Changelog

Draw a foundation footprint the same way you draw a building outline — both live under the toolbar's pen menu and in the Add part picker's new Draw section. Choose a concrete slab (with an optional monolithic thickened edge, gravel base, vapor barrier, and wire mesh) or a plain gravel pad, and the shopping list prices it realistically — bags for small pours, ready-mix by the cubic yard and bulk stone past that. A slab stands its thickness proud of grade the way a real one is formed (gravel pads sit flush), elevations dimension the reveal, and the plans include a proper pour step. Walls and boards snap onto the slab's top and edges, and parts added over a slab land on it, not inside it.

Opening the build plan from a shared link now plays nicely with pop-up blockers: the plan opens in a new tab whenever the browser allows it, and when a strict blocker refuses, it opens right on the page in a full-screen viewer instead of failing with an error.

When a design includes a drawn building outline, shared view-only links (and the Recenter button) used to zoom out far enough to fit the entire envelope, leaving the actual build small in the corner. The camera now frames just the built parts — the reference building is ignored unless it's the only thing in the scene.

Opening the build plan from a shared view-only link now includes the 3D cover render on the title sheet, matching what the owner's own export produces. Previously the shared plan's cover was blank.

Baluster spacing treated 4" as a target rather than the code maximum, so railings could print with 4 1/16" gaps — and the gaps beside each post ran nearly 5". Spacing is now uniform across every opening (posts included) and never exceeds the limit; picket and plank styles get the same hard cap. Some designs gain a couple of balusters — usually cut from sticks you were already buying.

On flights wider than their run, the plan's rise & run detail drew the staircase head-on — a useless "RAKE 90°, GOING 0" drawing. The detail now finds the direction the stairs actually climb and draws that side, whatever the stair's size or rotation.

Deck railings and stair guards have a new Post above rail property: leave it at 0 for today's flush look, or raise it so the posts stick up past the top rail — the classic look for post caps and lights. Post heights follow along everywhere (3D, plans, cut list), and the rail itself doesn't move.

Stair railings have a new Bottom gap property: keep the standard 4" clearance under the bottom rail, drop to 2" for the traditional look where the rail follows the treads closely, or type a custom value. The guard height and top rail stay exactly where they were — only the bottom rail and baluster lengths adjust — and existing designs keep the 4" default untouched.

Railing height menus (deck railings and stair guards) always offered a Custom option, but picking it while on a standard height did nothing. It now opens a write-in field seeded with the current height, in 1/16" steps — so you can set a 34" stair guard (the IRC handrail band is 34–38" over the nosings) or any other height your inspector calls for.

Wherever your materials list shows concrete bags, it now also shows the actual poured volume in cubic feet and cubic yards — in the Materials panel, the printable materials sheet, copied text, and the plan PDF's shopping list. And when a build crosses one cubic yard (roughly 60 bags), it says so and suggests ordering ready-mix instead of mixing by hand.

A new checkbox in Share settings lets people with your view-only link open the full build plan — drawings, cut list, and shopping list — right from the 3D view. It's off unless you turn it on, and the plan opens in its own tab with a Print / Save PDF button.

Open a shared view-only link or a gallery design and you can now click (or tap) any board or assembly to see what it is and its dimensions — cut length and actual cross-section for lumber, overall size for decks, walls, and roofs. Hovering highlights what's clickable. Still strictly look-don't-touch: nothing moves, nothing's editable.

You no longer need a Google account to use StickBuild. Create an account with your email and a password, verify your address from the email we send, and you're in. Forgot your password? There's a reset link for that — and if you already sign in with Google, you can add a password from the account menu (or the reset flow) and use either one.

Footed posts used to hover above their piers in the elevation views — the drawings skipped the post-base bracket, leaving an unexplained gap. Elevations now draw the bracket's steel (base plate, standoff, and side flange) in metal grey between the post and the concrete, so the load path reads the way it's built. Bolts stay off at drawing scale; the zoomed hardware spec still lives on the pier connection detail.

A drop beam's saddle-notched posts used to print as plain rectangles outside the 3D editor: the cutting plan had no cut detail for them, and the elevations and step-by-step isometrics drew them as bare boxes. The notch now carries through everywhere — the Cut details section draws the notched outline (one drawing covers the mirrored pair, since it's the same piece turned around), the posts are flagged as shaped cuts in the guide's checklists and up-front prep list, the plan's elevation views project the true notched silhouette, and both the vector and 3D step isometrics render the real notched post.

