runs $80–120. Pro Annual is $108 — less than a board — for a full year of shop simulation and AI. If it saves you one bad cut, it's paid for.
Need more credits mid-cycle? Buy a pack. Purchased credits never expire and stack on top of your monthly allotment.
Norm conversations use only a couple of credits each. One photoreal render uses 90 credits.
No. CAD starts with geometry. BuildersJig starts with lumber. Cut lists are a byproduct, not the starting point.
If you can use a table saw, you can use BuildersJig. The interface follows shop operations you already know.
It sees your entire project and answers questions in context — joint strength, grain direction, material choices — based on what you've built.
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.
We generate grain mathematically — unique per board, species-accurate, continuous through every cut and joint. Not photos on boxes.
A modern browser. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari. No download, no install. If it plays YouTube, it runs BuildersJig.
Yes. Pro is $29/mo or $108/yr. Photoreal rendering runs on real compute that costs real money every time you use it. A subscription means that tool can keep improving because the economics support it. The Free tier uses the same full shop simulator with no time limit, so you can evaluate indefinitely before committing.
Start on the Free tier — there's no card required and no time limit. If you upgrade to Pro and decide it's not for you, you can cancel anytime and your access continues through the end of your current billing period. We don't offer refunds on subscription periods, but we also don't charge you until you decide to go Pro.
Credits measure photoreal-render usage. A photoreal render uses 90 credits. Pro includes 1,350 credits per month — enough for 15 renders. Norm conversations use only a couple of credits each. Think of credits as a prepaid AI budget that refreshes monthly.
Monthly allotment credits (the 1,350/mo included with Pro) are use-it-or-lose-it — they reset at each billing cycle and don't carry over. Credits you bought in top-up packs are yours and never expire, even if you cancel your Pro subscription. If you cancel mid-year on an annual plan, your monthly credit allotment continues refreshing through each remaining month of the period you paid for.
Top-up packs are available at any time: $5 for 200 credits, $10 for 500, $25 for 1,500. Purchased credits stack on top of your monthly allotment and carry forward indefinitely. You can also wait for your next monthly reset — the shop simulator itself (milling, cutting, joining, blueprints, cut lists) works without credits. Credits gate only the AI features: Norm chat and photoreal renders.
Yes. The full 3D shop — pull stock, mill, cut, join, glue, generate cut lists, track waste and cost — works on the Free tier with no card required. Credits gate only the AI-powered features: Norm advisor conversations and photoreal renders. If you're here for the woodworking simulation and don't need AI, Free works indefinitely.
No waitlist, no invites. Create a free account and pull your first board in the next minute — or go straight to Pro.