CMYKForge 0.5 is the largest update we have made to the application so far.
This release focuses heavily on three areas that affect the everyday experience of building a project: performance, filament management, and 3MF reliability. No major improvements were made to color accuracy, 3MF quality, UI, CMY-AI(due to temporary pause) extra features, or other bugs.
We have reduced the amount of time required for several important generation tasks, introduced a persistent custom Filament Library, and corrected an Anycubic 3MF material-identification issue that could cause cyan to be presented incorrectly. We also in this pass fixed bugs like inconsistent RAM usage, and MacOS crashes.
CMYKForge 0.5 is packaged for both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. We will be packaging 0.5 soon on Windows 10 and 11.
Faster Expected Print Generation
One of the largest performance improvements in 0.5 affects Expected Print generation.
We worked through the preview pipeline to remove unnecessary repeated work while intentionally preserving the same underlying printable plan, material recipes, color calculations, and expected output. The retained optimizations include improvements such as avoiding duplicate preview work, cancelling stale jobs, reusing identical completed results, and removing processing that was no longer necessary. In one measured test setup, Expected Print generation decreased from:
24 seconds → 8 seconds
That represents approximately:
Roughly 1.59× the previous speed
As with all CMYKForge performance measurements, this is a real result from a specific test setup, not a promise that every image or computer will see the same improvement. Generation time can vary depending on the source image, project complexity, settings, and hardware. What matters most to us is that we are reducing waiting without intentionally changing the quality or color decisions behind the generated project. We also verified that there were no major differences in computer system usage. This includes but is not limited to RAM usage, CPU and GPU usage, storage usage, and power usage.
Faster 3MF Generation
CMYKForge 0.5 also includes substantial work on 3MF generation.
3MF export involves more than simply writing a file. CMYKForge performs geometry processing, material assignment, XML generation, packaging, topology checks, round-trip validation, and other verification before an export is considered complete. We have been working to make that process more efficient without removing those reliability checks. In an observed test of the first major optimization pass, 3MF generation decreased from:
1 minute 49 seconds → 1 minute 17 seconds
That’s 29.4% faster
equivalent to roughly:
1.42× the previous speed
Additional optimization work has also been completed in this area. The important part is what we have not removed. CMYKForge continues to retain its manifold, topology, XML, final ZIP, round-trip, and preview/export validation rather than gaining speed by simply skipping verification. Performance matters, but reliability remains the higher priority. We checked that there were no major differences in computer usage. This includes but is not limited to RAM usage, CPU and GPU usage, storage usage, and power usage.
Fixing an Anycubic 3MF Material Issue
0.5 also corrects an important 3MF interoperability problem affecting Anycubic workflows. Under certain conditions, cyan could be represented using a material-slot identity that allowed it to appear as another magenta material in the slicer. The underlying display colors could be correct while the material-slot metadata did not distinguish the channels strongly enough. CMYKForge 0.5 now maintains distinct slicer material identities for cyan and magenta while preserving their intended display colors.
We have also added validation designed to prevent separate material channels from accidentally receiving duplicate color identities, along with regression checks for the affected Anycubic metadata. This is the kind of interoperability issue we take particularly seriously because a project that looks correct inside CMYKForge still needs to remain correct after it reaches the slicer.
A Persistent Filament Library
The Filament Library receives one of its largest upgrades in 0.5. Previously, custom filament information was much more closely tied to the current project and session. As soon as you closed the app, your filament selection was discarded.
CMYKForge can now maintain a persistent library of custom filament profiles. When the app is closed, your filaments are saved and are there when your next session is open.
Users can:
- save their current filament profiles;
- reload them after closing and reopening CMYKForge;
- keep custom profiles across different projects;
- retain them through normal application updates;
- rename saved profiles;
- update existing profiles;
- duplicate profiles;
- delete custom profiles;
- and load them back into future projects.