A Full plan used to repeat itself: every group's dimensioned drawing appeared in the fabrication section and again inside its build step, and the pier set-out showed on both the footing sheet and the pouring step. Now the guide's steps are the drawings' home — the Full plan skips the standalone fabrication run, and the footing sheet (with its connection detail folded into the pouring step) yields to the guide whenever steps are included. Construction docs, which have no steps, keep the fabrication sheets and footing sheet exactly as before.

The build guide now walks a deck's foundation the way you'd actually build it: pour the concrete first (its own step, with the pier set-out plan and what to pour), then cut and set the posts — with a side profile of the notched post showing the saddle-notch measurements — then seat the beam, with a new section drawing of how the doubled beam lands in the notches (or on flat post tops, for flush beams). Construction docs get the notched-post profile too, so a crew has the cut even without the step-by-step pages.

Fastener recommendations now cover uplift ties where joists bear on beams, tension hold-downs at railing posts, and stringer connectors at stairs — and notched 6×6 beam posts correctly get through-bolts instead of a post cap. Each item is badged “code” (typically required — verify with your inspector) or “optional” (recommended practice) in the Materials list and printed plans.

Make a copy of a gallery design and the first-time tour now fits what's in front of you: instead of teaching you to place your first board, it walks you through making the build yours — click into it, resize a board or retune an assembly, and watch the shopping list re-price live. The tour adapts to the build: boards-only copies skip the assembly step and vice versa. Everywhere else the classic Basics tour still runs — and if you practice inside an existing build, one click restores it afterwards.

On crowded stick bars, the offcut label no longer slides left into the last cut's label — it stays anchored to its own tick mark. The stick count and check-off box now line up with the bar itself instead of drifting below it.

Joist hangers are now recommended wherever a joist is carried by a ledger or flush beam (with hanger nails included), post tops get one post cap instead of a pile of screws, and screw counts are itemized per connection type so the shopping list reads honestly.

My Parts sizes that don't match store stock appeared in the Materials panel but were missing from the printed plan. The plan's Shopping list now has a Custom lumber section listing each size's cut lengths and totals, with a note to mill or special-order the stock.

The plan's buy-and-cut pages no longer overlap. The Shopping list is now purely what to buy — stock counts, hardware, and totals. A new Cutting plan page shows how to break each stick down, with every piece tagged by its part mark (matching the drawings) and a check-off box per stick. Boards only get an illustrated cut detail when they actually need a shaped or angled cut.

Plan export now has four presets: Build guide (step-by-step instructions for hands-on builders), Construction docs (dimensioned drawings for crews, quotes, and permit conversations — no steps), Full plan, and Shopping list. Construction docs includes new per-group fabrication drawings: each wall, platform, or railing drawn flat with dimensions and member marks, without the step-by-step chrome. Mix and match with the checkboxes — the preset picker shows when you've customized.

The Add-part picker has a new My Parts section: save any board size — like 3/4″ × 2″ × 30″ for furniture work — and drop it into any project. Sizes that match store stock still price and pack into your cut list; truly custom sizes get their own section in Materials.

Parts now have to be within 1 inch of alignment (was 4) before the equal-spacing guides kick in, so balusters on different walls no longer trigger spurious spacing snaps.

Undoing or redoing while drilled into an assembly's individual board could leave the selection pointing at the wrong board. The drill-in now resets so your next click acts on what you actually see.

The demo's hint overlay includes right-click-drag to orbit and scroll to zoom, so first-time visitors don't assume the scene is frozen.

If the print dialog can't open (usually a popup blocker) or the plan document fails to generate, the export dialog now shows what happened instead of silently doing nothing.

Design changes made by the AI assistant are now checked the same way the regular controls are: assembly settings clamp to their real ranges, and a part can't be given an unknown type or impossible position. Bad suggestions are reported in the chat instead of quietly corrupting the design.

A stair is now a single build step drawn as three focused drawings instead of one dense section: an OVERALL DIMENSIONS elevation (overall stair height, height to the top of the rail, run, and walking width, with every part labelled), a RISE & RUN DETAIL — a cropped closeup of two steps calling out the unit rise and going, the rake, and the tread and riser material sizes — and a RAILING drawing that sets the rail on the outlined stair with its part numbers and the baluster/post spacing and guard height. Replaces the old ladder of tiny diagonal gaps up the rake.

