About PRE-FAB

Mission

PRE-FAB exists to make practical CAD and fabrication skills more accessible.

It was created to reduce the gap between an idea, a rough drawing or an imperfect file and geometry that can actually be used in a fabrication workflow.

A second part of that mission is access to the skills themselves.

Professional CAD software, equipment and training can be expensive, and that creates a barrier for people who want to learn but do not yet have many resources.

PRE-FAB is intended to provide a place where someone can begin learning CAD terminology, understand fabrication geometry, work with real files and develop useful practical skills without first needing to pay for professional software.

Those skills may support personal projects, further training or help someone become more competitive when pursuing entry-level work involving CAD or fabrication.

The fundamentals are intended to remain free.

You do not need to pay for permission to learn or use PRE-FAB.

PRE-FAB is supported by advertising so the tool can remain free to use and continue improving. Advertising is designed to stay out of the core drafting and editing workflow. Ads may appear in designated interface areas, and some additional actions may briefly display advertising as part of their workflow. The advertising experience is intended to remain restrained and respectful of the user.

Paid tiers are intended to provide additional scale, professional workflow features and commercial capabilities, while removing advertising.

Intended product

PRE-FAB is intended to become a browser-based 2D fabrication creation, preflight and preparation environment.

The goal is not simply to convert files.

A user can begin with existing SVG or DXF geometry, or use PRE-FAB's basic CAD tools to create straightforward 2D fabrication geometry from scratch.

For simple parts, the Workbench is intended to provide enough drawing functionality to create geometry such as panels, outlines, holes and internal features, establish important dimensions and export the resulting drawing without requiring separate paid CAD software.

PRE-FAB can then help inspect drawings, measure geometry, identify problems, remove safe geometric errors, make simple corrections, communicate uncertainty, convert between useful formats and validate exported files before they are passed downstream.

The aim is not to reproduce every capability of professional CAD/CAM software inside a browser.

PRE-FAB is intended to make the earlier part of the fabrication workflow more accessible and reliable, while allowing professional CAD/CAM systems to handle the manufacturing tasks they are designed for.

Over time, PRE-FAB may also accept less structured inputs such as sketches, photographs or other reference material and help the user turn them into usable geometry.

Where interpretation is required, the system should expose uncertainty and ask the user to resolve it rather than silently guessing what should be manufactured.

The long-term path is:

idea, sketch or existing file
→ create or understand the geometry
→ inspect and correct
→ validate the fabrication file
→ trusted downstream CAD/CAM and manufacturing

Compatibility

PRE-FAB Beta Phase 1 is being developed and tested specifically for Google Chrome on Windows PCs.

Broader browser, operating-system and device compatibility will be evaluated during later beta phases.

The public PRE-FAB website may be viewed on mobile devices, but the Workbench is not intended for mobile use.