Built-in filament profiles remain protected from accidental deletion or overwriting. Project filament values also remain separate from saved library copies, allowing users to make project-specific adjustments without unintentionally changing the original saved profile. The system also saves your library after an update, ensuring no time is lost.
Making Saving More Reliable
We also redesigned the way custom profiles are saved. An earlier interaction relied on a prompt-based workflow that could make it appear as though Save to Filament Library had done nothing. 0.5 replaces that with a clearer inline naming interface. Users can now choose between:
Save Current to Library
and
Save All Current Filaments
Batch saving is handled as a single operation, repeated names are managed automatically, and deleting a custom profile includes an inline confirmation step. We have also added read-after-write verification. That means CMYKForge does not simply assume that a filament profile was saved correctly because the save operation completed. The application checks that the stored values can actually be read back correctly before reporting success. It is a relatively small detail from the user’s perspective, but it reflects an important principle behind CMYKForge development:
Success should mean the operation actually succeeded.
Built for Both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs
CMYKForge 0.5 continues to be packaged separately for both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. Maintaining both builds allows us to continue testing CMYKForge across different generations of Mac hardware as development moves forward. Windows is going to be packaged later on once testing on a local server goes well. Expect more details soon.
Performance results may vary between systems, but the same core 0.5 improvements are being carried into both versions.
Performance Without Sacrificing the Result
A major theme of 0.5 has been finding work CMYKForge does not need to repeat. That distinction matters. There is a very large difference between making software faster by removing important processing and making it faster by eliminating unnecessary processing. For the performance work included in 0.5, our goal has been the latter. The Expected Print optimizations were retained only where they were intended to remain quality-neutral. The 3MF work continues to preserve the validation systems used to check generated exports.
CMYKForge’s priorities remain:
- Print quality
- Color accuracy
- Reliability
- Ease of use
- Performance
Speed matters, but not at the expense of the first three.
The Direction Continues With 0.6
CMYKForge 0.4 represented an important stage in making the application more complete as a product.
A major focus of that release was improving the areas that matter most once an image leaves the source file and starts becoming a real printable project: color accuracy, 3MF quality, the user interface, and overall ease of use. 0.5 builds on that foundation with a particularly strong focus on performance, reliability, filament management, and interoperability. Faster generation is valuable, but speed alone is not what we are trying to optimize CMYKForge around.
That is why 0.6 is planned to bring the focus back across the broader experience again.
We intend to continue improving color reproduction, generated 3MF quality and reliability, the interface, and the overall process of turning an image into a printable CMYKForge project. Some of that work may be immediately visible. Other improvements may happen behind the scenes but ultimately result in better files, fewer unnecessary steps, or more predictable results. The goal is not for each version of CMYKForge to chase a completely different direction. Releases should build on each other.
0.4 strengthened the foundation.
0.5 makes that foundation faster and more practical.
0.6 is planned to push the quality of the complete experience forward again.
As always, planned work can change as development and testing uncover new priorities. We would rather adjust a roadmap when the product needs it than promise individual features before they are ready.
We are expecting 0.6 to become the version that is the main version for all future builds.
What will not change are the priorities guiding those decisions: print quality, color accuracy, reliability, ease of use, and performance.
What Comes Next
0.5 is a significant step, but it is not the end of the work. 3MF generation still has room for further optimization. Filament management will continue to evolve as calibration and profile systems become more capable. And interoperability testing will continue across slicers and printer ecosystems as we move closer to broader public availability. We will also continue expanding the range of images and projects used in our performance testing so that future measurements represent increasingly diverse real-world workloads. CMYKForge 0.5 is ultimately about making the application feel more mature in everyday use:
less waiting, more reliable exports, and filament information that stays with you from one project to the next.
Those improvements may not all be visible in the same way as a new color-generation system, but they are essential to making CMYKForge something people can depend on.
0.6 is going to be the biggest improvement ever in the CMYKForge system.