Built for the Craft
Two crafts. One tool. Whether you’re cutting fretwork from a single board or building a fifteen-piece intarsia scene from hardwood, RipSaw was designed around the blade, the wood, and the decisions that belong to you.
Start Here
Before anything else, RipSaw asks one question: what are you building?
Fretwork, Portraits & Decorative Cutting
Choose Scroll Saw for any project where you’re removing wood to create a design — fretwork, silhouettes, wildlife portraits, lettering. You’ll draw cutouts, place entry holes, build bridges where needed, and export a full-size cut template. RipSaw watches for floating islands as you draw and highlights them before they become falling pieces at the saw.
Scroll SawShaped Pieces. Fitted Together.
Choose Intarsia for segmented woodworking — projects where shaped pieces of different wood species or stain colors fit together like a puzzle to form a picture or pattern. RipSaw adds the full piece-building toolkit on top of the shared core: wood species assignment, stain colors for segmentation artists, grain direction marking, piece numbering, seam detection, and seam snapping. Both workflows export craft-specific PDF packets designed for the bench, not just the screen.
IntarsiaGetting Started
The first things to get right — because they ripple through everything else.
Set Your Kerf Before Anything Else
Kerf isn’t just a number — it is the foundation RipSaw builds around. Cut-line width, bridge width rules, entry-hole output, and print scale all depend on it. Take two minutes to measure your blade before you open a new project.
SetupMatch Your Board Size First
Set your workspace dimensions to match the actual wood you plan to cut — before you draw a single shape. It saves the frustration of designing something beautiful that doesn’t fit the board you have. Measure twice. Open RipSaw once.
SetupRipSaw Has Your Back — But Save Anyway
RipSaw autosaves your project automatically so a forgotten save doesn’t cost you hours of work. You can still save manually at any time with the .forge format, which preserves everything — shapes, kerf, grain arrows, entry holes — exactly as you left it. Autosave is the safety net. Manual save is the habit.
SetupUse Reference Image Opacity to Your Advantage
Drop your reference image opacity low enough to trace comfortably, but not so low you lose detail. Around 35–50% usually hits the sweet spot. The reference never exports, so don’t worry about it showing in print.
WorkflowPlace Entry Holes Before You Export
For scroll saw projects, place an entry hole marker inside each closed cutout that needs one. Entry holes save and travel with the pattern — when you export to PDF, every drill mark prints exactly where you placed it. No guessing at the bench about where to start the blade.
Scroll SawDesign Workflow
How to move through a pattern with less friction and more control.
Start With Your Largest Shapes
Block in the big forms first — outer silhouette, large open areas. Then work inward to details. It’s easier to fit detail into a defined space than to design detail and figure out where the whole thing lives afterward.
DesignDuplicate, Flip, and Rotate Before You Edit
Found a shape you like? Duplicate it before modifying it for a second use. Flip and rotate are there too — leaves, wings, and symmetrical elements often only need a mirror or a turn. You keep the original clean while the copy becomes something new.
DesignNode Editing Is Worth Learning
When a shape isn’t quite right, resist the urge to delete and redraw. Enter node edit mode. Drag individual points, adjust curve handles, fine-tune until it’s exactly what you envisioned. Once it clicks, you’ll use it constantly.
ToolsUse the Line Tool for Fretwork — Then Shape It
Not every cut removes a full piece. The Line Tool lets you draw open cut paths for fretwork and decorative interior cuts. After you commit the line, switch to node edit mode and shape those points just like any other path — curves, corners, exact placement — until the cut line belongs in the design.
FretworkThe Circle Tool Is Your Friend
Eyes, wheels, knots, decorative holes — circles show up constantly in scroll work. Click where you want the center, drag outward. The preview shows exactly what you’re getting. Release, and you have a perfect Bezier circle. Use it freely.
ToolsCheck the Live Preview Often
The preview panel strips away the reference image, handles, grid, and editing clutter. It is not there to replace judgment; it is there to pull you back to the pattern itself when you are deep in detail work.
WorkflowIslands & Bridges
The thing that separates a finished pattern from a pile of falling pieces.
RipSaw Watches for Islands While You Draw
You don’t run island detection — RipSaw runs it for you, automatically, as you work. When a cutout creates a floating piece of wood with no connection to the surrounding board, RipSaw highlights it on the canvas. Your job is to decide where the bridge goes. RipSaw just makes sure you don’t miss the problem.
