Mirrored on GitHub — development happens here: https://git.hauptstadt.monster/manzari/BenchVault

BenchVault

A cross-platform (Linux-first) desktop app for organizing 3D-printing projects. Each Object groups the STL parts, OpenSCAD sources, sliced gcodes, images, and notes that belong to one thing you print — with slicer metadata parsed automatically and everything searchable.

BenchVault owns a managed library on disk (human-readable folder layout), so your files stay plain files you can browse, back up, or take with you.

Screenshots

Regenerating these screenshots

make shots builds a throwaway demo library inside Docker (your real library is never in reach) and drives the actual binary through tauri-driver to capture docs/screenshots/.

The demo library is seeded by importing real things from Thingiverse through the same "Import from URL" code path the app ships, so the screenshots show genuine models, covers, authors and licenses rather than placeholder geometry. That needs a Thingiverse API token:

1. Create an app at https://www.thingiverse.com/developers/apps (any type — you only need its App Token).

2. Put it in the repo-root .env, which is gitignored:

   THINGIVERSE_TOKEN=your-app-token
   

make shots picks it up from there and passes it into the container; the seeder clears it from the demo database again once the imports are done. Same token works for the app's own "Import from URL" — paste it into Settings.

make build      # release binary
make seed-bin   # demo seeder
make shots      # seed + capture into docs/screenshots/

Workflow

BenchVault sits at the centre of a print project — from CAD source to a printed part — keeping every artifact filed against the Object it belongs to.

flowchart LR
    A["<b>Design</b><br/>OpenSCAD · FreeCAD ·<br/>Blender · any 3D tool"] -->|export STL| B
    B["<b>BenchVault</b><br/>organize into an Object:<br/>models · CAD scripts ·<br/>images · docs · tags"]
    B -->|open .scad in GUI /<br/>render preview| A
    B -->|slicer hand-off| C["<b>OrcaSlicer</b><br/>slice → gcode"]
    C -->|auto-ingest gcode<br/>+ parsed metadata| B
    B -->|USB sync<br/>+ manifest| D[("<b>USB drive</b>")]
    D --> E["<b>3D printer</b><br/>print the part"]

    classDef hub fill:#2b6cb0,stroke:#1a365d,color:#fff;
    class B hub;

1. Design a part in OpenSCAD (or FreeCAD, Blender, …) and export an STL — or import one from a URL like Thingiverse.
2. Organize it in BenchVault: models (STL/OBJ/STEP/3MF), CAD scripts (.scad, CadQuery .py), images, markdown docs and notes all live under one Object. Open .scad files back in the OpenSCAD GUI or render previews in-app.
3. Slice by handing an asset straight to OrcaSlicer; the resulting gcode is auto-ingested with its slicer metadata parsed.
4. Sync the gcodes to a mounted USB drive with a manifest.
5. Print — feed the USB stick to the printer.

Features

• Library organization — nested folders, objects with cover images, tags, manual sort order, breadcrumb navigation.
• 3D preview — interactive three.js viewer for STL and OBJ; snapshot any angle as the object's cover image.
• Model geometry — triangle/vertex counts, bounding-box size, volume, surface area, and watertightness computed on import for STL, OBJ, and 3MF; 3MF also carries its declared units, document metadata, and an embedded thumbnail that auto-fills the object cover.
• Docs & CAD scripts — keep markdown notes (rendered as GitHub-flavored markdown) and CadQuery/OpenSCAD scripts filed alongside the part.
• Gcode metadata — slicer, profile, print time, filament usage parsed on import. Supports the PrusaSlicer family (PrusaSlicer, SuperSlicer, OrcaSlicer, BambuStudio) and Cura.
• OpenSCAD support — open .scad sources in the OpenSCAD GUI, render previews via the OpenSCAD CLI (cached on disk), and see extracted customizer parameters, dependencies, and module/function names in the CAD Scripts list.
• Slicer hand-off — open assets directly in OrcaSlicer.
• Import from URL — paste a Thingiverse link to create an object with title, author, license, and cover image; with an API token the model files are downloaded too.
• USB sync — detect mounted drives and sync gcodes to them with a manifest, for printers fed by USB stick.
• Auto-ingest — a background watcher picks up files dropped into the library directory and files them automatically.
• Full-text search — SQLite FTS5 across the library.

