GlassCore

I started building GlassCore because SVG export into Cricut Design Space was not scaling consistently enough for a reliable stained-glass workflow. If the scale shifts, the whole making process becomes slower and less trustworthy.

A Cricut is a digital cutting machine. I use it to cut vinyl shapes, stick those onto the glass, and use them as guides for cutting and grinding. I needed the software side to generate those guides consistently, and to organise pieces by material without a lot of manual cleanup.

What I built

• A custom Unity editor for authoring stained-glass designs at real millimetre scale.
• Bezier-based shape editing, enclosed-piece detection, and per-piece material assignment.
• A design previewer that lets me assign glass looks to individual pieces and see a believable approximation of the final panel before making it.
• Reliable SVG export aimed at Cricut use, where physical scale and path stability matter.
• Automatic sheet layout generation so pieces for each glass material can be grouped onto their own working sheets.

Design previewer

The design previewer is a big part of why the tool is useful. I can replicate glass visuals in Unity, assign them to pieces of the design, and get a good idea of what the finished panel will look like before I start making it.

That helps the design process a lot. Instead of guessing whether a certain glass will work in a certain area, I can test combinations up front and make more informed choices before I commit to cutting real material.

• Piece-level material assignment so different glass types can be previewed and separated automatically.
• A more reliable sense of colour, texture and overall balance before fabrication starts.
• Less trial-and-error during design because I can see whether a material choice is working before cutting glass.
• A workflow that is useful in practice, not just a drawing tool.

Why the rest matters

The rest of the tooling supports that same goal: keep the process predictable. The editor works at physical scale, exports stay consistent, and the generated sheets help organise pieces by material for the real build.

• Physical-scale authoring rather than rough screen-space drawing.
• Consistent SVG export for downstream cutter use.
• Material-specific layout sheets to reduce manual prep work.
• Validation and supporting workflow tools around the actual making process.

Supporting views

• Sun panel editor view showing authored piece layout and preview.
• Coastal panel study used to test broader design and packing workflows.
• Finished panel photo showing the process feeding through to a real output.

From a skills point of view, GlassCore pushed my custom editor tooling, preview workflows, export robustness and workflow design. It is a good example of me building software around a real making process rather than just an on-screen demo.