Where Your Drawings Live When Cabinet Software Runs in a Browser
If you have run a workstation seat for years, a browser tool is asking you to give up something real: a machine you control, a file you can point at, and software that works whether or not anything else does. That is a fair objection and it deserves a straight answer rather than a sales one. Here is what actually changes, including the part we would rather not have to write.
The trade at a glance
You stop owning an installation and start owning an account. Nothing is installed, nothing is licensed to a machine, and the same job opens on the office computer and the shop computer without anybody copying a file. In exchange you need a connection, because there is no offline mode at all. What goes to the floor was never the browser anyway: it is printed diagrams, printed labels and exported files, and those keep working when nothing else does.
| To install | Nothing. No installer, no license key on a machine, no dongle. |
|---|---|
| Where work lives | Your account, so whichever machine you sign in on opens the same job. |
| At one time | One signed-in browser. Signing in on the shop machine signs the office one out. |
| Offline | No offline mode. No connection means no designing. |
| On the floor | Printed cut diagrams, printed labels, exported files. None of those need a browser. |
| Runs on | Any modern browser on a computer or a tablet. Phones are not supported yet. |
| Getting it out | Three export formats, printed reports and quotes, and the whole account as one JSON file. |
In this guide
Nothing to install, nothing tied to one machine
There is no installer, no version to keep current, no license key living on a particular computer and nothing to plug into a USB port. What decides what you can open is the account you signed in with, not the machine you signed in from. A second machine costs nothing except signing in on it, and a machine that dies takes no license with it.
Signing in is a Google or Apple account, a one-time link emailed to you, or an email and password if you would rather. That is the whole setup step, and it is the same on the second machine as the first.
What that removes is not glamorous, and it is exactly the part a shop owner notices: nobody has to be the person who installs the update, nobody has to work out why the drafting machine is on last year's version, and nobody has to find the dongle before a customer meeting.
Where the drawing actually lives
This is the real change, and it is worth being literal about it. On a workstation seat, a job is a file on a disk, and every copy of it is a separate thing that can be out of date. Here, a job belongs to your account, and there is only one of it.
Walk from the office computer to the shop computer, sign in there, and you are in the same job. There is no file to send, no shared drive to argue with and no moment where somebody asks which copy is the current one. Your work saves as you go, so there is no Save button to have forgotten before you stood up.
One thing to know before it surprises you at the machine: you are signed in on one browser at a time. Sign in on the shop computer and the office one signs out, and says why rather than just going blank. Nothing is lost when it happens, because the project saved as you worked. The reason is to stop one seat being shared around a building, and the practical effect is that you move between machines rather than run both at once.
The same is true of the things a shop shares rather than owns per job. Your materials, your hardware and your offcut rack belong to the account rather than to a job or a machine, so the rack you see at the cut station is the rack somebody updated in the office an hour ago. That is not a cloud feature bolted on. It is the reason a rack is worth keeping at all, and the cut list checklist works through why an offcut saved inside one job is the same as not having saved it.
It needs a connection, and there is no offline mode
You need a connection. There is no offline mode. Not a degraded one, not a read-only one. With no signal you cannot design, and a shop in a basement with one bar is going to feel it.
We would rather write that sentence than have you meet it on a Tuesday morning. It is the genuine cost of the trade, and anybody comparing a browser tool to a workstation seat should weigh it properly rather than be talked past it. A machine-installed seat keeps drawing with the network down. This does not.
What the limitation does not reach is the work you have already done, and that is the part worth being precise about, because "cloud software" and "you lose access to your job" are two different claims and only the first one is true here.
What goes to the floor is paper and files
Walk through what actually reaches a machine and the connection stops being the centre of the story. Nobody cuts from a browser window. They cut from a printed sheet clipped to the machine, a label stuck to a part, and a file the cut station reads.
| Cut diagrams | Print the cut diagrams opens the layout and prints the sheets and the cut sizes |
|---|---|
| Labels | Printed at the real size of your label stock, from a template you set once |
| The report | Printed from the job's outputs page, with the column set your shop saved |
| The quote | Printed for the customer, from the same job |
| The files | A spreadsheet CSV, a parts list for the cut station, a DXF of the nested sheets |
Print the run in the morning and the floor is independent of everything for the rest of the day. That is not a workaround for a missing offline mode, it is how a shop already works: paper at the machine, because paper does not go to sleep, need a password or run out of battery.
The habit worth keepingExport and print before you need it rather than when you need it. A cut list downloaded on Friday is a file on Monday no matter what the connection is doing, and the versioned export formats mean the file you saved months ago still reads the way the cut station expects.
What it runs on
Any modern browser on a computer or a tablet. It is built for desktop and tablet screens, and phones are not supported yet.
