Add a shortcut or an icon

You start the app by running its launcher, which lives in the app folder. A shortcut saves you opening the folder. Make the shortcut to the launcher, not a copy of the launcher: the launcher finds everything relative to its own folder, so it has to stay where it is.

Windows

There are two launchers. start.bat shows its black window, which is useful when you want to see what is happening. start_hidden.vbs does the same without the black window, so only the app opens. The first time, when the Python environment does not exist yet, even start_hidden.vbs shows a normal window, because that run asks questions and takes minutes.

1. Open the app folder in File Explorer.
2. Right-click start_hidden.vbs (or start.bat) and choose Show more options if you are on Windows 11, then Send to, then Desktop (create shortcut).
3. Optional: give it the app’s icon. Right-click the new shortcut, choose Properties, then Change Icon…, Browse…, and pick start.ico from the app folder.
4. Optional: rename the shortcut to “MeshOptimiser”.
5. Optional: right-click the shortcut and choose Pin to Start.

macOS

1. Open the app folder in Finder.
2. Click start.command once, then choose File, Make Alias. An alias is a shortcut that points to the original.
3. Drag the alias to the Desktop, and rename it if you like.
4. To keep it in the Dock, drag the alias onto the right-hand end of the Dock, next to the Trash. It sits there as a file.

On a Mac the launcher opens a Terminal window and keeps it open. To avoid seeing it, minimise it. Closing it stops the app.

The installed-app icon, as well

Chrome and Edge can install the page as an app of its own, with its own icon in the Start menu or Dock. That icon opens a window onto the local server, so the server still has to be started first. The shortcut above is what starts the server. See Install it as an app window.

Start with a file

On Windows, drag a .step, .stp, .iges, .igs, .brep, .brp, .glb or .gltf file onto start.bat or onto a shortcut to it, and the app starts with that file open. On a Mac, give start.command the file name in the Terminal. See Start it the first time.