Workflow
- Load an STL file: drag it onto the viewport or use Load STL.
- Set layer thickness to match your paper stock; the model re-slices as you change it.
- Place alignment rods so the cut layers can be threaded onto dowels and stay registered.
- Preview each layer in the 2D panel while scrubbing the layer slider.
- Export SVGs for your cutter, then cut and stack the layers.
Navigation
Orbit (default) turns the camera around the model, the way a CAD viewer does.
Fly gives you free first-person movement, useful for getting inside a large model.
Press C to switch, or use the toolbar button.
Orbit mode
Fly mode
Standard views are on the grid button in the viewport toolbar, or number keys
1–4. F frames the whole model.
Alignment rods
- Click the rod button in the viewport toolbar, then click on the model to place a rod. The camera keeps its usual buttons while placement mode is active, since orbiting is right-drag either way and the left button only ever selects or places.
- Select a rod to get its gizmo: drag the red and green arrows to move it in X and Y, and the blue and orange arrows to trim its top and bottom. I, J and K nudge the same axes (hold Shift to reverse).
- Green rings show where the rod runs inside the model; red arcs show where it exits, and a rod should stay green over its whole length.
- With Live Rod Preview on, those rings follow the cursor while you place a rod, and the layer preview shows the holes your staged rods would cut, so you can judge a position before applying it. Turn it off if you would rather keep the model solid while aiming.
- Symmetry mirrors new rods across the model center on the chosen axis, and the pair stays mirrored afterwards: moving or trimming either rod moves the other to match.
- Rod edits are staged. Press Apply Rod Changes to re-slice and punch the holes.
Export
- All SVGs (ZIP): one SVG per layer, each laid out on its own sheet. Simple to check, but wasteful of paper.
- Packed (ZIP): nests every piece from every layer onto as few sheets as possible, one SVG per sheet. Each piece is engraved with its layer number.
- The download button on the Layer Preview exports just the layer you are looking at.
- Cut lines are black, rod holes blue, and floating sections orange so you can spot them before cutting.