Design Builder

The Design Builder is for when you know what you want to make but not how to draw it. You pick the kind of thing — a house sign, a nameplate, an equipment tag — answer a few plain questions, and ALPS builds most of a finished, manufacturable design for you. No drawing, no laser settings.

It's the fastest way to go from an idea to a job on the bed, and it's built for people who don't design for a living.

When to use it

• You want a common shop item — a number for a house, a name for a door, a tag for a valve.
• You'd rather answer questions than draw shapes.
• You want a correct starting point you can tweak, instead of a blank page.

If you already have artwork, use Import artwork instead. If you want to start from a finished template, use the Library.

How it works

1. Open Design Builder — it's the first card on the Home screen, and also under Tools.
2. Pick a category — Signs, Name & door plates, Industrial tags, and so on.
3. Pick the specific thing — e.g. a house/address sign.
4. Answer 3–6 short questions. They're plain-language — the words on the piece, the size, how it mounts. You'll never be asked about engrave vs cut, speed, power or resolution; ALPS chooses all of that for you.
5. Review. ALPS shows the design and lists the decisions it made for you — the font, the layout, the border — so nothing is hidden. Anything you don't like, you change.
6. Open in editor. The design lands in the Job Editor as an ordinary job, ready to position, preview and send.

What to expect

The Design Builder gets you about 90% of the way. The last 10% — the final tweak that makes it yours — is up to you in the editor, and it's meant to be. What you get is always a real, burnable job: correctly sized, with the cut and engrave already sorted out, not a picture that looks right but does nothing on the machine.

Good to know

• Every design is manufacturable. Cut lines and engraved areas are set up for you, so the job will actually run.
• The words are yours, exactly. Capitalisation and spelling are taken exactly as you type them — ALPS won't "correct" your text.
• It uses your machine and material. It won't ask what it already knows from your setup.