FAQ
Short answers about accounts, privacy, sharing, prices, printing, contributing, licences, agents, browsers, exports and deleting things.
Accounts and cost
Do I need an account?
Not to look around. Without one you can browse the catalog, open and edit any project someone shares with you, and try the device modeler in your browser. Creating, copying or importing a project needs an account, and so does keeping what you model. See Accounts and sign-in.
Does Rack Maker cost anything?
No. Rack Maker is a free tool. The prices in BOM & quote are what shops charge for the parts, not a fee.
Can I change my handle?
No. Your handle is chosen when you first sign in, from the username on your account or the start of your email address, and Rack Maker has no setting to change it. See Your handle.
Privacy and sharing
Who can see my projects?
Anyone who has a project's id or link can open, edit and restore it. Projects are not listed or searchable anywhere else, so share the link the way you would share a password. To let people look without editing, hand out a Read-only link instead. See Sharing.
Does claiming a project stop others from editing it?
No. Claim lists the project under your account and lets you make a Read-only link, but anyone with the editing link can still edit it. If you shared the editing link with someone you no longer want editing, Duplicate the project and share the copy's read-only link. See Sharing.
Are my photos uploaded when I trace them?
No. Photos you trace in the device modeler are processed on your devices and kept in your browser. Between your own signed-in browsers they pass through the server in transit only, while both are open, and are never stored. Only the measurements are kept. See Tracing.
Who can see the datasheets I keep?
A datasheet you open in the modeler is read in your browser. If you choose Keep a private copy, the PDF is saved with the device, and only you and the admins can open it. The device's public page only links to the maker's page. See Datasheets.
Can other people see my drafts?
No. Only you see a draft, and you can use it in your own projects right away. Once you submit it for review, the people who review it see it too. Everyone sees it once it is published. See Entries and revisions.
Prices and printing
Why is my quote in several currencies?
Prices stay in the currency a shop listed them in, and Rack Maker does not convert them. The total is one subtotal per currency. Prefer picks the currency used for lines where you haven't chosen a listing. Prices older than 90 days are marked stale. See BOM & quote.
How do I print the printed parts?
Open Printed parts in the project and download each STL, or all of them with Download STLs (.zip), then slice them in your own slicer. A failing check holds the export back until you fix it or choose Export anyway. See Exports and printing.
The catalog
My device isn't in the catalog. What now?
Model it. The device modeler turns its size, a photo or its datasheet into a 3D model with its ports, and your draft works in your own projects straight away. See The device modeler.
How do I add something to the catalog for everyone?
Signed in, submit your draft for review, and an admin publishes it. To publish yourself, and to upload model files and add listings, ask for contributor access on the Catalog page. See Contributing.
What licence is the catalog under?
Catalog data is published under CC BY-SA 4.0: anyone may use, change and share it, crediting the author, under the same licence. Model files keep their own licence, shown on Credits. See Licences and credits.
How do I report a wrong or harmful entry?
Open the entry in the catalog and select Report, with a short reason. You need to be signed in. See Reports.
AI agents
Can my AI agent use Rack Maker?
Yes. Any MCP client (Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and others) can drive the device modeler with your account and your permissions. It reads your photos and datasheets on your computer and sends only numbers. See Using AI agents.
Can an agent read these docs?
Yes. Every page is also plain Markdown, and /llms.txt lists them all. See Docs for agents.
Browsers, exports and deleting
Which browsers work? Does it work offline?
A current desktop or mobile browser. The 3D views need WebGL; without it, the elevation and the inspector still place and edit parts. Projects are saved on the server, so creating or opening one needs a connection. If the connection drops while you edit, the status bar says offline, and your changes are saved once it is back, as long as the tab stays open. In the device modeler, changes stay in the browser until you are back online.
How do I get my data out?
Export in a project's toolbar saves it as a .rack.json file, which Import a file on Projects reads back as a new project. BOM & quote exports CSV files, and Printed parts exports STLs. See Exports and printing.
How do I delete a project?
Rack Maker has no way to delete a project. The × next to a project in Your projects only forgets it on this device; the project itself is kept. Nobody can find it without its link.
Can I delete a draft or a datasheet?
Yes. A draft revision has Delete on its entry page, and a kept datasheet has a delete (bin) button next to it in the modeler's list of private copies. Published revisions are never deleted, because projects may use them. See Entries and revisions.