Supported formats

Everything you import is stored as a plain file in the managed library. The table shows what BenchVault does beyond storing it — parse metadata, preview in 3D, render, or hand off to the slicer.

Format	Stored	Metadata	Preview	Render	Hand-off
STL (.stl)	✅	✅ geometry	✅	—	✅ to orca
OBJ (.obj)	✅	✅ geometry	✅	—	—
3MF (.3mf)	✅	✅	—	—	✅ to orca
G-code (.gcode, .gco, .g)	✅	✅	—	—	✅ to usb drive
G-code binary (.bgcode)	✅	—	—	—	✅ to usb drive
OpenSCAD (.scad)	✅	✅ static	✅ via render	✅	—
CadQuery (.py)	✅	—	—	—	—
Markdown (.md, .markdown)	✅	—	✅ via render	✅	—
Text (.txt)	✅	—	✅ verbatim	—	—
CAD / STEP (.step, .stp, .iges, .igs, .f3d, .sldprt)	✅	—	—	—	—
Images (.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .webp, .gif, .bmp, .svg)	✅	—	✅ some formats	—	—
Anything else (.pdf, .zip, …)	✅	—	—	—	—

Models (STL/OBJ/STEP/3MF) share one Models section; STL and OBJ render directly in the in-app 3D viewer, while STEP and 3MF are stored and listed (3MF still gets its geometry and metadata parsed on import). OpenSCAD and CadQuery scripts share a CAD Scripts section (OpenSCAD sources also render to a previewable mesh, and their parameters/dependencies are listed). Markdown files render as formatted notes in a Docs / Notes section, and plain .txt files render verbatim there too. Images double as object cover art (snapshot the 3D viewer, set any imported image, or let a 3MF's embedded thumbnail fill in). STL parts are the only assets sent to OrcaSlicer.

Stack

• Tauri 2 — Rust backend + system webview
• React 18 + TypeScript + Vite + Mantine 7 + TanStack Router + Zustand
• SQLite via sqlx with versioned migrations and FTS5 search
• three.js via @react-three/fiber for STL/OpenSCAD previews
• specta + tauri-specta — TypeScript bindings generated from the Rust command signatures, so the IPC contract can't drift

Install

Build from source (see below) and install the resulting bundle, or on Debian/Ubuntu let the Makefile do both:

make install-host   # builds the .deb and installs it via apt

Prerequisites (building from source)

Install once on Linux:

# Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Node (via your favourite manager — fnm shown here)
curl -fsSL https://fnm.vercel.app/install | bash
fnm install 20

# Tauri system deps (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file \
  libxdo-dev libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev

Optional integrations: OpenSCAD for .scad previews, OrcaSlicer for slicer hand-off. Both are auto-detected; paths can be overridden in Settings.

Develop

npm install        # or pnpm / bun
npm run tauri dev  # Vite + Rust with hot reload on both sides

The first launch creates <app_data>/library/ and benchvault.db, and runs all migrations.

make help lists the other targets (check, clippy, test, bindings, …).

Build

npm run tauri build

Produces .deb / .rpm / .AppImage on Linux. Windows/macOS targets build but aren't tested or gated by CI yet.

Architecture

The Rust backend follows a strict commands → service → repository → db layering; the frontend talks to it through generated typed bindings.

• src-tauri/src/commands/ — thin Tauri command handlers
• src-tauri/src/service/ — business logic (file ingestion, imports, USB sync, external tools)
• src-tauri/src/repository/ — all SQL, one module per table family
• src-tauri/src/parsers/ — pure gcode/STL parsers
• src-tauri/migrations/ — versioned SQL, run automatically on start
• src/ — React frontend
• src/lib/bindings.ts — generated by specta (make bindings) — do not hand-edit

The schema is intentionally polymorphic (assets, tags + entity_tags, entity_links, one FTS5 index keyed by entity kind), so future entity types — printers, filaments, print jobs, slicer profiles, costs — drop in without re-architecting. See CLAUDE.md for the full contributor guide.