Kromacut v4.2.0

Installation

macOS:

1. Download the .dmg file for your Mac:
   • Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3): *_aarch64.dmg
   • Intel: *_x64.dmg
2. Open the DMG and drag Kromacut to Applications
3. Remove quarantine (required for unsigned apps):
   sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Kromacut.app
4. Launch from Applications

Windows:

1. Download the -setup.exe installer.
2. Run the installer and follow the prompts. The standard Windows installer includes the Microsoft Edge WebView2 bootstrapper, but requires internet access if WebView2 needs to be installed or updated.
3. For offline Windows machines, download the *_offline-setup.exe installer instead.
4. Launch Kromacut from the Start menu

Linux:

1. Download the .AppImage or .deb file
2. For AppImage: chmod +x Kromacut*.AppImage && ./Kromacut*.AppImage
3. For Debian/Ubuntu: sudo dpkg -i kromacut*.deb
4. AppImages from this release include update information for compatible tools such as AppImageUpdate. The matching .AppImage.zsync asset enables delta downloads; it is not an installer. Older AppImages without update information need a one-time manual download. Kromacut's built-in update notification still opens the release page.

What's Changed

Upgrade notes

• Saved smoothing settings carry over. Smooth Meshing that was on becomes Medium, which builds the same geometry as before; Smooth Meshing that was off becomes None. Choose another strength and rebuild to change the result.
• Rebuild Height dithering and Flat Paint models before printing. Height dithering now produces neighboring-layer patterns when enabled, and Flat Paint resolves diagonal color contacts differently, so rebuilt previews and exports can differ from 4.1.0 results. Check the new model in your slicer.
• Opening files from the desktop needs an installed app. Desktop packages register .kfil, legacy .kapp, and .kpal files with Kromacut; portable Linux AppImages open them only after desktop integration. Existing profiles and palettes remain compatible.

Added

• Legal pages in Settings - Privacy & local data and Terms & conditions are accessible from Settings in both the web and desktop apps. Links follow the selected language and open in a new browser tab or the desktop system browser, keeping the workspace open.
• Smooth Meshing with Flat Paint - All smoothing strengths now work with face-down and face-up Flat Paint. Shared color boundaries, carrier, and backing stay joined while the slab remains flat. Small shared joins resolve diagonal corner contacts without overlapping color regions. Boundary preparation and cap generation yield to keep dense images and long slabs responsive. Ordinary smooth meshing retains its previous geometry. Updated localized usage and export guides. Print instructions and 3MF metadata record the built strength; added topology, responsiveness, export, and workflow regressions.
• Smooth Meshing strengths - Choose None, Minimal, Medium, or Aggressive for preview and exported geometry. Medium preserves the previous enabled result; saved on/off settings migrate to Medium/None. Aggressive smooths remaining diagonal stair steps with a stable finishing pass inside the existing movement limit, while avoiding redundant boundary-map copies between passes. Print instructions and 3MF metadata record the built strength. Added topology and export regression coverage for every preset, strength-ordering checks across diagonal orientations, and a repeatable comparison benchmark.
• Desktop file associations - Desktop packages register .kfil and legacy .kapp filament profiles and .kpal palettes with Kromacut file icons. Opening a file launches Kromacut or delivers it to the existing window, imports through the normal validation/migration and calibration-preservation rules, and selects the resulting saved item, including existing content duplicates. External imports wait until an open palette editor, calibration dialog, profile Rename/Save New form, or filament-row edit is finished or cancelled, preserving drafts and the profile being edited. Name/HD inputs, color and TD-conversion popovers, and pending debounced color updates hold both profile and palette imports; committed changes then use the normal unsaved-edit confirmation. Overlapping manual and desktop imports merge with the latest saved list, preserving files imported while a manual read is pending. Late Palette Proof saves merge into the original profile's latest data without removing newer imports, and cannot recreate a deleted profile or attach old evidence after its filaments change. Multi-profile batches load the final saved version after duplicate handling and later updates. Profile opening protects unsaved filament edits, including newly applied calibration measurements, with a confirmation dialog; unreadable, invalid, oversized, or unpersistable imports report an error. Linux packages include MIME definitions, file-forwarding launchers, document icons, and cache refresh scripts; portable AppImages require desktop integration. Added native queue, import, packaging, and browser regression coverage, including overlapping manual/desktop imports, late proof saves after closing or changing their owner, batch selection, imports queued during editing, saving/cancelling profile forms, and retrying after a profile save failure.
• README video guides - Linked the Kromacut tutorial and project introduction in side-by-side video cards with thumbnail previews.

Changed

• README organization - Reworked the README into a concise product overview with a two-column grid of six finished prints, shorter feature descriptions, and direct documentation and download links. Kept community badges in the header, removed the obsolete TD test-image example, and separated desktop downloads from development setup.

Fixed

• Flat Paint preview and layer inspection - Unsmoothed color regions now share diagonal-contact repairs instead of expanding independently and overlapping on the flat artwork face. Precision-sensitive corner repairs now triangulate as smaller pieces with the same footprint, fixing aborted face-up builds that left only dark backing and no layer slider. Failed builds clear incomplete geometry and show an error. Layer Preview cuts through merged backing and color parts one physical layer at a time, including keyboard stepping and wireframe inspection, while exports retain the complete model. Explicit builds regenerate unchanged inputs and restore the full preview and camera instead of leaving a cached mesh or cut on screen. Build progress explicitly counts mesh parts; the Model badge shows physical print layers, including the clear carrier when present. Added shared-boundary, precision, layer-cut, export-preservation, and browser recovery regressions.
• Desktop development startup on Windows - Vite no longer watches native sources or Cargo build output, preventing intermittent EBUSY crashes when F5 starts the frontend while Rust executables are being linked. Dependency scanning starts from the app entry page instead of generated HTML. Tauri continues to watch native source changes.
• Height dithering in 3D Auto-paint - Restored fractional height targets before error diffusion, so enabling Height Dithering can produce neighboring-layer patterns in both preview and exports. Dithering stays local to the selected printable layer, preserves exact calibrated matches and protected boundaries, and leaves ordinary matching unchanged when disabled. Added regression coverage for fractional targets, calibration safeguards, effective line width, and rebuilt STL/3MF geometry.
• Landing showcase artwork credits - Original artwork credits such as NASA/JPL link to their sources again in every language; the translated credit used a tag name that rendered an empty link beside plain text. A translation check now rejects tags that cannot hold linked text; landing browser tests now cover every linked credit and the footer language selector before the sticky mobile launch button.