Blueprint 1.1 — now on iPad, plus islands, open shelving, and the Cut List Optimizer
We shipped 1.1 this month and it is a bigger update than we expected it to be. It also marks the first release of Blueprint on iPad, so if you have been waiting for a tablet version, it is here.
Here is what actually changed.
Blueprint is now on iPad
The full app — floor plan, 3D editor, cabinet editor, cut list export — runs on iPad. Same features, same file format, same projects. You can start something on your Mac and continue on iPad, or work entirely on the tablet if that is how you prefer to work.
It is not a stripped-down version. Everything that runs on macOS runs on iPad.
Cabinets anywhere in the room
Until now, every cabinet had to live on a wall. That made sense for most kitchens, but not all of them.
1.1 adds Island Zones. You place a free-standing cabinet run anywhere in the floor plan, rotate it to whatever angle you need, and set its own width, depth, and height. It works the same as a wall zone — you can line up cabinets, adjust them, open each one in the cabinet editor, and get a full cut list that includes everything on the island alongside everything on the walls.
If you are designing a kitchen with a central island, this is how you do it now.
Open Shelf Unit
Sometimes you do not need a full cabinet. You need shelves on a wall.
The new Open Shelf Unit is exactly that — a back panel and shelves, no carcass, no doors, no plinth. You mount it at any height like a wall cabinet, set the width and depth, and add shelves where you want them. It shows up in the cut list with the right panels and dimensions, the same as everything else.
From cut list to sheet plan
The cut list has been in Blueprint since 1.0. You get panel dimensions, edge banding, grain direction, grouped by material. That is enough to order material and cut manually.
The new Cut List Optimizer add-on goes one step further. It takes all your panels and packs them onto standard sheet sizes. It calculates how many sheets you need, minimises waste, and exports the result as a DXF file you can send directly to a cutting service or load into a CNC.
It is a separate add-on purchase on top of Standard Edition. If you cut your own sheets or work with a supplier, it saves a significant amount of time.
Better looking rooms
We added 15 photo textures — full-surface photographic images for walls, splashbacks, and open shelf backs. They do not tile the way the standard material textures do. You pick one and it covers the surface as a single image.
Windows and doors got a proper 3D treatment too. They now show timber frame jambs and a glass panel in the 3D view instead of just an opening in the wall. It makes the room feel more complete when you are reviewing the layout.
Copy Cabinet
If you have built a cabinet you want to reuse somewhere else, you can now copy it to a different zone in one step. The full definition — splits, shelves, doors, drawers, materials — comes with it.
The smaller stuff
Shelf thickness is now derived from the construction material you assign, so it stays consistent with the rest of the cabinet without manually matching it. Countertop thickness works the same way. Shelves also get a 4mm front setback by default so they clear door and drawer fronts properly.
Banding rules are now correctly differentiated between EU frameless, US frameless, and US face frame builds — something that was causing incorrect banding on exports for some setups.
Units now default to inches on US and Canadian systems and millimeters everywhere else. A handful of crash fixes and stability improvements are in there too.
What is next
The iPad release opens up some things we want to explore further. More cabinet types, better visualisation options, and a few things we are not ready to talk about yet.
If you are already using Blueprint, the update is free. The Cut List Optimizer is available as a separate add-on from inside the app.