Say the tablet part out loud, because it is the one people assume is a compromise. A tablet at the bench is a real way to work and it is the same application, not a viewer or a cut-down version. What it is not is a phone tool, and we would rather be plain about that than have somebody discover it standing in a customer's kitchen.
The operating system question answers itself once nothing is installed. There is no Windows build and no Mac build because there is no build: there is a browser, and the same one you already have.
Taking everything out
A workstation seat gives you a comfort a browser tool has to earn back: your files are on your disk and nobody can take them away. So here is the equivalent, and it is stronger than it sounds because it does not depend on anybody agreeing to it.
Every cut list leaves as a spreadsheet CSV, a plain parts list for the cut station, or a DXF of the nested sheets. Each format is frozen: a change ships as a new format rather than a quiet edit to this one, so a file you exported last year still reads the way the receiving program was set up to read it.
And the account itself downloads whole, from a button on your account settings, as a single JSON file: your projects and documents, your materials, your hardware, your offcuts, your saved settings, your layouts, and what you chose about marketing email. It is the same set that deleting your account erases, which is the only definition of a complete export worth trusting. You do not ask for it and nobody approves it.
That is the honest answer to "you want me to give up my drive". You are giving up a folder and getting a button, and the button hands you a file you keep.
What an account keeps
The last version of the objection is the one that actually keeps people on a workstation: if I stop paying a subscription, does my work disappear behind a wall.
Here the Designer is open on the free plan. Your drawings open, edit and print. What the free plan does not include is the cut list, which is where a plan starts being worth paying for. There is no monthly allowance ticking down and no partial state to keep track of: the drawing side is open, the cut list needs a plan, and the pricing page is where the plans are.
And whatever you decide about a plan, the download button is on the same account settings page it always was.
Test the objection rather than reading about it
Open it on the machine you are reading this on
No install and no card. Draw one cabinet, then sign in on a second machine and watch it already be there.
Frequently asked questions
Does web based cabinet design software work without an internet connection?
Ours does not. There is no offline mode, so a shop with no signal cannot design. That is a real limitation and it is worth knowing before you decide, rather than on a bad morning. What it does not stop is the work already done: the cut diagrams, the labels and the export files exist on paper and on disk once you have printed or downloaded them, and none of those need a browser or a connection to be used at the machine.
Where are my drawings stored if the software runs in a browser?
In your account rather than on one machine, which is the actual difference between this and a workstation seat. Walk to the shop computer, sign in there, and you are in the same job, with no file to copy and no question about which copy is current. Your shared shop data behaves the same way: your materials, your hardware and your offcut rack belong to the account, so a change made in the office is on the shop machine without anybody sending anything. You are signed in on one browser at a time, so signing in on the second machine signs the first one out and tells you why. Nothing is lost, because the project saves as you work.
Do I need Windows or a dongle to run cabinet design software?
Not for this one. There is no installer, no license key tied to a machine and no dongle to lose, because there is nothing installed to license. It runs in a modern browser on a Mac or a PC, and a second machine costs nothing but signing in. The thing you give up in exchange is the connection: a machine-installed seat keeps working with the network down, and a browser one does not.
Can I use cabinet design software on a tablet?
Yes, and a tablet at the bench is a real use rather than a checkbox. Any modern browser on a computer or a tablet works. Phones are not supported yet, and we would rather say that than have you find out standing in a kitchen. Nothing about the tablet is a cut-down version: it is the same application, on a smaller screen.
What happens to my drawings if I stop paying?
The Designer stays open on our free plan, so your drawings still open, still edit and still print. What a free plan does not include is the cut list, which is where a plan starts being worth paying for. There is no monthly allowance to count down and no partial state to work out: the drawing side is open and the cut list needs a plan. You can also download your whole account as a single JSON file at any time, on any plan.
Keep reading
Sources & references
The general references below explain the mechanisms this page describes, not our version of them. Everything said about what CabDesign does was read out of the shipped code, with the file and line for each claim in an HTML comment beside it in this page's source, including the two limitations: no offline mode, and no phone support. Nothing here states how long a lapsed account keeps its projects, because that has not been decided and a guess would be worse than the silence.
- MDN, the Service Worker API (the browser mechanism that makes a web application work offline; we ship none, which is why there is no offline mode)
- MDN, progressive web apps (what a browser application can and cannot do compared with an installed one)
- Software protection dongle (the hardware key a workstation seat is often licensed against, and what it costs you when it is lost)
- Data portability (the principle behind a complete, self-service export of everything an account holds)
- AutoCAD DXF (the neutral drawing format the nested sheets leave as, readable long after any account is closed)
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