Mesh Sculptor
Sculpt real geometry, not a toolpath: a 2D ring rides your height profile, vertices pile into a watertight shell, and every effect nudges the surface along its normals. When you are done, you take home STL for PrusaSlicer, Cura, Bambu Studio—your presets, your supports. Want vase G-code without a slicer hop? That is G-code Sculptor.
From ring to solid
One module, one mesh pipeline: you stay in triangles and normals until export—no G-code generation here.
- Profile spline — radius over height, same Bézier idea as G-code Sculptor; this is the vase outline the ring climbs.
- Cross-section — the “cookie cutter” sampled into a ring: circle, polygons, sine lobes, Koch, or a hand-drawn closed curve.
- Base mesh — the ring sweeps into a dense grid; U wraps the wall, V runs bottom to top for textures and masks.
- Vertex stack — effects run in order, each pushing vertices along normals; lighting normals refresh once at the end.
- Shell & export — optional inner wall, caps, then a manifold STL ready for slicing.
Cross-section shapes
The horizontal “cookie cutter” the profile spline sweeps into a ring—corner radius fillets polygon presets in real millimeters, and the clip on the right runs through every option in one pass.
Pick a preset or draw your own when the catalog does not cover stars, teardrops, or other one-offs.
- Circle — default smooth ring; the usual starting point for round vases.
- Square, triangle, hexagon — optional corner radius fillets the straight segments in real millimeters.
- Polygon — regular N-gon, 3–16 sides, for faceted and mechanical outlines.
- Sine — lobes and optional twist: petal-like radial waves; pair with Twist for drill-bit drama.
- Koch — fractal perimeter for jagged, snowflake-style cross-sections.
- Custom — Bézier loop: the same point-and-handle editor you know from silhouettes—smooth and sharp corners, presets, nudge keys, and a resolution multiplier so tight curves stay round.
Resolution presets
Quality sets circumferential and vertical segment counts—more segments, finer ripples, heavier meshes. The capture walks the presets; dial Draft for speed, then step up when the silhouette deserves the polygons.
Iterate in a light mesh, then commit: higher counts cost CPU and file size, but catch detail the first pass would mush.
- Draft — 128² segments, fastest feedback while you shape the form.
- Standard — 256², the everyday balance for most decorative work.
- High — 512², when fine ripples and knurls need a tighter lattice.
- Ultra — 1024×512 (U×V) for the heaviest export when you are chasing every facet.
Custom cross-sections can boost U sampling (up to 4×) so curved hand-drawn rings stay smooth.
Hollow or single wall
Optional inner surface for hollow prints, how the stack treats the cavity, and a floor when the design needs a closed base—the clip shows it in one pass.
Stay on a single wall for open vessels, or thicken into a real shell the slicer can see as solid walls.
- Inner wall — optional second surface inset by your wall thickness for printable hollow parts.
- Inner follows effects — mirror ripples and textures inside, or keep the cavity glass-smooth while twist and taper still track the outer form.
- Bottom cap — close the base when your design needs a solid floor.
Stack, mask, export
Order matters, height windows gate where a modulator runs, and export bakes a watertight STL—the walkthrough is on the left, the “why” on the right.
Order = outcome
Effects are sequential. Twist-then-texture spins the ridges; texture-then-twist keeps bands climbing straight while the mesh corkscrews underneath.
Where it fires
V start / V end (millimeters) softly window an effect along the height axis—grip knurling only, waves only on the lip. Layer a growth curve on supported effects for another pass of “how loud” vs height.
STL out
Export regenerates at your chosen quality (or a higher export override), one watertight surface including caps and both walls when enabled—then it is slicer time.
Effect library
Same order as the in-app Add Effect picker for Mesh Sculptor—click a tile in the app to go deep on parameters.
Each name links to the Mesh Sculptor article in the documentation (same content as the in-app help browser).
Wave & oscillation
Texture & pattern
Flow & organic
Hex family
Image-based
Shape
Utility
Library
Mesh Sculptor in the wild.
Real projects from the community library. Click any thumbnail to open in the app and remix.
Sculpt it in the app.
Free to tinker. Open Mesh Sculptor, set your cross-section, stack vertex effects, and export a watertight STL for your slicer.