Glasswright
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Quick start

Make your first pattern in Glasswright.

Start with a photo or sketch, draw the important seams, and close each region into a piece. Glasswright saves the pattern as a document you control in Files or on your Mac.

One flower, start to finish

Keep one subject all the way through the guide. A clear, straight-on photo makes the important contours easy to trace and turns each design choice into a visible step toward the finished panel.

A straight-on iPhone reference photo of an eight-petal flower in the stained-glass palette
1. Photograph a simple, well-lit subject.
The Glasswright Mac editor showing the faded eight-petal flower with its contours traced as seams
2. Trace the contours and close every piece.
The Glasswright Mac editor showing the same eight-petal flower as a finished stained-glass plan
3. Plan the glass and prepare workshop output.

1. Create a pattern and add a reference

Create a new Glasswright document. On iPhone or iPad, tap Add Reference and take a photo or choose an image from Photos or Files. On Mac, choose File → Import Reference Image. Fade the image in the inspector if you need more contrast while tracing.

2. Choose a drawing tool

Open Tools, choose Draw, then choose Curve, Straight, Rectangle, or Ellipse. Draw with one finger or Apple Pencil on iPhone and iPad, or with the pointer on Mac. Pinch to zoom and use two fingers to pan on a touch screen.

Glasswright's Mac editor showing a colored stained-glass pattern, drawing tools, and the pattern inspector
On Mac, drawing tools sit above the canvas while view, construction, and glass controls stay in the inspector.

3. Undo or redo a line

Tap Undo immediately after drawing a line to remove it. On iPhone, Undo and Redo are in the bar below the canvas. On iPad they are in the top toolbar. On Mac, choose Edit → Undo or press Command-Z; press Shift-Command-Z to redo.

Glasswright's iPhone editor showing the Prairie Flower pattern and its compact canvas controls
The iPhone editor keeps the pattern full-size and puts the controls you need around the canvas.

4. Close each piece

Bring a line end near another seam or the pattern edge. The target highlights and the line snaps closed. Every closed region becomes a piece automatically. If the status shows a leak, use the leak control to highlight the open seam and close the gap.

5. Select seams and choose glass

Choose Select, then drag a line or shape to move it. If several seams are already selected, they move together. Drag a blue point to reshape a seam, or delete selected seams. Choose Color, select a swatch, and then select a piece to assign that glass. Switch among Design, Assembly, and Glass Cut views to inspect the composition, seams, piece numbers, and cutting outlines.

Assembly view in Glasswright showing numbered pieces and construction seams
Assembly checks how the pieces fit.
Glass Cut view in Glasswright showing the allowance-compensated cutting outlines
Glass Cut shows the cutting outlines.

6. Capture your glass with iPhone

In the editor, open Tools and choose Scan Glass with Camera. Place the sheet on a contrasting surface and mark its four corners. Check the approximate dimensions, then tap Send to Mac to add the scan to your nearby Mac workflow.

Glasswright on iPhone capturing the four corners of an amber glass sheet and showing its approximate dimensions
Mark the visible corners; Glasswright estimates the sheet’s dimensions and area before you send it to the Mac.

On iPhone and iPad, tap the question-mark button in the editor to reopen Quick Start. On Mac, choose Help → Glasswright Quick Start.