A machining plan in under a minute.
Drop the STEP and the drawing. MEKLYRA plans the setups, tools and cutting data by rules written from decades at the machine — not another AI guessing — and hands you a job package the floor can set up from. Every decision cites its rule; every gap is shown, never hidden.
- 1Open meklyra.com
- 2Sign in
- 3Drop STEP + drawing
- 4Plan ready — under a minute
- 5Watch it machined
- 6Job package to the floor
The experience is the engine.
MEKLYRA was not trained to sound like a machinist — it was written by machinists. Decades of process engineering at the machine, distilled into 240 written rules the engine must obey. The math proposes the numbers; the experience holds veto power. Three of those rules, the way they were learned:
Spot first — unless it's proven
A drill goes in only after a spot, unless that exact drill is on record as self-centering. "Probably fine" is how a hole walks off position — a spotting cycle costs seconds, a walked hole costs the part. Not on record means spot, and the plan says why.
Face, then the contour — always
The first cuts clean the stock to size: face, then the outside contour, before anything else. Now the material is seen true, and every hole that follows is measured against a datum that actually exists — not against raw stock that was never straight.
Zero belongs to the process
The coordinate system is the programmer's decision, made for the setup — the STEP file doesn't get a vote. Z along the spindle, origin on a drawing datum when there is one. A system that copies the CAD axes is a system that never stood at a machine.
Every one of the 240 rules is written down, reviewed, and enforced in code — and your own shop's rules can join them. Machining knowledge stops leaving with the people who carry it: it becomes a repeatable engineering system the whole shop runs on. That is the difference between a model that imitates experience and a system that carries it.
Every decision has a rule. Every rule has an author.
Most systems guess and look confident. MEKLYRA is built the other way around: it plans like a good programmer, and when it doesn't know — it says so.
The Playbook runs the show
240 written rules, each with a source — setup order, workholding, hole-making, milling strategy, coordinate systems, time. The engine may only do what the playbook allows, and every choice on screen cites the rule that made it.
Honest by construction
Missing data stays missing: no invented feeds, no guessed tool lengths, no silent defaults. A gap in the plan is painted on the part in warning amber — material no operation removes is something you see, not something that disappears.
The drawing decides
The model is compared against the drawing — threads, datums, tolerances. Where they disagree, the plan stops and says exactly what's wrong instead of quietly machining to either number. A part that isn't ready to program is never presented as one that is.
See it machined first
Per-setup fixturing and work offsets (ISO 841), tools drawn to their real type and dimensions, metal coming off the stock as it would on the machine, and cutting time separated from setup, tool-change and rapid time.
Watch it work on a real part — in the open.
MEK-DEMO-07 is a demo part we made for exactly this page: an 80 × 50 × 30 mm aluminium block with a pocket, four through holes, two Ø2 holes drilled into its side face — the kind of feature that costs a 3-axis shop a third setup — and the letter M engraved 0.3 mm deep in its top face, a job for a Ø2 cutter at a speed the machine's own spindle cannot give. With Colibri Spindles' TJM90-21, a coolant-driven 90° micro jet head, the plan drills the side holes from the top; with their GJET jet spindle it engraves the M at 47,000 rpm from the 40-bar pump Colibri Spindles requires. Customers' parts stay private, so we published our own — and every number below is what the system actually reported on this build, not marketing. Download the STEP and the drawing and run them yourself — on your own machines, tools and cutting data the numbers will be yours, the reasoning the same.
Every line above opens into its reasoning. This is what the system answered, word for word, when asked why setup 1 is done this way:
Long dimension (84 mm) along machine X, 54 mm across the jaws. The jaws close on the blank's two 84 × 35 mm sides. Sit it on 25 mm parallels so 31 mm stands proud of the jaws. 4 mm of stock inside the jaws. Profile down to 31 mm from the top — the part's full height and a step into the grip stock SET-53. Side holes f4 Ø2, f5 Ø2 drilled in the main setup with the 90° coolant-driven head Colibri Spindles TJM90-21 — one setup fewer SET-54; the head's body (Ø27) must clear the part and the vise — verify on the setup. Zero (G54): X0 Y0 at the front-left top corner of the stock, Z0 on the top face SET-51.
