Edit procedures as a node graph

Published on

Build and edit parametric procedures visually by wiring inputs, formulas, cuts, loops, and sub-procedures on a node canvas with live 3D preview.

Every parametric procedure in Sawdust can now be inspected, edited, or built from scratch as a visual node graph, with the live 3D view updating as you work.

The brace_between procedure open in the node graph editor showing input nodes wired into formula and cut nodes beside the 3D brace preview.

Double-click to add nodes, wire ports, or type formulas inline

Double-click anywhere on the canvas (or use the toolbar) to search and drop in inputs, values, formulas, saw cuts, drill operations, fastener steps, loops, conditions, or calls to other procedures. You can wire an input or formula output into any port on a tool node, or type a number or expression straight into the node without creating a separate wire.

Searching for a node to add on the procedure graph canvas.
Wiring an angle input node into the miter angle port of a crosscut node with live 3D preview.

Drag operation nodes to reorder steps or move them in and out of loops and conditional branches, with full undo and redo. If your project already calls a procedure, click Edit on that step in the Steps strip to open its graph in place and save your changes back to the project.

The graphs can grow pretty quickly. Here is the Hip frame roof procedure, definitely not something I would try to wrap my head around:

Conventional hip roof procedure graph with over 300 nodes and dense value wires across the canvas

But not all heads are like mine; maybe some of you find this easier to understand than code? Perhaps not every procedure is suited to this kind of visualization, but some certainly are. I'm excited to see what folks build with this! Under the wires it's all the same data, and in some ways it reflects the sort of thought process a home builder would go through when building a hip frame roof, Procedures exist within Sawdust to capture this kind of knowledge and put it to use. Having a fancy frontier model build a reusable procedure means even our dirt cheap Dusty model can build you a hip frame roof.

Because of the procedure flywheel and the efficient models used to implement Dusty, It costs me about $0.0005 to have Dusty call this procedure with whatever dimensions a user has asked for. By contrast, a frontier model at API pricing might easily spend even as much as $5 in tokens designing a one-off hipped roof. Because I'm bootstrapping Sawdust as a personal project without any external funding, keeping costs low is often my highest priority. And it's what allows me to keep Sawdust free.