FORMLYNX is a family of Blender extensions for frames, machines and installations – exact to the millimetre, with bills of materials and files your CAD program and your workshop understand.
Each FORMLYNX product is its own extension. They share one core, so parts, connection points and bills of materials fit together when you use more than one. One is available today, one is in development, more are planned.
Available · Version 1.0
Racks, workbenches, enclosures and machine frames from aluminium profiles. Click a node and the part snaps into place.
In development · prototype
Cables, wire harnesses and hoses laid through your model like in a CAD harness tool – with minimum bend radius and exact lengths.
Next in the family. Not in development yet – no release dates, and what each one does can still change. Tell us on Discord which one you need first.
Planned
Assemblies and bills of materials across all FORMLYNX products in one place.
Planned
Getting your parts ready for the workshop and for production.
Planned
Product images and presentations straight from your design.
FORMLYNX Core is the shared technical foundation: STEP and DXF writers, one bill-of-materials format across products, and connection points that one product can offer to another.
Modular design. Made simple. Design racks, workbenches, enclosures and machine frames from aluminium profiles – exact to the millimetre.
Get MODULYNX on GumroadEvery clip below is the real add-on running in Blender.
Click a corner, drag the footprint, drag the height – posts, rails and levelling feet arrive as one assembly. The mouse wheel sets the number of rail levels. Then point into an opening: infill panels go into the slots, M mounts them on the frame.
MODULYNX remembers which part rests on which profile. Move a post away and the rail between the posts gets longer; move it up and the rail slides along. Live while you drag.
Arrows at the end faces change the length, the ring and the side arrows move the profile along and across. It snaps flush to neighbouring profiles, rests against them or centres on a slot. Type a number for the exact value.
Turn any mesh into a component: it gets the node grid of its size plus a node at every bore, found automatically. Click on the surface to add your own nodes. Attach profiles to it, move it with the handles and everything attached follows. Save it to your component library and add it to any file.
Point at a node and click – the profile attaches with its end face, correctly aligned and flush with the end of the profile it sits on. R rotates in 90° steps, Alt+wheel slides along the slot, Shift+click keeps going.
Span a profile between two nodes and the length is set for you. Slide a cross beam along its post on a 10 mm grid with a live ruler, or type the exact position.
Connectors follow their profile. Group parts into an assembly, mirror them, or repeat them as a row – drag the spacing, the wheel sets the number of copies.
Edit the contour of any profile type with Blender's own tools – add bores, rectangles and T-slots, check the contour and save. Every profile of that type is rebuilt. Or create types from templates, drawn contours and imported manufacturer models.
Press P for the radial menu with the active part in the centre – every tool of MODULYNX is in it. The sidebar uses the same groups and icons: Create, Connect, Adjust, Hardware, Assemble, View & Export.
Version 1.0 takes your frame all the way to production: what to order, what it weighs, what it costs, and files your CAD program and your laser cutter understand. Thank you to everyone who tested the betas.
Profiles, panels, components and your own parts open in Fusion, FreeCAD and SolidWorks as real solids. Holes and rounded edges become real cylinders, assemblies stay assemblies.
Plates, sheets and panels as outlines in mm with real arcs and circles. Holes on their own layer, labels with thickness, material and quantity.
Cut list, connector parts and machining per joint, weight from the real cross-section, price per metre and per cut, a kit quantity – in the sidebar and as CSV.
Choose an angle bracket, an anchor connector or none for each joint. Steel tubes, angles, channels, bars and timber are included with real cross-sections.
One click selects every pair of parts that penetrate each other. Touching parts and panels in their slots are fine.
Moving parts with Blender's own G key doesn't make connected parts follow – use the MODULYNX handles. Values in the radial menu's centre field can't be typed yet.
MODULYNX works in Object Mode in the 3D viewport. All lengths are in millimetres.
Updating: install the new ZIP the same way – it replaces the old version. Your settings and your own profile types stay in place.
Create › Box (P, then O): click the first corner on the floor, drag the footprint and click, drag the height and click. The outer dimensions are the ones you dragged.