The build guide's posts step now dimensions its top view the way you set posts out: pier-to-pier spacing between each post, and — when the deck references a wall (a ledger) — the setback from that wall to each pier row. The old generic dims (post width, outside-to-outside span) are gone. Same chains as the footing layout sheet, so the two always agree.

Customizing the build order used to collapse a whole deck into one step. Each stage — posts & footings, beams, joists, decking — now stays its own step that you can reorder, rename, merge, or split like any other, keeping its fabrication diagram and notes.

The post base connection detail now sits on the Footing & post layout sheet beside the pier schedule, making it a complete foundation sheet: set-out plan, schedule, and typical pier section together. It no longer depends on the build order — it used to render only in the Auto-ordered guide's posts step, which now simply points to the sheet.

The post base connection detail in the plan PDF now dimensions the whole post, not just the footing: the gap from the top of the concrete to the post bottom, the post's full length, and the height from grade to the top of the post.

Selecting a rotated building no longer shows its yellow wall handles skewed off the walls. The handles now sit flush on each wall, so sliding a wall or clicking to add a corner works the same as on an unrotated building.

Reordering layers in the Layers pane of a shared project now saves and syncs. Previously the new order looked right until you reloaded, then snapped back.

Plans with poured or precast footings now include a top-down layout sheet showing where each pier goes — dimensioned off the house wall and pier-to-pier — plus a pier schedule. The same set-out drawing leads the "Posts & footings" step in the build guide and Build Mode, so you can place footings before framing.

The front, back, and side elevations now draw the ground line and each post's concrete footing — the above-grade pier solid and the buried portion dashed — so you can see how deep the piers go and where the build meets the ground.

A deck's posts now rest on top of their piers instead of flush on the ground, and there's a new “Pier above grade” setting (under Foundation & support) to dial how far the pier stands proud of grade. The finished deck height you set stays exactly the same — the posts just shorten to sit on the footing — and it flows through the 3D view, the exploded lumber, and the cut list (shorter posts, the right concrete).

The translucent “Wall” reference that appears when a deck attaches as a ledger used to stop 8 ft above the ground, so on a tall deck it faded out below the decking. It now rises to 8 ft above the deck top — solid behind the deck, dissolving above it — no matter how high the deck sits.

Stair railings can now run past the end of the flight to meet a post — set “Extend rail top” (and “Extend rail bottom”) to carry the guard beyond the stringer out to a deck post bolted inboard of the rim, or a landing newel at the bottom. The whole run grows cleanly: balusters stay evenly spaced, an end post rides out to the new end (pair with End posts “Bottom only” to leave it off where a deck post already stands), and a longer run picks up an intermediate post to stay within 6′ spacing. Flows through the 3D view, the exploded lumber, and the cut list.

A stair railing's bottom rail used to dip into the treads, and the guard came out a little short. Railings now ride on the nosing line: the bottom rail keeps a clean clearance above every step, and the height you pick (36", 42") is a true measurement above the nosings.

Stair railings now have an End posts choice — Both ends, Bottom only, Top only, or None. A stair guard usually dies into a deck's own post at the top, so “Bottom only” drops the stair's top post to avoid doubling it; freestanding flights keep both. Flows through the 3D view, the exploded lumber, and the cut list.

Stair railings now have a Mount choice. Side-mount (the default) bolts the posts to the outside face of the stringers and keeps the full stair width clear. Inset tucks the railing onto the inside face of the stringers instead — the guard runs within the flight, the way many interior and enclosed stairs are built. It flows through the 3D view, the exploded lumber, and the cut list.

Stairs now have a Railing option in their properties — turn it on for the left side, right side, or both, and it climbs the flight at the correct slope. Pick any railing style (balusters, horizontal, X-cross, picket, or plank), set the height and post drop, and it flows straight into the 3D view, the exploded lumber, and the cut list.

Set a deck to attach as a ledger and you'll now see the house wall it bolts to — a translucent panel labeled “Wall” along that edge in the 3D editor, and a dashed “WALL” line in the plan drawings (the same way a wall appears when a deck abuts a building you've drawn). Toggle it off any time with the deck's “Show wall” checkbox. It's purely orientation context: it doesn't change the deck's size, dimensions, or anything you build.

