DXF
The 2D Cut Line
Kerf-offset, filleted contours as closed polylines — no self-intersections, no stray segments, no cleanup. Drops straight into your CAM.
Browser-based · No CAD required
Photograph your tools.
Photograph your tools.
Get a cut-ready shadow board.
Shadow Forge traces every tool from a single photo, kerf-corrects the outline, nests it into your drawer, and exports DXF, STL and a shop-ready PDF. Minutes, not weekends.
No credit card. No install. Your geometry never leaves the browser.
1 · Photograph & trace
2 · Cut-ready foam
DXFSTLPDF
clearance 0.4 mm · fillet r10.0 mm · watertight STL · ANSI-B drawing
90 SecondsPhoto to first cut outline
±0.004"Traced edge accuracy
12,000+Tools traced by Shadow Forge
4.9/5From Shadow Forge Users
Works with the tools you already run
The workflow
Four steps. No CAD anywhere.
If you can lay tools on a sheet of paper and take a photo, you can create a Shadow Forge tool board.
Grab a Sheet of Paper
Lay your tools on a plain sheet of paper — Letter, A4, Legal, Tabloid, or a custom size you set. No special background to buy or print; the paper's known size is what gives us the true scale.
Shoot & Queue
Photograph the layout with your phone and it stores to the queue. Shadow Forge identifies the corners, flattens the perspective and locks in real-world scale — no calibration, no calipers.
Trace & Refine
Each tool is separated from the background and traced to a clean vector outline. Nudge a point if you want, or create a manual trace if necessary. Add the offset and smooth the cutline to perfection.
Nest & Export
Arrange, rotate, & align tools into your drawer, select the foam and generate the 3D Render for a realistic view of the finished drawer with the tools. Then simply export the DXF, STL and PDF.
What you get
Files your cutter actually accepts
Three production artifacts from one trace — not a picture of a tray, but the geometry that cuts it.
STL
The 3D Foam Pocket
A watertight mesh of the recess each tool drops into, at your foam thickness and pocket depth. For 3-axis routers and 3D-printed moulds.
PDF
The Shop Drawing
An ANSI-B title-block drawing with a bill of materials, balloon callouts, drawing number and a QR code back to the drawer. Tape it inside the lid.
Features
Built by people who cut foam
Every setting here exists because a real tray came out wrong without it.
Kerf Compensation
Your cutter removes material. Set the kerf once and every outline is offset so the tool drops in snug instead of swimming or jamming.
Corner Filleting
A router bit can't cut an inside corner sharper than its own radius. Shadow Forge fillets contours to your bit so the geometry is actually cuttable.
Drawer Nesting
Drag outlines into a drawer at true scale, with live collision and clearance checks. Rotate, mirror and space tools until the fit is right.
Phone Capture
Shoot straight from your phone's browser and the photo lands in your trace queue on the desktop. No cable, no app store, no transfer.
Reusable Library
Trace a 10 mm combination wrench once and reuse it in every drawer, every toolbox, forever. Your library is yours.
Geometry Stays Local
Every trace, offset and mesh runs client-side in your browser. Your photos and outlines are yours — we don't need them on a server to do the work.
Gallery
From one photo to a finished drawer
The same garage-box drawer, straight out of Shadow Forge.
Reviews
What the shop floor says
4.9 average from 380 reviews.
★★★★★
We used to burn a full Saturday tracing tools onto cardboard and still get the fit wrong. I did four drawers in an afternoon and every pocket dropped in first try. The kerf setting alone paid for the year.
DR
Dale R.Fleet maintenance lead · Boise, ID
★★★★★
I cut foam commercially and the DXFs come in clean — closed polylines, proper fillets, no self-intersections. That is genuinely rare. It dropped straight into VCarve with zero cleanup.
MP
Marisol P.Owner, Cutline Foam Co.
★★★★★
The PDF with the BOM and balloon callouts is what sold my boss. Audits used to take an hour; now a tech glances at the drawer and knows instantly what's missing.
JT
James T.A&P mechanic · Part 145 repair station
Regulated environments
When tool control isn't optional
Built to support the tool-accountability requirements of aerospace and defense industry and regulators like EASA, CASA and FAA. Not just a tidy drawer: a documented, auditable inventory.
Real Asset IDs
Every tool gets its own asset ID, not just a silhouette — each item is tracked individually, the way an audit expects.
Per-Drawer Contents List
Each drawer carries a documented list of exactly which tools belong in it — so a missing tool is obvious at a glance.
Printable Audit PDF
Export the drawer layout and its contents as a clean, printable document — file it, post it at the station, or hand it to an auditor.
EASA · CASA · FAA
Lost tools are lost revenue.
Pricing
Simple, honest pricing
Every plan starts with a free 7-day trial — trace, design and preview a drawing PDF, no card, no auto-charge.
Basic
$50/ year
or $5 / month — save $10 annually
- ✓100 tools
- ✓1 toolbox
- ✓10 drawers
- ✓512 MB storage
- ✓Tracing, drawer layout & DXF / STL / PDF export
Most popular
Pro
$100/ year
or $10 / month — save $20 annually
- ✓2,000 tools
- ✓20 toolboxes
- ✓1 GB storage
- ✓Tracing, drawer layout & DXF / STL / PDF export
- ✓Priority updates & support
Enterprise
Contact Us
Teams over 10, or Commercial use
- ✓Everything in Pro, org-wide
- ✓Commercial services built with Shadow Forge
- ✓One agreement, one bill
- ✓Quoted to your usage
- ✓Includes training for staff
Questions
The things people ask first
Do I need a CNC machine?
No. Shadow Forge produces the files; how they get cut is up to you. Plenty of users
send the DXF to a commercial foam shop or a local maker space. If you do own a router or laser,
the files are ready as-is.
What if I don't have a good camera?
Any phone from the last decade is fine. Because the app scales from the paper's known
size and corrects perspective once you mark its corners, you don't need a tripod, a lightbox, or a
steady hand.
What foam does this work with?
Any closed-cell foam you can cut — PE, EVA, polyurethane, Kaizen-style layered foam.
You tell Shadow Forge the thickness and pocket depth; it does the rest.
Do you upload my photos to the cloud?
Yes, even though the tracing, offsetting and mesh generation all run in your browser,
and the geometry never has to leave your machine to be computed, we do store the images of your tools
in the cloud. This allows you to edit a trace and view your tools in 3D renderings and .pdf
generation.
What happens to my work if I cancel?
You keep every file you've already exported — they're yours, with no license
attached. Your library is preserved; resubscribe to Basic or Pro any time to keep editing. See
Refunds & Cancellation.
Can I order the finished product from Shadow Forge?
Not yet, we are working toward offering this service. We are currently testing and
working with a supplier to finalize processing and pricing. Stay tuned for updates!
Your tools are already organized.
They just don't know it yet.
Start free for 7 days — trace, design and preview a drawing PDF. No credit card, nothing to install.