3D Maker Studio
User Guide

Contents

1. The Studio
2. Getting started
3. The window and its tabs
4. Working between the tabs
5. Library
6. Choosing a folder
7. Browsing your files
8. Looking at a model
9. Keeping your files tidy
10. Finding things
11. Getting files ready to print
12. Designer
10. The screen
11. Looking around your model
12. Adding shapes
13. Selecting and moving parts
14. Size, position and colour
15. The right-click menu
16. Placing parts
17. Joining parts, holes and cuts
18. Changing a shape
19. Drawing your own shapes
20. Ready-made parts and makers
21. Text, pictures and colour
22. Measuring
23. Copies, mirrors and groups
24. Build views
25. Getting ready to print
26. Saving and opening designs
27. Downloading for your printer
28. Keyboard shortcuts
29. Other useful things
30. Problems and fixes in the Designer
31. Quick reference card
32. Converter and Pictures
32. Converting 3D files
33. Converting pictures
34. Editing pictures
35. Problems and fixes

1Getting started

3D Maker Studio puts three tools in one window: the Library, which shows every 3D file on your computer in 3D, the Designer, where you make and change models, and the Converter, which turns files into the format you need. They work together, so a model goes from your folder to the Designer and back without hunting for files.

Installing

1. Download 3D Maker Studio from the Supporter page on 3d-lithophane.com and run the installer.
2. Start it from the Start menu or the desktop shortcut.
3. Sign in with your 3d-lithophane.com account. A free account is enough. You sign in once, and every tab uses the same sign-in.

Free and unlocked

The Studio is free to use. The free version has daily limits on saving and exporting in the Designer, and the Library shows up to 1,000 files per folder. Unlock everything (the gold button at the top) removes the limits in every tab, for life.

2The window and its tabs

Along the top are the four tabs. Click one, or use the keys:

Guide (or F1) opens this guide in its own window, with Print and PDF buttons.

Each tab keeps its place while you look at another one, so you can switch back and forth freely. On the right of the top bar:

• Save Designer exports to my Library: when it is ticked, everything you export from the Designer is saved for you (chapter 3).
• Designer exports: opens that folder in the Library.
• Unlock everything: opens the checkout in your web browser.

3Working between the tabs

From the Library to the Designer or the Converter

Right-click a model in the Library and choose Open in Designer or Open in File converter. In a model's preview the same buttons are called Edit in Designer and Convert to other formats.

• STL, OBJ, 3MF, GLB and FBX files go straight into your design.
• Other formats, like STEP or PLY, open in the Designer's converter window first. Press Add to the designer there.

From the Converter to the Designer

Open a file in the Converter tab and press Add it to the Designer in the bar at the top. The size and the turn you chose in the converter come along, and a model with several colours arrives as one part per colour.

From the Designer to the Library

With Save Designer exports to my Library ticked, every file you export from the Designer is saved straight into Documents\3D Maker Studio\Designer exports, without asking where. A note shows the file name, with Show in Library and Open folder. An earlier file is never overwritten: a second one gets "(2)" in its name.

4Choosing a folder

The Library shows the 3D files in one folder and every folder inside it, grouped by the folder they are in.

• Select folder opens a folder browser. Pick a drive and a folder, then Choose.
• Or type or paste a path, for example D:\3D Prints, and press Scan path.
• My folders lists the folders you opened before, so you can go back to one with a click.

A big drive takes a moment the first time; a counter shows how far it has got. It reads STL, 3MF, OBJ, FBX, GLB and glTF models, G-code and resin files (CTB, PHOTON, PWS and others). Drawings, documents and pictures in the same folders (STEP, DWG, PDF, JPG …) show as small badges next to the models.

5Browsing your files

Every model gets a card with a 3D picture, its name, size and date. The pictures are made the first time you see them and kept, so the next visit is quick. The bar above the cards narrows things down:

• Filter: type part of a name or a folder.
• File types: tick or untick STL, 3MF, OBJ, FBX, GLB, G-code and resin.
• Favourites and the All files list: only favourites, files with notes, or one of your tags.
• Sort by name, size (largest first) or date (newest first).
• Thumbnails on or off, Expand all and Collapse all for the folder groups, and Rescan after you have added files.

Selecting several files

Hold Ctrl and click cards, or Shift + click for a row of them. Ctrl + A selects everything shown, Esc clears the selection. A bar appears with what you can do with all of them at once: open, favourite, tag, move or delete.

6Looking at a model

Click a card to open the model in 3D. Drag to turn it, right-drag to slide, scroll to zoom. ← and → go to the previous and next file, R resets the view and Esc closes it.

