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Life & fun · April 12, 2020

HA

HFD – A design language for laser cutters written in Go

HFD – A design language for laser cutters written in Go launched on April 12, 2020 with 75 votes, #785 of 5,003 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 6 years on.

Visit heavyfishdesign.com ↗Alternativestop 16% of April 2020

In plain words

HFD is a design language built in Go specifically for creating laser cutter projects. Launched in 2020, it allows users to define designs programmatically rather than through traditional graphical interfaces. The tool is aimed at makers and engineers who work with laser cutters and prefer code-based workflows. HFD stands out by providing a dedicated language tailored to laser cutting operations, enabling efficient design specification and iteration for fabrication projects.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Welcome. Heavy Fish Design is a JSON-like language for designing and layout of parts for laser cutters or CNC routers. Once you get the hang of it, we think you will have fun with all of things you can do. Splitting across multiple files if parts do not fit within the material. Full featured expression language for easy scaling of components. Easy to compose your designs into reusuable custom components. HFD is a command line tool with available binaries for mac and windows (and simple to build for anyone with golang experience). Simply download the package, and open a terminal to render your first design. The zip file contains many example designs, which are easily customizable by changing…from heavyfishdesign.com

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