The railing's “End posts” checkbox is now a dropdown — Both ends, Left only, Right only, or None — so you can build a run with a single end post where it meets an existing post or a wall. Existing railings keep their current look.

Once a railing's posts are dropped to joist depth, they snap to the deck's rim joists — slide the railing toward an edge and a post face butts flush against the side rim, or drag the railing's length out toward a corner and the end post lands against the inside of the perpendicular rim. A green marker confirms each butt, and it only kicks in when the posts actually reach the framing.

When you drag a railing's posts down past the bottom rail, they now snap flush with the bottom of the joists on the deck below — so bolting them to the rim lines up without measuring. The flush-to-the-rail base still snaps too, and a readout shows the drop as you go.

Stairs now break down into their real lumber — stringers, treads, and risers. Expand a stair in the Layers pane to see those groups (and every board in them) without exploding, or explode it into editable parts that keep their exact shape — the cut stringers keep their sawtooth notches. Groups are staged in the order you build them (risers-first or treads-first), and the individual carriages and boards now show up in build mode and the plan's step-by-step guide, not just the cut list. The notched stringer now draws its true sawtooth shape everywhere in the plan PDF too — the cut list, the elevation drawings, and the step-by-step isometrics — whether or not the stair is exploded.

Stairs now build like the real thing: notched (sawtooth) cut stringers with plumb and level end cuts, and options for risers, tread stock, and nosing overhang. Set the height and the rise, run, and stringer length solve themselves to code — with warnings when a flight is too steep or a tread too shallow. Pin any dimension to keep it fixed, pick a base (on grade, concrete pad, or pier blocks), and extra stringers get added automatically as the stairs get wider.

Tell StickBuild the longest board you can actually get in your area (say 12'), and everything follows: the length drag handle stops there, the cut list only uses stock that long or shorter, and long runs automatically split into staggered pieces with the joints landing on framing. Deck boards break over joists, wall plates break over studs (with the double top plate's two layers offset), and roof ridges and fascia break over rafters — so every joint is supported. Set it from the “Max board” control in the Materials list; it saves with the project.

A wall can no longer be dragged taller than a single stud can run — the height handle stops at your max board length, since studs are one continuous piece and never spliced. And when a wall's studs pass the prescriptive code height for their size (like a 2x4 over ~10'), the properties panel flags it so you can step up the stud size, add mid-height blocking, or have it engineered.

Railings now have a “Post drop” setting that runs the posts down past the bottom rail, so they can bolt into the rim joist or beam below — the way a deck railing is really built — instead of just sitting on the deck surface.

Every design now generates a base-up assembly guide, with flat, to-scale, dimensioned “build it flat” diagrams for each sub-assembly. Open Build Mode on a phone or tablet at the job site to step through the build in 3D and check off parts as you go.

Decks now frame like a real hand-built deck: ledger attachment to a wall, cantilevers, notched beam-posts on concrete footings, blocking, drop-vs-flush beams, board-direction control, and picture-frame borders — with the right hardware and flashing called out.

Plywood now prints as real sheets with 2D cut layouts, pieces that need a cut get a ✂ flag and a “make these cuts first” callout, and elevations and step drawings render as clean line drawings. Parametric assemblies like roofs and decks show their true framing instead of a plain box.

StickBuild now works on phones and tablets — viewing and editing. Finger-sized controls, an on-screen undo/redo/copy/paste/nudge pad, a collapsible properties sheet, and touch-friendly plan and materials exports.

Export a printable, dimensioned multi-view plan of your project — title sheet, scaled orthographic views, elevations, a per-board buy-and-cut plan, and a parts key — straight to PDF from your browser.

Isolate any board in a 2D overlay and apply real cuts: corner and edge notches, tapers, birdsmouths, and lengthwise rips. Boards auto-notch where they overlap and re-shape live in 3D, and the cut list carries the details through to your plans.

Draw a building footprint and StickBuild extrudes it into mitered reference walls you can edit by vertex or edge — handy for snapping a deck ledger to a house wall.

The cut list no longer calls for stock shorter than the piece you’re cutting. It now includes 16′ lengths and flags any cut too long for the biggest stock as “splice or special-order.”

Add a concrete footing and Simpson bracket base to 4×4, 4×6, and 6×6 posts. Brackets and priced concrete bags flow into your materials list, with a “height above grade” readout.