IslandsMatch Bridge Width to Your Material
RipSaw gives bridges a safe kerf-based minimum, but the finished pattern still needs your craft judgment. Thicker, more brittle woods may need wider or better-placed bridges than thin plywood.
BridgesKeep Bridge Widths Consistent
In organic and portrait patterns, bridges at similar widths create visual harmony. In geometric fretwork, intentional variation can be a design element. Know which one you’re doing before you start placing. Inconsistency by accident looks different than inconsistency by choice.
BridgesProtect Fragile Bridges During Sanding
For intricate patterns with large open areas, consider replacing the cut-out wood temporarily before you sand. The removed pieces act as support while you work the surface. One snapped bridge after hours of cutting changes your mind fast.
FinishingIntarsia & Segmentation
Where fit, wood choice, grain direction, and clean seams shape the whole piece — and where RipSaw goes deepest for the craft.
Segmentation Artists Have a Full Toolkit Too
RipSaw sees segmentation as its own craft. If you work with stain or paint instead of mixed wood species, the full piece-building workflow is yours — fifteen stain color swatches, piece numbering, seam detection, seam snapping, grain direction marking, and a full PDF packet with a color legend and full-scale part sheets. Every tool the intarsia artist has, the segmentation artist has too.
SegmentationAssign Wood Species or Stain Colors Before Placing Grain Arrows
Use the Wood Palette to assign species or stain colors to each piece before thinking about grain direction. Seeing your contrast — Walnut against Maple, Cherry next to Oak, or a deep stain beside a light one — helps you decide whether grain orientation enhances or fights the composition. Plan the picture before you plan the cut.
IntarsiaGrain Direction Changes the Light
Two pieces of the same wood, oriented differently, catch light differently. That contrast can define a shape — the way a feather separates from a wing, or a nose catches the light differently than a cheek. Don’t just orient grain for strength. Orient it for the visual effect you’re after.
IntarsiaUse Grain Arrows as Planning Marks
Click inside any piece to place a grain arrow and drag to set the direction. The arrow travels with the piece through every edit, export, and print. Note: the wood texture preview does not yet rotate to match the arrow — that improvement is coming. For now, trust the arrow as your planning mark and trust your real board at the bench.
IntarsiaSeam Detection Runs Automatically
RipSaw watches for piece-fit problems as you work. When two pieces overlap, an overlap marker appears right on the problem area. When a near gap is detected between pieces, a gap marker flags it. You don’t run a check — RipSaw keeps a live eye on the canvas and shows you where attention is needed. Diagnostics never change your geometry. That stays yours.
IntarsiaUse Seam Snapping to Fit Pieces Cleanly
When you move a piece near another piece, RipSaw snaps it by translation so the nearest seam point lands cleanly against the adjacent edge. When you drag a node near another piece’s node or edge, that node snaps into place too. Snapping works while you draw new pieces as well — pen anchors snap to nearby nodes and edges as you place them. Node snap wins over edge snap when both are close. Toggle snap off any time with the S key if you need raw placement.
IntarsiaKeep Tiny Pieces Readable
Small pieces — eyes, wheels, tiny accents — still get piece numbers and can still have grain arrows. Keep the marking simple enough that the pattern stays readable at the bench. A cluttered pattern costs time when you’re trying to find piece 34 under the saw light.
IntarsiaExport & Print
Getting from screen to wood without surprises.
Always Print at 100% — No “Fit to Page”
RipSaw exports at 1:1 scale. Your printer’s “Fit to Page” setting will shrink your pattern and your carefully measured board size becomes wrong. Set scaling to 100% or “Actual Size” in your print dialog. It’s the most common reason a pattern doesn’t match the wood.
PrintUse Registration Marks When Tiling
Large patterns tile across multiple pages automatically, with registration marks printed at the overlap edges. Take your time lining those marks up before you tape. A small drift on paper becomes a visible problem in wood. A light table or a bright window behind the pages makes alignment much easier.
PrintRead the Cover Page Before You Cut
Every exported PDF starts with a cover page. For scroll saw projects it shows your kerf and entry hole information. For intarsia and segmentation it shows your total piece count plus a wood species or stain color legend by piece number. Check it before you attach the pattern to the board. Catching a wrong setting on paper is much easier than catching it after the blade is running.
ExportThe craft was here long before the software. RipSaw just tries to be worthy of it.
RipSaw handles the physics. You handle the art.