Recommendation → written rule → reasoning. Not a black box — a rulebook you can read, question, and overrule.
From files to a job package.
Four steps, nothing hidden in between.
Load the part
Upload the STEP model with its drawing. The engine reads true B-Rep geometry — holes, pockets, steps in a bore, datums — and checks the model against the drawing's callouts.
The playbook plans it
Setup order, workholding, work offsets, tools and cutting data — each decided by a written rule with its provenance shown, from your crib first and the manufacturers' catalogues second.
Review and hand off
Watch the simulation strip the stock operation by operation, read the why behind every choice, and print a production instruction the shop floor can actually set up from.
The floor closes the loop
Release the job to the tablet at the machine — drawing, tools, inspection sheet. What actually ran comes back signed, and becomes the verified record the next part plans from.
It tells you what will not machine — and shows you exactly where.
The model is checked against your shop's limits the moment it lands: wall thickness, hole depth, how many directions the tools must come from, clearance and tapping diameters. A critical finding is not a footnote — it opens a section through the part with the spot marked in red, what it means, and what to do about it.
- Thin walla wall under your shop's minimum — where, and by how much
- Deep holedepth over diameter past the drill's limit — peck or a long-series drill
- Many setupsmore tool directions than the machine can give in one clamping
- Clearance holea diameter that matches a standard clearance size — named, not guessed
- Tapping drilla hole that matches a tap's drill size — the thread the drawing must confirm
- Reachevery face reachable by a tool from the setups planned
- Thinnest wallthe thinnest section on the part, measured, against the typical
Not a mockup. These are the working screens.
Every number on them was decided by a rule you can read — the blue chips are the rule ids. Sign in and drive it yourself.
Two setups, not three — because the plan knows your tools.
MEK-DEMO-07 has two Ø2 holes in a side face. On a plain 3-axis machine that is a third setup — or a job for a 5-axis machine. The plan found the coolant-driven 90° head in the shop's own tool list, drilled the side holes from the top, and closed the job in two setups in the vise, 13 operations, 3:28 of cutting. The letter M is engraved in a jet spindle at 47,000 rpm on a machine whose own spindle stops at 8,000. And every open question is said out loud: a drill is not on the shelf, and the plan says so (GOV-02).
The setter gets a sheet, not a screenshot.
The drawing, the process sheet, the tool list and the inspection sheet — on a tablet by the machine. The operator types a measured value and sees green or red against limits computed from the drawing (ISO 286), signed with name and time. In Hebrew for a setter who does not read English.
One card per machine. Who, what, how far.
Who is signed in, which job and setup is running, tools confirmed, the last measurements, the last events across the shop — refreshed every ten seconds. Every line is a signed entry from a tablet.
A solution for the shop that has no 5-axis machine — and for the one that does.
You run 3-axis
A side hole, a cross-hole, an undercut — the features that used to mean a third setup or "we can't take this job". MEKLYRA plans them with the devices already in your list: a coolant-driven 90° head drills from the top; a jet spindle gives a Ø2 cutter 47,000 rpm on an 8,000 rpm machine. Fewer setups, no new machine.
You run 5-axis
The same rules plan the fewest setups your machine can reach, and the same devices still cut a setup or a re-clamp where the part allows it — the plan says which, with its reason. Nothing is planned by the file's axes; the part's own faces decide.
The tools that make it possible
Coolant-driven heads and jet spindles run off the machine's own high-pressure pump — no drive, no wiring. The ones on this page are Colibri Spindles' TJM90-21 Micro-90 head and TJS-GJET-BT40 jet spindle, drawn in the walkthrough from the models the maker publishes for exactly this. Another maker's device in your list is planned the same way.
It works with what you already run.
MEKLYRA sits between your CAD, your CAM and your ERP — it reads what you already have and hands the floor a plan. Every file is read in your browser; your models, drawings and programs never leave the shop.