Assemble › Panel (P, then I): point into an opening surrounded by four profiles and click. An infill panel goes into the slots by half the slot depth on each side; M switches to a panel mounted on the frame, the wheel changes the thickness, Shift+click places more. Size, thickness and material can be changed in the Control panel afterwards.
Select one profile and blue handles appear: arrows at both end faces change the length (the other end stays put), the ring moves the profile along its axis, two side arrows move it across.
No handles? Turn on Blender's gizmos (viewport header, top right) and check View & Export › Handles.
Attach, Join, Span and Extend remember which part rests on which profile. The Control panel lists the connections of the selected profile. For older files, Connect › Detect finds end faces that rest on other profiles.
When a profile moves or changes length, the parts connected to it follow: a part resting on an end face moves with it, a rail between two posts gets longer or slides along the post that stays. Turn it off with View & Export › Follow.
The current keys are always shown at the bottom left of the viewport while a tool runs. H hides the hints.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Click | Choose or place on a node |
| Shift+Click | Place and continue |
| R / Shift+R | Rotate 90° / back – 0° is top side up |
| Mouse / N | Direction at the target node |
| F | Contact face of the part |
| Alt+wheel | Slide along the slot |
| Ctrl / Shift | Fine (1 mm) / coarse (100 mm) |
| E | Slide: measure from start or end |
| Ctrl+wheel | Change length |
| Number + Enter | Type length or offset |
| Tab | Switch the typed value (length / offset, width / depth, distance / copies) |
| Esc | Cancel |
The radial menu (P) and the sidebar tab use the same groups and icons: Create (add, profile type, new type, type from selection, cross-section, box, make component, add component), Connect (attach, span, join, mirror, detect connections), Adjust (slide, extend, detail level, edit nodes), Hardware (bracket, end cap, foot, joint default), Assemble (group, dissolve, select, fit frame, row, panel) and View & Export (nodes, numbers, slots, handles, follow, collision check, bill of materials, STEP, DXF, help, preferences).
Article number, weight and price of a component go into the bill of materials.
View & Export › Bill of Materials lists every profile type with its cut lengths, connector parts and machining per joint, panels and components – with weights. Export as CSV writes it for ordering.
Use File › Export › MODULYNX Parts (.step) or View & Export › STEP. Open the file in your CAD program like any STEP file.
Freeform shapes (spheres, subdivision surfaces) and connectors are left out; the report names the skipped objects.
View & Export › DXF or File › Export › MODULYNX Flat Parts (.dxf) writes flat parts – panels, sheets and plates, also with holes and rounded corners – as outlines in millimetres for laser, plasma, waterjet and CNC.
OUTLINE, HOLES and LABELS (name, thickness, material, quantity).Parts with steps, pockets or chamfers can't be cut from one outline; they are skipped and named in the report.
In profiles_user.json in MODULYNX's user folder. Sidebar › Create › Library › Folder opens it. They are shared by all your .blend files; a backup is kept before a type is overwritten or deleted.
Yes. Import the manufacturer's model, select it and choose From Selection under Create – MODULYNX cuts the cross-section from the middle of the part. Article numbers in the name are picked up for the bill of materials.
Millimetres throughout. MODULYNX reads the scene's unit scale, so it also works in files where one Blender unit is not one metre.
In MODULYNX's user folder next to your profile types: prices in prices.json, components in the components folder. They are shared by all your .blend files.
On the Discord. A screenshot and your Blender version help a lot.
These features are planned for the next version, not released yet.
Drag a plane through the frame and every profile crossing it gets longer or shorter.
Connected parts follow when you move with Blender's own tools too, including rotations.
Cube and corner connectors, brackets placed as parts automatically, real manufacturer article numbers.
Components with previews in the radial menu, centre posts in the box tool, fences along a path.
Want news about new versions by e-mail? Follow MODULYNX on Gumroad.
Follow on Gumroad
In development. Not available yet – follow the progress on Discord.
ROUTELYNX follows the workflow of CAD harness tools: place pins on your parts, lay segments through the model, connect pin to pin – the wires find their way through the segments. Everything below works in the current prototype; names, details and the release date can still change.
ROUTELYNX can't be bought or downloaded yet. Want to see it early or tell us what you route? Say hi on Discord.
