Decor Sculptor

The Decor Sculptor ("Create Decor Piece") designs parametric slat-wave decor - tables and wall shelves whose slats carry a sculpted wave surface - in a live 3D editor, and generates them as CNC-ready parts. Open it from the Cabybara toolbar or menu; right-click an existing piece and choose "Edit Decor Piece..." to reopen it pre-filled and regenerate it in place.

The editor

A sidebar of sections next to a real-time 3D viewport that rebuilds as you type (slats, base with its actual slot holes, join lines, dimension labels). The viewport toolbar switches between View (orbit/pan/zoom), Sculpt+ / Sculpt- brushes, and Fit (F). Undo/Redo in the header cover sculpt strokes only - parameter edits are not undoable. Escape cancels (asking first when you sculpted in this session; a restored sculpt is already saved, so it does not ask). If the 3D libraries cannot load, every control still works and the piece generates normally - only the preview is lost.

The dialog restores your last submitted design on reopen, including overlays, stocks and sculpt data. Sculpt work is easy to miss, since it is a free-hand layer on top of the wave rather than a value in a field, so whenever a design carries any, a "Sculpt: N cells" badge shows in the Sculpt section header and in the viewport toolbar next to a Clear button (the toolbar copy stays in Wall Shelf mode too). A restored sculpt is also announced once in a notice with a Clear sculpt link.

Designing

Presets - thumbnail cards (Classic Wave, Single Sine, Dual Harmonic, Radial Ripple, Dune Noise, Wall Shelf). Clicking applies the preset - keeping your overlays but clearing sculpt work; double-click fully resets, clearing the overlays too. The card dims once you edit anything.

Shape - footprint (Circle / Ellipse / Rounded Rectangle / Rectangle - Circle locks Depth to Width), Width and Depth (default 1200 mm), corner radius for rounded rectangles, and Orientation (which way the slats run).

Slats - thickness (18), gap (18), Count (0 = auto fit; an override of 2+ recomputes the gap to fit exactly), profile samples, and the CNC tolerance (0.10 fine / 0.25 standard / 0.50 coarse / 1.00 draft mm) - the maximum deviation between the smooth wave and the arc fit that reaches the CNC. A summary line shows the resulting slat count and gap.

Waves - the surface engine: up to 8 wave cards, each with type (sine/cosine), axis (X / Y / Radial / Cross), wavelength, weight, phase and rotation. The Pattern section is a convenience view of the first two waves (ridge spacing, detail spacing, mix, rotation, symmetry, phase, plus advanced weights and per-slat phase shift and jitter) - the two stay in sync.

Overlays - up to 8 cards: Plateaus (flat raised zones with position, span, height and fade) and Text (raised or carved lettering with position, height, relief, background shift and fade). Live hints warn when text would be illegible across the slats; carved text never cuts deep enough to sever a slat.

Relief - minimum height above the base at the troughs, maximum relief at the peaks, edge falloff and center bias, plus optional edge blending (start/end/floor) that tapers the wave toward the rim.

Base - thickness, margin beyond the slats, and an optional edge wave on the base rim: axis, which edges, amplitude, wavelength and phase - or drag the nine handles on the profile canvas to shape the rim by hand ("Custom"; Reset Handles returns to the sine).

Sculpt - free-hand height adjustment with a brush (size, strength); the displacement grid survives dimension changes and is part of the stored recipe. Hidden in Wall Shelf mode.

Assembly - Table or Wall Shelf. Table builds a base with through slots and slats standing in them on tenons (insertion depth, slot length, tenon inset, width/length clearances for the CNC fit). Wall Shelf builds a slotted back panel whose silhouette follows the slats, with plain slats and no base; the insertion depth control remains, relabeled "Slot depth (back panel)", and sets how deep the back panel's slots go. Here you also pick the Slat stock, Base stock and Tag - the dialog warns that stockless parts "will be skipped by nesting & pricing" and flags stock/slat thickness mismatches.

Create and placement

Create closes the editor and starts the placement tool (dashed preview, arrow keys rotate, click places). The piece arrives as one component named DP_1, DP_2, ... containing the base (or back panel) and slats as individual Cabybara panels - each carrying its stock, inside face, and profile - plus the complete recipe for future editing. Slat tops and curved outlines are true arcs fitted at your chosen CNC tolerance, so nesting exports real arcs, not polylines.

Editing in place

"Edit Decor Piece..." reopens the editor with the stored recipe; Create becomes Update, which regenerates the piece at the same position and rotation. Stocks you changed later with the Stock Painter are respected when re-editing, but per-panel grain or face paints reset on regeneration. A piece whose stored slat count was auto shows the actual count pinned. Pieces made before editing existed cannot be re-edited (a message says a new piece will be created instead).

Downstream

Decor parts nest as true-shape profiled parts grouped by their stock (no stock = not nested), price as sheet goods by area with the normal margins, and label as Decor Slat / Decor Base / Decor Back under their DP assembly. Validation runs on Create and lists every problem in the dialog (slat fit, radius limits, overlay sizes, insertion depth, and so on).