Your CAD — the model and the drawing
A STEP model, with the drawing as PDF or DXF. The engine reads true B-Rep geometry, and the drawing's title block and callouts — material, tolerances, threads — are read cell by cell, not typed twice (ENG-22).
Your CAM — the part you already programmed
Already cut it in SolidCAM? Drop SolidCAM's setup document and the job package is built on your own plan — your setups, tools, speeds and feeds taken as written (DATA-13). MEKLYRA plans the process; it never replaces the CAM you own.
Your ERP — your crib and warehouse
Your tool crib comes from your ERP's own export — KITARON today, read by column name so a reordered export still loads (DATA-12) — and every tool is matched to your shelf by its company part number. Built to add another ERP the same way.
Don't see yours? A pilot on one of your parts is the fastest way to find out — send it and we'll tell you honestly what reads today and what we'd add.
Priced to match the work.
No per-seat maze and no quote-to-find-out for standard machining. One subscription puts the planning engine, the shop-floor loop and your own shop's rules on every part your team runs. Turn-mill work — which needs live tooling and a scoped setup — is priced to your shop.
- The full playbook — 240 written rules, each with a source, on every plan
- Manufacturability checks before the chip, in section, with the fix
- The shop-floor loop: tablet at the machine, signed inspection, live board
- Your own shop's rules and cutting data join the engine
- Your STEP and drawings never leave your shop
- New rules and machines added every build — no upgrade fee
An annual agreement — MEKLYRA is built to sit in your daily flow, so we work with committed shops, not occasional users. A pilot runs on your own parts first, before you sign.
- Turning and mill-turn parts, scoped with you
- Everything in Basic, on the machines it covers
- An honest read on what plans today and what we'd build
See it on your part first.
Send us one part you machine — a STEP and its drawing — and we'll run it live and walk you through every decision it made and why. No obligation, and you keep the plan.
Book a demoStraight answers.
Does MEKLYRA replace my CAM?
No — and it doesn't try to. MEKLYRA makes the decisions that come before CAM — setups, workholding, tools, cutting data, all cited to written rules — and everything that comes after it: the production instruction, the ballooned drawing, the tablet at the machine. You still cut toolpaths in the CAM you already own; you just arrive there with the thinking done. CAM programs the toolpaths. MEKLYRA plans the manufacturing process.
Do I upload G-code?
No. Your programs never leave your shop. MEKLYRA works from the model and the drawing.
Can I start from a part I already programmed in CAM?
Yes. Drop SolidCAM's setup document (.docx) and MEKLYRA builds the job package on your plan — your setups, tools, speeds and feeds taken as written, matched to your crib by company part number (DATA-13). It's the second door on the upload screen. The document is read in your browser; your program stays in the shop.
Where do the cutting data come from?
Your own confirmed shop records first, the manufacturers' published catalogues second — every number carries its source, and a number with no source says so instead of pretending.
What files does it need?
A STEP model. Add the drawing PDF and it reads the title block and the callouts, builds the inspection sheet and balloons the drawing. DXF is read too.
What happens when something is missing?
It tells you. A tool with no recorded flute length, a dimension the drawing doesn't give, a wall that will not machine as drawn — each is shown as an open question, never papered over. That is rule GOV-02, and it is the one rule everything else obeys.
How does the shop floor get the plan?
One button releases the job to the tablet at the machine: the drawing, the process, the tool list and the inspection sheet. The operator confirms tools, types measurements and signs — and all of it flows back to the planner, live.
What does it cost?
For 3-axis and 5-axis machining, one subscription — $390 / month per shop, billed annually on a 12-month agreement — unlimited parts, operators and tablets, new rules and machines every build with no upgrade fee. Turn-mill work (live tooling) is MEKLYRA Custom, scoped and priced to your shop. Not sure yet? Send us one of your parts and we'll run it live before you commit. See Pricing.
No account yet? Create one — accounts are reviewed and approved by MEKLYRA before first sign-in.
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At the machine? Open the tablet screen.