On the right you see its size in mm, the number of triangles, the volume, roughly what it weighs and costs in filament, whether it fits your printer's bed, and a check of the mesh.

• View: 3D, front, top, left, right and back.
• Lying on its side? Flip up-axis: for OBJ, FBX and glTF files made the other way up. The Library remembers it.
• Display: auto-rotate, wireframe and the bed grid. Colour: the file's own colours, or one you pick.
• Save PNG snapshot and Turntable video (8 seconds, square): ready for a shop listing or social media.
• Inspect: measure between two points, or cut through the model to look inside.

7Keeping your files tidy

• Favourites: the star on a card, or F in the preview.
• Tags and notes: in the preview, type a tag and press Enter, and write notes like "needs supports, 0.12 layers". The All files list finds them again.
• Rename (F2), Move to folder (M) and Delete (Delete), from the right-click menu or the preview.
• Rename many: select several files and give them a common name with numbers.

The Trash

Delete moves a file to the Library's own Trash, never straight out of existence. The Trash button at the top shows what is there: restore a file to where it was, or empty the Trash, which sends the files to the Windows Recycle Bin.

8Finding things

• Find anywhere (Ctrl + K): search every folder you have ever opened, not only this one.
• Duplicates: finds identical files in this folder and its sub-folders, so you can free up space.
• Measure all: works out the size, volume and weight of every file shown, so you can sort and filter by them.
• Create thumbnails: makes every picture now, so browsing a big folder is instant afterwards.

9Getting files ready to print

• Printer: your printer's bed size and your filament's price, used for the bed check and the cost on every model.
• Open in default app (O) opens the file in your slicer. Open with lets you pick another program, for example OrcaSlicer for one file and Bambu Studio for another.
• Combine into one 3MF plate: select several models (right-click the selection) and get one 3MF with all of them, ready for your slicer.
• Project pack: the selected files in one zip, to share or keep together.
• Catalogue: a printable PDF of the files shown, with their pictures and facts. Handy for a stand at a market.
• G-code and resin files show the slicer's own picture and the print facts: time, filament or resin, layers.

10The screen

• 1Top bar. The name of your design and the menus: File (save, open, import), Export (download for printing), View, Demos, Search, Simulate, Views, Scrap Pad and Model Preview.
• 2Tool rail. All the tools, sorted into groups: Shapes, Create, Draw, Place, Arrange, Combine, Modify, Text, Measure and Print. Click a group to see what is in it. Undo and Redo are at the top.
• 3Build views. Small pictures of your ten build plates. See chapter 24.
• 43D view. Your printer bed with the model on it. Each grid square is 10 mm.
• 5Right panel. Your printer and bed size, and the position, size and colour of the part you have selected.
• 6Status line. The number of parts, the size of the selected part, and roughly how much filament it needs and what it costs.
• 7Snap. When it is on, parts move in fixed steps (5 mm here), which makes it easy to line them up.

11Looking around your model

You can look at your model from any side. This only changes your view. The parts stay where they are.

More in the View menu

• Wireframe and Transparent let you see through parts, for example to check that a hole goes all the way through. Shift + W switches between the display styles.
• Section view cuts the model open on screen so you can see inside.
• Dimension labels shows the sizes of the selected part in the 3D view.
• Save picture / turntable video saves an image or a short video of the model turning round, to share.
• View in AR lets you see the model in your room on a phone or tablet.

12Adding shapes

Click Shapes at the top of the tool rail, then click a shape. It is placed on the bed and selected, so you can change it straight away.

• Most models start with a Cube, Rounded box, Cylinder or Slab / plate.
• A Tube / pipe is a cylinder with a hole through the middle. A Dome is half a sphere.
• My Shapes holds the parts you saved yourself. To save one, right-click it and choose Object > Save as my shape. You can then use it in any design.

13Selecting and moving parts

Selecting

• Click a part to select it. It turns orange.
• Hold Shift or Ctrl while you click to select more than one part.
• Click an empty spot to select nothing. Ctrl + A selects everything, and Tab goes from one part to the next.
• The Objects list at the bottom of the right panel shows all your parts. Click a name to select that part. The small buttons next to it hide, lock or download the part.

The arrows on a selected part

Drag an arrow to move the part in that direction only. Drag one of the small squares between the arrows to move it flat over the bed. There are three sets of arrows:

Small and exact moves

• The arrow keys move the selected part one snap step at a time. Hold Shift for steps of 0.2 mm.
• Move with snapping (Shift + M): click a corner, edge or face of a part, then click where it must go. It snaps onto the corners and edges of other parts. You can also type a distance and press Enter. Hold Ctrl to move a copy and leave the original where it is.

