- Starting at $62.50/month
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Fabric Structure Designer, previously known as MPanel-Design, is a CAD-based solution for architects, engineers, and fabric structure designers. It offers the same floating toolbar interface as Fabric Structure Professional, but with the panelling tools disabled.
This makes it an ideal tensile structure design software for those focused on form-finding, modelling, and conceptual design — without needing to create flat cutting patterns for fabrication.
What our Fabric Structure Designer is and how it works
Fabric Structure Designer runs inside AutoCAD, Rhino, or MPCore, providing direct access to tensile-specific design tools without the overhead of full engineering analysis or fabrication outputs.
- Import or sketch geometry.
- Use mesh relaxation and shape control tools to find stable forms.
- Apply catenary edges and adjust support points.
- Develop conceptual and presentation-ready designs.
Because it shares the same interface as Professional, upgrading to full panelling tools later is seamless.
Key features & benefits of Fabric Structure Designer
Form-finding and modelling
Relax meshes and shape tensile surfaces in 3D.
Membrane design tool
Model canopies, shade structures, and architectural membranes with accuracy.
CAD-native workflow
Runs inside AutoCAD, Rhino, or MPCore.
Architect & engineer focus
Perfect for conceptual modelling without fabrication steps.
Upgrade path
Move to Fabric Structure Professional later without retraining.
Shade structure design software
Create efficient, presentation-ready shade and tensile models.
Who is Fabric Structure Analysis software for?
This software is designed for:
- Architects designing tensile and shade structures.
- Engineers performing concept-level form-finding and feasibility modelling, as well as to develop models used with our Fabric Structure Analysis software.
- Fabric structure designers who need to deliver 3D concepts without production outputs.
- Firms who do not need to make patterns.
How hard is this software to learn and become proficient with?
Learn more about Support & Training ->Comparing Fabric Structure Professional to other solutions
Many CAD and FEA packages provide tensile form-finding, but often at the cost of complexity, licensing, or steep training curves.
Fabric Structure Designer is different:
- A purpose-built CAD tensile design software, not a general CAD add-on.
- Simpler than platforms like WinTess, ixCube, EASY, or RFEM — because it focuses only on design, not analysis or fabrication.
- Provides a direct upgrade path: Designer → Professional (for panelling) → Analysis (for FEA).
Is Fabric Structure Designer the tool you really need?
Click here to find out ->Book a live Fabric Structure Designer software demo
Book a demo to arrange a time to have one of our team take you through the software, or get started immediately by purchasing. We have monthly billing and no ongoing commitment; you can scale your usage as your projects demand!
Fabric Structure Designer FAQs
You can use AutoCAD or Rhino, but every purchase also includes MPCore, our free lightweight CAD environment. MPCore is easier to learn and saves you thousands in licensing if you don’t already use those platforms.
You can use AutoCAD or Rhino, but every purchase also includes MPCore, our free lightweight CAD environment. MPCore is easier to learn and saves you thousands in licensing if you don’t already use those platforms.
You can use AutoCAD or Rhino, but every purchase also includes MPCore, our free lightweight CAD environment. MPCore is easier to learn and saves you thousands in licensing if you don’t already use those platforms.