Arrow keys nudge numeric fields by 1/16″ (or 1°), Option-drag the move gizmo to duplicate a selection in place, and part-to-part snapping is more precise. A second key light lifts the far side of designs so they’re no longer lost in shadow.

Fastener counts are realistic again (no more 370-screw benches), with built-up beams and posts getting a proper lamination schedule. Live Home Depot pricing is refreshing daily again after a cron timeout had stalled it.

Repeat a board by count or spacing (gap or on-center, along any axis) as an editable, ungroupable array, and mirror a selection across X, Y, or Z in place or as a copy.

A board is now identified by its cross-section (a 2×4) with length as a property you resize, and you can swap a board’s cross-section while keeping its length — no more stale, baked-in lengths in the header.

Browse published designs at /library, open an interactive read-only 3D view, and “Make a copy” to fork any design into your own account as a starting point.

Share a design with a public view-only link that anyone can open — no account needed — in a stripped-down orbit-and-zoom viewer.

Switch to a flat, on-axis 2D view (top, front, side, and more) on a paper background, with dimensioned overlays showing the overall or selected build size in your chosen units.

A Figma-style hierarchy of your parts, groups, and assemblies with per-row hide and ghost toggles, inline rename, and drag-to-reorder or move parts in and out of groups.

The editor chrome was reorganized SketchUp-style: canvas tools moved to a floating bottom bar, panels to an icon row, an avatar menu up top, and new keyboard shortcuts.

Better lighting, hairline edges so abutting same-color boards stay distinct, and an outdoor look — a sage-green “yard” ground under a muted sky-blue background instead of a warehouse floor.

Download your materials list as a spreadsheet-ready CSV, or print it (and Save as PDF) alongside the existing copy-as-text option.

The guided tour now teaches the gestures that matter — add, move, rotate, snap parts together, read the materials list, and work with repeats and assemblies — with a Skip option if a step gets stuck.

Fastener and connector suggestions now cover every lumber size and drill into parametric assemblies, so decks and walls get the right hangers, post bases, and screws instead of a near-empty list.

Your materials list now shows real Home Depot prices from a curated catalog, refreshed on a schedule. A wood-type selector (pressure-treated, standard SPF, or cedar) drives both pricing and product links, and an “I have this” tracker nets out what you already own.

Start building in the homepage demo, then sign up — the deck you were working on comes with you as a new project instead of being lost. New accounts also start in a ready-made starter design rather than a blank canvas.

A sync-status banner shows whether your work is saved, and links shared to Reddit, iMessage, or Slack now render a proper preview card.

Share a design as a view-only link anyone can open, or invite collaborators by email to edit with you in real time. Access is resolved per person — owner, editor, or viewer — and invitees get an email with the project link.

Break a parametric assembly — a deck, roof, railing, or ladder — into its individual boards with “Explode to parts,” or ⌘-click to drill into a single stud, joist, or baluster and edit it on its own.

A shortcuts legend — the keyboard icon in the lower-left — lists every hotkey by section, with the right modifiers for Mac and Windows.

Railings gained plank and picket styles, configurable baluster size and spacing with a best-fit count, and rails that segment cleanly between posts. Ladders got tidier rungs and a width handle, and a 5′ slide accessory was added.

Added framed walls with studs, plates, and sheathing. Give a wall a shed or gable top profile and pitch so it meets a roof, set corner conditions, and snap two wall ends together to form a building corner — or spawn an abutting wall and swing it into place around the corner.

A public landing page for new visitors with an interactive 3D demo right on the page — orbit, select, move, and resize a real deck and open its live materials list, no account needed.

The app was renamed from Swing Set Designer to StickBuild — it had grown well past swing sets into decks, walls, roofs, and more. Your existing projects carried over untouched.

A step-by-step spotlight tutorial walks new users through the basics — drop a board, adjust its properties, resize it, and move it — and can be relaunched anytime from the help button.

Roofs can now add fascia boards and sheathing (plywood or board stock), both flowing into the cut list, with cleaner detailing on shed and gable ends.

Sign in with Google and your projects, parts, and version history live in the cloud — so your work follows you across devices and browsers, and is ready to share with others.

A new part picker with a category rail (lumber, assemblies, hardware, accessories), fuzzy search, and a thumbnail grid makes finding the right piece faster.