14Size, position and colour

The right panel shows the numbers of the selected part. Click in a box, type a new number and press Enter. All sizes are in millimetres.

• Position is where the part sits on the bed. X is left and right, Y is front and back, Z is the height.
• Size is the width (X), depth (Y) and height (Z) of the part.
• Keep proportions: tick this and change one size, and the other two change with it, so the part doesn't get stretched. It works with the scale handles too, and the Designer remembers the tick for next time.
• Rotation turns the part by the number of degrees you type, for example 90.
• Colour is the colour of the part. Colours are kept when you download a 3MF file for a multi-colour printer.

Under the colour you can see the size of the part, its volume, and about how much filament it uses and costs. The Actions buttons do common jobs in one click: drop to floor, centre, mirror, duplicate and delete.

15The right-click menu

Right-click a part to see what you can do with it. The menu changes with what you have selected. With two parts selected, for example, it also shows the ways to join them.

• Duplicate, Copy, Paste and Delete are at the top.
• Copy to view and Move to view send the part to another build plate (chapter 24).
• Transform: change the size, drop it to the floor, centre it or mirror it.
• Combine: join parts, cut them and make holes (chapter 17).
• Edit mesh: cut the part in two, split it into pieces, lay it on a face or hollow it out.
• Arrange (two or more parts): group them, line them up or space them out evenly.
• Object: lock the part so it can't be moved by accident, hide it, show it see-through, save it to My Shapes, or download only this part.

You can give every item in this menu your own key. See chapter 28.

16Placing parts

17Joining parts, holes and cuts

This is how you turn simple shapes into real objects. Click Combine on the tool rail.

Union, Cut and Keep

Select two parts that overlap, then choose one of these:

• Union joins them into one part.
• Cut takes the second part away from the first, like a cookie cutter.
• Keep keeps only the area where the two parts overlap.

Making a hole

The easiest way to cut something out is with a hole part. A hole part is see-through, and you can keep moving and resizing it until it is in the right place.

1. Add a cylinder (or any other shape) and put it where you want the hole. Make it a bit taller than the block, so it goes right through.
2. Select it and press O, or right-click and choose Combine > Mark as hole. It becomes see-through.
3. Move or resize it if you need to. You can mark more than one hole.
4. Choose Apply holes (Shift + H). All the holes are cut out of the parts they touch.

Also in this group

• Screw hole makes a hole for a screw or bolt, with room for the head or a six-sided pocket that holds a nut.
• Fit two parts leaves a small gap between two parts so they fit together after printing, like a lid on a box.
• Joint two parts adds a dovetail, snap-fit or pins so two printed pieces lock together.
• Cut / split (X) cuts a part in two with a flat cut, for example to print a tall model in two halves.
• Split for printing cuts a model that is too big for your printer into pieces that fit, with pins to join them again.

18Changing a shape

• Twist, taper & bend: twist a box into a spiral vase, make it narrower at the top, or bend it.
• Round or chamfer an edge: click an edge to round it off or give it a slanted cut.
• Round / chamfer corners does all the corners of a part in one go.
• Hollow (H) makes the part a shell with walls as thick as you choose. It saves a lot of filament, and turns a solid block into a box or a cup.
• Lattice (gyroid or Voronoi) turns a model into an open web. Voronoi gives the well-known cell pattern. You choose how many cells you want, and the outside edges stay closed.
• Pattern on a face puts vents, grilles or rows of holes on a flat face.
• Edit points lets you drag the corners of a shape by hand.
• Smooth subdivide rounds off a blocky shape.
• Simplify makes a very detailed imported model lighter, so the Designer stays quick.
• Sculpt lets you push and pull the surface with a brush, like clay.

Try them out. If you don't like the result, press Ctrl + Z and it is back the way it was.

19Drawing your own shapes

If the shape you need isn't in the list, you can draw it. Click Draw on the tool rail.

Drawing on a part

1. Choose Draw on a face (Shift + R) and pick Rectangle, Circle, Polygon or Lines.
2. Click on a flat face of your part and draw. Points snap to corners and edges. You can also type a size, for example 40,20 and Enter for a rectangle of 40 by 20 mm.
3. Choose Push/Pull (Shift + P) and drag what you drew. Push it in for a hole or pocket, or pull it out for a raised part.

Sketching a new shape

• Pick a plane (the bed, the front or the side), draw a rectangle, circle or polygon, and it is pulled up into a solid shape.
• Revolve a profile: draw half the outline of a vase, cup or bottle, and it is turned round into a round object.
• Sweep along a path: draw a path, and a tube or bar follows it.
• Offset a face draws a border on the inside of a face. Follow Me runs a profile around the edge of a face, like the moulding on a picture frame.

