FAQ
The questions we are asked most often about Diafane, the stained glass design software.
Yes! You can easily master the basics of Diafane in under an hour. The software only offers the tools needed to design stained glass, and everything is done with a finger or stylus on a tablet, or with a mouse on a computer. On your first project, a four-step guided tour has you draw a piece, place a glass, see the light and produce a template. After that, the Help button explains every element on screen, and our illustrated guides walk you through step by step, from tracing a photo to printing the full-size cartoon.
Yes. Diafane imports SVG files produced by Illustrator, Inkscape or any other vector tool: your paths become editable lead lines right away. For a clean import, keep each lead came as a single line and convert your objects to paths before exporting. You then continue the drawing with Diafane's trade-specific tools. Import is part of the subscription.
Yes. You can load a photo, a scan or a coloring page as a reference image, scale it, set its opacity and draw over it. A perspective-correction mode straightens the image from four corners, handy when you start from a survey shot at an angle or a photographed cartoon.
Yes. Symmetry mode places a vertical axis, a horizontal axis or both: whatever you draw on one side is mirrored, in real time, and the colors can follow. Ideal for rose windows, symmetrical panels and any repeating motif, without drawing twice. Ready-made templates, six- or eight-rayed rose windows, quatrefoils, stars or honeycombs, can also be placed on the cartoon, then edited like your own drawing.
As soon as your lead lines close up, Diafane detects each piece and computes its outline automatically. You get two paths: the visible shape and the real cutting outline, which accounts for the thickness of the lead (heart) and the cutting allowance. Nothing to recalculate by hand.
Yes. Diafane marks on the drawing the errors that will cause problems at cutting. A red ring marks a missing joint, two paths that do not meet: the piece stays open and enters neither the quantities nor the templates. A triangle marks a shape that is hard to cut in glass, and a cross a piece too small to be cut. The strictness of the rings can be set, tolerant or strict, and the markers are shown on demand in Cartoon mode and in Workshop mode.
Illustrator and Procreate draw, but they don't understand stained glass. Diafane is vector-based (Procreate works in pixels), so your lines stay sharp at any scale. Above all, coloring is far simpler: Diafane automatically detects the closed zones inside your paths, where Illustrator forces you to close and fill each piece by hand. Add to that the cutting outlines, the daylight simulation and the export of the cartoon, templates and materials list. You can even import your existing work (SVG) and finish it in Diafane.
Yes. You can print at 1:1 scale in A4, A3, A2, A1, A0, Letter, Tabloid or a custom format up to 5000 mm, for a plotter. On a desktop printer, a large cartoon is automatically split into sheets to assemble, without ever losing the scale: each sheet carries its alignment marks, and the first page a check ruler to verify the scale before you start printing. The preview is free, and downloading the PDF is part of the subscription.
Yes. The DXF export produces the real cut contour of every piece, at actual size and in your working unit (millimeters or inches), ready to open in Silhouette Studio, in Cricut Design Space on desktop, or on a CNC machine (laser, waterjet, plasma). The SVG paths export remains available on every account, including free ones. DXF and the full render SVG export are part of the subscription.
No. Silhouette Studio only imports SVG in its paid editions, but it opens DXF from the free edition, straight as cut lines, with no auto-trace step. Export your project as DXF from Diafane and open it as is.
Yes. Diafane handles copper foil, the Tiffany method, as well as lead came. You choose the technique at the project level (H/U lead came or Tiffany copper foil), set the foil width and its spacing, then pick the solder finish: silver, copper or black. The quantities then count the foil, the solder and the panel border, and the rendering, cutting and export follow the technique you choose.
Yes. You can create your own glass, with its color, its transparency (translucent, semi-translucent or opalescent) and its texture (smooth, hammered, streaky, granite, cloudy or frosted). Each can carry its price, thickness and workshop reference, and is used in all your projects. Integrating the official catalogs of the great glassmakers (Bullseye, Wissmach, Oceanside, Kokomo, Lamberts, Saint-Just…) is a goal close to our hearts that we are working on.
The Light mode places your stained glass in a 3D scene and computes the real position of the sun from its orientation (north, south, east, west), the installation location (address or GPS coordinates), the date and the time. From the sun's elevation and azimuth, Diafane simulates in real time the light passing through each piece of glass. You see how your window will live through the day and the seasons.
Nothing to install. Diafane is a web app that runs in your browser, on any recent computer or tablet, with a stylus such as the Apple Pencil. Installed from the website onto the home screen of your iOS or Android tablet (PWA), it stays available without an internet connection. New features arrive regularly, with no update to install, and you find your projects wherever you go, at your clients' or on a site: all you need is a browser.
Yes. Diafane is free for up to 3 projects, forever, with all the drawing tools, the glass, the sun simulation and the quantities. The subscription (€9.90/month or €99/year) unlocks unlimited projects, file import and the sharing link. It also opens the download of workshop PDFs and the full-render SVG, DXF and .diafane exports. The free account can export its paths as SVG.
No. Subscriptions aren't refunded pro-rata for the remaining time. You do keep Premium access until the end of the period you've already paid for (the current month or year), so nothing is lost until then, and no further charge is made afterwards. You can cancel anytime.
Yes. For a client, send a sharing link: they open, without an account, a page where they see your window as a drawing, in color and with the light shining through it, and where they move the sun themselves. You can also send the presentation PDF, a photo or a video. For a colleague who also uses Diafane, the .diafane file carries the whole project: paths, lead, colors and settings, ready to reopen and edit. The link, the PDF and the .diafane file are part of the subscription.
Yes. You can sell the stained glass patterns created with Diafane on your own website: they belong to you. With the subscription, you deliver to the buyer the full-size cartoon and the numbered templates as a PDF, the SVG or DXF for their cutting machine or drawing software, or the .diafane file if they also use Diafane (recommended!).
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