C2D Quick Look

Finder previews for Carbide Create designs. Press Space on a .c2d file to see the drawing on its stock, the machine it was made for and every toolpath’s bit, depth and feed.

Download on the Mac App Store

$3.99, one-time purchase. macOS 14 or later. No in-app purchases, no data collected.

Quick Look window showing four coasters drawn from a Carbide Create design, with the toolpath list on the right — Press Space in Finder.

Why it exists

Carbide Create has no Quick Look support on the Mac, so Finder shows a blank document for every design. You open Carbide Create just to find out which file is which. C2D Quick Look reads the design file itself, so it works without Carbide Create running or even installed.

What it does

Quick Look. The drawing on its stock, drawn from the shapes in the file in toolpath colours, with a short trace animation. Point at a toolpath to fade out everything it doesn’t cut. Next to it: the machine, material and stock size, each toolpath’s type, bit, depth, feed and speed, the text in the file and your notes. Inches or millimetres, as you set them in Carbide Create.

Thumbnails in Finder. Icon, list, column and gallery views show the design instead of a blank page.

Spotlight. Search for a machine, a material, a toolpath name, a bit like “#201” or a word you carved.

Quick Actions and Shortcuts. Export Preview Image saves PNG files at 2048 pixels to Downloads › C2D Previews. Copy Toolpaths copies a plain-text table of every toolpath.

Pointing at a toolpath in the list fades out the shapes it doesn’t cut — Point at a toolpath to see what it cuts.

How accurate is the drawing?

Carbide Create saves an outline drawing of the design in every file it writes today. Before C2D Quick Look shows its own drawing, it compares the two. If they don’t match, you see Carbide Create’s outline instead. In tests with real designs from public projects, every drawing that could be compared matched.

Older files from Carbide Create 6 and earlier have no saved outline. They are drawn from their shapes and marked “unverified”. The very oldest files don’t store text as outlines; there the text is left out and the preview says so, rather than guessing.

Every number comes from the file. The app doesn’t estimate run times, suggest materials or fill in defaults that aren’t there.

Finder gallery view with thumbnails of four Carbide Create designs and a large preview — Thumbnails and previews in Finder’s gallery view.

The C2D Quick Look window with recent designs and a preview — The app lists your recent designs.

Setup

Install C2D Quick Look from the Mac App Store and open it once.
Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions › Quick Look and turn on both entries: C2D Preview (Space bar) and C2D Thumbnails (Finder icons). On macOS 14 the path is Privacy & Security › Extensions › Quick Look.
Select a .c2d file in Finder and press Space. No design at hand? Try the sample design.

For the Quick Actions, open the Shortcuts app, add Export Preview Image or Copy Toolpaths to a shortcut and turn on Use as Quick Action in its details.

Support

A file shows a black outline instead of the coloured drawing

That happens when the drawing didn’t match the outline Carbide Create saved, for example with a feature the app doesn’t draw yet. If you can share the file, please send it to me; every file helps.

Some files still show a plain icon

Those files contain no shapes that can be drawn. Other programs also use the .c2d extension; their files are left alone.

Previews don’t update

Reset Quick Look in Terminal:

qlmanage -r
qlmanage -r cache
killall Finder

Refunds

Purchases go through Apple. Request a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Contact

Email mika@kuusisto.tech. Include your macOS version, your Carbide Create version if you have one, and the file if you can share it. I usually reply within two working days.

Privacy: C2D Quick Look privacy policy.

Also by me: LBRN Quick Look for LightBurn laser projects and SKP Quick Look for SketchUp models.