20Ready-made parts and makers

Click Create on the tool rail. Each item asks a few questions, such as the size, the number of teeth or the text, and then builds the part.

• AI generate (Supporter): describe what you want, for example "a desk organiser with three pen holes and a phone stand, 120 mm wide". The AI builds it from normal parts, so you can change it afterwards.
• Parts: gears, bearings and hinges that print in one piece, springs, knobs, screw threads, boxes for electronics, a honeycomb wall system, and models with moving joints.
• Clearance test: a small test print that shows how much gap your printer needs between moving parts.
• Makers: QR codes, keychains and name tags, cookie cutters, two-part moulds for casting, vases and plant pots, fidget toys, flexi animals, grips and multi-colour keychains.
• Bring in: open a model you already have (STL, OBJ, 3MF, GLB, FBX), turn an SVG drawing into 3D, or add a Reference image to trace over.

21Text, pictures and colour

Click Text on the tool rail.

• 3D text: type your text and choose the font, size and height. It stands on the bed as a separate part.
• Text on a face (T): click a face of a part and type. The letters can stand out from the face or be cut into it.
• Wrap text on a surface puts text around a curved surface, like a name on a mug.
• Image / QR emboss presses a picture, logo or QR code into a face, or raises it out.
• Decal on a surface puts text or a picture onto any surface, also a curved one.
• Apply text / image to the shape makes the text or picture a fixed part of the shape.
• Paint faces gives single faces their own colour, for multi-colour printing.

22Measuring

Click Measure on the tool rail.

23Copies, mirrors and groups

Click Arrange on the tool rail.

• Duplicate (D) puts a copy next to the original.
• Mirror flips a part left to right, front to back, or upside down. Mirror copy makes a flipped copy, for example a left and a right bracket.
• Row, ring and grid of copies make many copies at once: a row of pegs, holes in a circle, or feet in a grid.
• Align (two or more parts) lines parts up by their left sides, centres, tops, bottoms and so on.
• Even spacing (three or more parts) puts the same gap between all of them.
• Group (G) joins parts so they move and resize together. Ungroup (U) separates them again.
• Split into separate bodies turns an imported model that is really several pieces into separate parts.

24Build views

One design can have up to ten build views. Each view is a printer bed of its own. You can use them for:

• parts of one project that are printed separately, for example a box on view 1 and its lid on view 2,
• different versions of the same idea,
• a full bed of parts, with a spare view next to it.

The pictures beside the tool rail show all ten views. The view you are on has an orange frame.

• To go to a view, click its picture, or press V and then the number of the view. V 0 is view 10.
• To copy parts to another view, select them and click the small copy button on that view's picture. Hold Shift to move them instead. You can also right-click and choose Copy to view or Move to view.
• The Views button in the top bar shows or hides the pictures.
• Export downloads the view you are on. Export > All views as 3MF downloads all of them.

When you save, all ten views are saved together.

25Getting ready to print

• Print info (P) shows the size, roughly how long the print takes, and the filament and cost.
• Check printability looks for things that would spoil a print, such as gaps in the surface or walls too thin to print, and tells you how to fix them.
• Repair / make watertight fixes most of those problems for you. It is useful for models you downloaded from the internet.
• Overhang view colours the areas that hang in the air and need supports.
• Thin-wall check shows walls that are too thin for your printer.
• If a model is too big for your printer, Split for printing cuts it into pieces that fit, with pins to join them.
• Pack onto plates spreads a lot of parts over as many printer plates as needed.
• 2D drawing makes a drawing of the front, side and top with all the sizes, which you can print on paper.

26Saving and opening designs

• Type a name for your design in the Design name box at the top.
• Save (Ctrl + S) saves the design to your account, so you can open it on any computer. Save a copy saves it as a new design and leaves the old one as it was.
• Load (Ctrl + O) shows your saved designs, each with a small picture.
• Save to file and Open from file keep the whole design as one file (.litez) on your own computer. Use this for backups, or to give a design to someone else.
• New starts an empty design.
• Share link gives you a link that other people can open to see your design.
• Switch on Public at the top before you save, and your design is shown in the public Gallery. Other people can then open a copy of it and change their copy. Your own design stays as it is.
• Import brings in a model or drawing you already have (STL, OBJ, 3MF, GLB, FBX or SVG).

27Downloading for your printer

Your printer can't read a design directly. You download a file and open it in your slicer. That is the program that came with your printer, such as Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, OrcaSlicer, Cura or Creality Print.

