About splicestl
What this is: splicestl is a set of free 3D-printing tools that run in your browser. The first and still the main one splits a 3D model (STL, 3MF or OBJ) into pieces that fit your printer's build plate and generates the connectors to put them back together; the others make molds, lithophanes, signs and 3D QR codes, vases, jigsaw puzzles, cookie cutters and Gridfinity bins, repair and convert meshes, drive a laser or CNC engraver, and work out print costs. Your files are never uploaded. It is built and maintained by one person, Ned Walsch.
The name: "splice" plus STL, the 3D-model file format. splicestl is not a St. Louis business and has nothing to do with the Splice music platform.
Why it exists
Build plates are small and the models people want to print are not. The slicers' own cut tools take one plane at a time and leave you to work out connectors, tolerances and which piece goes where. The paid desktop splitters do the job but cost money, run on one machine, and send your file through an installer. splicestl plans every cut in one pass, places pegs, dovetails, fingers, magnets, dowels, screws or your own connector, writes an assembly sheet and a label sheet, and lays the pieces out on plates for the slicer — in a browser tab, for nothing.
Who makes it
I'm Ned Walsch. I write the code, the documentation and the guides on this site, and I answer the mail. I also publish SourceCited, a methodology report on search and AI-search measurement that is re-verified against primary sources each edition; the same habit — a source and a read date on every claim — is how the pages here are written. The geometry kernel is Manifold, the viewport is three.js, and everything else is a single HTML file you can read. The code is MIT-licensed and the printer build-volume dataset is CC BY 4.0.
How the guides are written
Every comparison on this site is checked against the vendor's own documentation or pricing page, and each article lists its sources with the date they were read. When something changes, the page says what changed and when in a "What changed" note rather than silently moving the date. If you find a claim that is wrong, write to me and I will correct it and credit you if you want.
How the site is funded
Amazon affiliate links for things the tools call for — lights, glue, magnets, filament, laser glasses. If you buy through one, the site earns a small commission at no cost to you; the links are marked and never change what a tool recommends. There are no display ads (the site carried banner ads until 6 November 2026). The tools have no paid tier, no account and no upload.
Contact
- Bugs, bad splits, feature requests: nedwalsch@gmail.com — attach the project file (Output → Save project) if you can; it carries the model and every setting.
- Corrections to a guide: the same address, with the page and the source you have.
- Press and partnerships: the same address. A press kit has the one-line description, facts, logo and screenshots.
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