Cellario Lab Designer™ brings browser-based 3D layout planning to scientists and engineers alike, lowering the barrier to automation design without sacrificing precision.
Lab automation has always demanded technical depth: CAD expertise, engineering resources, and long lead times just to sketch out a concept. Cellario Lab Designer changes that equation, putting professional-grade 3D design capability directly in the browser, accessible to anyone on the team.
What Is Cellario Lab Designer?
Cellario Lab Designer is a lightweight, browser-based 3D environment for designing, visualizing, and validating lab automation systems (Video 1). Built to overcome the steep learning curves and infrastructure requirements of traditional CAD tools, it enables scientists, biologists, and automation engineers to collaboratively explore layouts, build system configurations, and communicate ideas without installing specialized software or depending on engineering resources.
The tool is purpose-built for the realities of modern lab automation: cross-functional teams, rapid iteration, and the need to communicate complex spatial concepts clearly across disciplines.
Video 1. Cellario Lab Designer™ demo video.
A Component Library Built for Automation
At the core of Lab Designer is an expanding component library of over 220 elements, organized by type and application. The library spans system infrastructure including Nucleus® platforms and robotic arms, instruments and devices, lab furniture and fixtures, peripherals, and standard lab room elements such as cabinets, sinks, and benches.
Components are categorized to reflect both the engineering vocabulary of automation teams and the broader instrument-focused language of scientific users. Reach bubbles are built in, allowing users to instantly verify whether a robotic arm or device configuration meets spatial access requirements, a critical validation step that previously required dedicated CAD modeling time.
From Concept to Validated Layout
The design workflow in Lab Designer mirrors how automation projects actually begin: with a concept, a room, and a set of instruments to accommodate. Users can start from scratch or pull in a template matched to their application: drug discovery screening, genomics workflows, sample management, and more.
Components snap together with intelligent positioning guidance, and HighRes system scalability is maintained throughout. Nucleus® MicroDocks, FlexCarts, storage units, and robotic infrastructure scale precisely within the environment, giving teams a spatially accurate model they can share, iterate on, and hand off directly to applications engineers.
For labs with existing infrastructure, Polycam integration allows teams to generate a point cloud of the physical space using a smartphone and import it into Lab Designer for calibrated reference, eliminating the guesswork of manual measurement and translating real environments into actionable designs.
Designed for Scientists, Validated by Engineers
One of the defining goals of Lab Designer is to empower biologists and scientists to independently explore automation possibilities without routing every layout question through an engineering department. Traditional CAD tools carry significant overhead: license costs, training time, and file formats that don't transfer easily between disciplines.
Lab Designer removes those barriers. A scientist can build a working concept layout, verify spatial feasibility with reach bubbles, and share it, all without engineering involvement. When the concept matures, the same design can be handed to an automation engineer as a validated starting point, compressing early-stage project timelines.
"Lab Designer reduces the high barrier of entry associated with traditional CAD tools, enabling rapid prototyping and system design for a broader user base."
Brendan Byron
Systems Engineer III, HighRes
Continuous Improvement Through Direct Feedback
Lab Designer includes a built-in feedback mechanism that connects users directly with the HighRes development team. From the viewport, users can flag rendering issues, request new components for the library, submit feature ideas, or rate their experience — with the ability to annotate directly on-screen before submitting.
This closed feedback loop allows the platform to evolve in response to real workflow needs, not assumptions. Component additions, UI refinements, and rendering improvements are driven by the teams actively using the tool in lab planning workflows.
Ready to explore what Lab Designer can do for your automation project?
Schedule a demo with a product specialist today! Or express your interest in our Early Access Beta program, which includes Lab Designer.