Open the Export menu and choose a format.

A padlock next to a format means it needs Supporter. STL is free for everyone with a free account.

28Keyboard shortcuts

Most things have a key, which saves a lot of clicking. Press ? or choose File > Keyboard shortcuts to see them all.

Changing a key or adding one

1. Press ? to open the window. Type in the search box to find what you want, for example "floor".
2. Click the key button next to it. It now waits for you to press a key.
3. Press the new key or keys, for example Alt + F. If that key is already used for something else, you are asked first whether to swap them.

• Press Backspace while it waits to remove the key, or Esc to leave it unchanged.
• Reset all to the defaults puts all the keys back the way they were.
• You can give a key to every item in the right-click menu and to every tool in the menus on the left (Shapes, Create, Draw and the others). Tools that have no key yet are listed under their menu's name. The menus then show your key next to the item.
• Your keys are saved in this browser.

All the standard keys are listed on the quick reference card at the back.

29Other useful things

• Search (/): type a word to find a shape or tool.
• Undo and Redo: the two arrows at the top of the tool rail, or Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Y.
• Snap: when it is on, parts move in steps (type the step in mm next to it). When it is off, they move freely.
• Scrap Pad: a notepad for measurements and ideas. You can drag it anywhere and make it bigger or smaller.
• Model Preview: a small window for a photo or drawing of what you are making, so you can look at it while you work. Drop or paste a picture into it.
• Simulate: watch your model being printed, layer by layer.
• Demos: finished example designs to open and learn from.
• Lock (K): a locked part can't be selected or moved by accident. Unlock it in the Objects list.
• Hide (Alt + H): hide a part so you can get to what is behind it. The eye button in the Objects list shows it again.

30Problems and fixes

The full help, with more detail on every tool, is at 3d-lithophane.com/designer-guide.php.

31Quick reference card

These are the standard keys. You can change any of them (chapter 28).

3d-lithophane.com

32Converting 3D files

1. Drop a file onto the box, or click it to pick one. An OBJ needs its .mtl file (and its pictures), a glTF its .bin file: pick them together, or a zip.
2. Check the model in the preview and the facts next to it: parts, triangles, colours and size.
3. Choose Save it as: STL, 3MF with colours (for Bambu, Orca, Creality and Prusa), OBJ, GLB, glTF, PLY, OFF or Rhino 3DM.
4. If the size is wrong, choose what the file is measured in, or type how tall it should be. Tick Stand it up if it lies on its back.
5. Press Convert and download. Or press Add it to the Designer at the top to carry on in the Designer.

It opens STL, 3MF, AMF, OBJ, PLY, OFF, STEP and IGES (from CAD programs), BREP, Rhino, FreeCAD, GLB, glTF, FBX, DAE, 3DS, VRML and IFC. A STEP or IGES file is turned into triangles when it opens: that is what printers need, but a mesh cannot become a CAD solid again.

33Converting pictures

Click Pictures at the top of the Converter. Drop one picture or several (JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, AVIF, SVG or ICO).

• Save as PNG, JPG or WebP (with a quality slider), BMP, or ICO for a website icon.
• Colour: keep it, greyscale, black and white (with a slider for where black starts), sepia or negative.
• Black and white, dotted turns shades into dots, which is what most laser engravers want for photos.
• Width and Turn resize and rotate. Several pictures come back together in one zip.

34Editing pictures

The Pictures tab is a picture editor. Drop a picture onto it, or open one from the Library: in the Library's picture viewer, click Edit in Pictures.

Edit it

• Crop: drag a box, then Apply crop. The arrows next to it turn the picture.
• Paint and Fill in the colour you pick, at the brush size you set.
• Erase makes the picture see-through there, a real hole rather than a white patch.
• Text: type it, drag the box where you want it, then Place.
• Clone: Alt + click a spot to copy from, then paint it over something you want gone.
• Undo (Ctrl + Z), Redo and Reset (back to the picture you opened).

Save it, or use it in the Designer

• Choose Save as (PNG, JPG, WebP or BMP) and a Colour: as it is, greyscale, black and white, dotted black and white for a laser engraver, sepia or negative. How it will look shows the result before you save.
• Save picture puts it in Documents\3D Maker Studio\Pictures, with Show in Library and Open folder.
• Use it in the Designer: a Raised picture or a Decal on a part of your design (add a part first, a flat plate works well), a Reference picture behind your model to trace or match its size, or a Multi-colour keychain where every colour becomes its own filament.

35Problems and fixes

3d-lithophane.com