How to cut or split a model in Orca Slicer

By Ned Walsch · Published May 15, 2026 · Updated November 9, 2026 · 5 min read

OrcaSlicer is a community fork of Bambu Studio (which itself forked PrusaSlicer), now maintained as one of the most-installed open-source slicers. Like its parents, Orca includes a built-in Cut tool, and like its parents that Cut tool is single-plane: you place one plane, the model splits into two parts. Orca's Cut also offers Plug, Dowel and Snap alignment connectors and a Dovetail cut mode, the same options as Bambu Studio.

This article walks through Orca's Cut tool, what it can and cannot do, and shows the multi-axis alternative for the very common case where you need more than one cut — for instance when a single sculpture is bigger than your build plate in two directions, or when you want joinery beyond a dovetail or an alignment pin.

Finding the Cut tool in OrcaSlicer

Open OrcaSlicer, drop your STL onto the build plate, and either:

• Press C on the keyboard (the default shortcut), or
• Click the model to select it, then click the Cut icon in the left toolbar — it's the icon that looks like a horizontal line through a cube. Orca uses the same toolbar layout as Bambu Studio, so if you're familiar with Bambu Studio's Cut, this will look identical.

The cutting plane appears through the model. Drag its centre handle along the plane's normal, or type a movement or an absolute height in the side panel; drag an axis handle, or type degrees, to rotate it. Shift-drag draws a plane perpendicular to the current view.

The Cut tool's options

Once the cutting plane is in position, the side panel exposes a few options:

• Keep both parts, or one. Both parts are kept by default; untick either object to discard it.
• Objects or parts. The cut produces two separate objects, or one multi-part object if you prefer — the latter is how you assign different filaments to each part.
• Connectors (Planar mode). Plug puts a peg on one side and a socket on the other; Dowel cuts a socket into both sides and adds a separate pin to print; Snap adds a snap-fit connector and recess. Size and depth are adjustable. These are alignment features for glue-up, not structural joints.
• Dovetail mode. Replaces the flat cut with a trapezoidal pin on one part and a matching tail on the other, with depth, width, angle and tolerance settings — a real slide-together joint on a single plane.
• Placement. Keep each part's orientation, place it on the cut face, or flip it.

These options are shared with Bambu Studio, because OrcaSlicer is a fork of it. What you cannot get from any of them is a press-fit square peg, a finger joint, a magnet pocket or a single large tenon.

What Orca's Cut tool can do well

Orca's Cut handles the common case perfectly: you have a single solid model that is just barely too tall, and you want to cut it in half once, glue it together, and move on. Three minutes from open to sliced. The alignment dowels keep the halves true while glue cures, so you don't have to hold them perfectly in registration.

It is also excellent for the case where you want to print a model in two pieces specifically to orient each piece optimally — for example, cutting a head off a figurine so the head prints face-up (clean face) and the body prints standing (clean base), and the cut is hidden in the neck.

What Orca's Cut tool cannot do

The same limits that apply to Bambu Studio's Cut apply to Orca's:

• Single plane only. One cut per pass. If your model needs to be cut into a 2×2 grid, you have to run Cut, then Cut again on one of the resulting halves, then Cut again on the other half, then again, four cuts manually arranged. The tool does not plan multi-axis splits.
• Joinery stops at dovetail. Plug, Dowel and Snap are alignment aids for glue-up; the dovetail is the only interlocking joint. There is no press-fit peg, tenon/mortise, finger/box joint, magnet pocket or dowel-hole mode.
• No interlocking cut surface. Apart from the dovetail profile, the cut is a flat plane. There is no wave, zigzag, sawtooth, brick or pyramid surface that locks pieces laterally.
• No automatic build-plate sizing. Orca doesn't know your build volume when planning the cut — you have to manually compute where each half lands relative to your printer's max X/Y/Z and confirm both halves fit.
• No print-farm distribution. If you have multiple printers, you have to allocate pieces manually.

How to split an STL with multi-axis cuts for OrcaSlicer

When you need more than one cut, or you want real press-fit joinery, the workflow becomes: cut the STL outside OrcaSlicer first, then load the resulting pieces into Orca for slicing.

1. Open splicestl in a browser tab. No install, no signup, no upload to a server.
2. Drop your STL or 3MF onto the upload area. It renders immediately in the 3D viewport.
3. Pick your printer from the preset dropdown, or set max X/Y/Z dimensions manually. The tool computes how many cuts each axis needs and shows them as translucent planes you can drag.
4. Choose joinery. 9 modes: square pegs (default, press-fit), dovetails (slide-together, single-axis splits), tenon/mortise, finger/box joints, magnet pockets (sized for disc magnets), dowel holes, or none. Each has adjustable size, length, count and tolerance for your filament's shrinkage.
5. Pick a cut shape. Flat is the default. Wave, zigzag, sawtooth, brick or pyramid give interlocking surfaces that resist shear — useful when the cut will be visible or load-bearing.
6. Download the zip. One STL per piece, an HTML assembly diagram, and a README.
7. Open all pieces in OrcaSlicer via File → Open. Each piece arranges on the build plate as a separate object. Slice and print as a normal multi-part job — Orca handles build-plate arrangement and supports just like any other multi-object print.

Comparison: Orca Slicer Cut vs. splicestl

Tips for clean Orca Slicer results

Use splicestl's "Brick" cut for hidden seams

If you're cutting a visible model where the seam will be obvious, splicestl's brick cut shape produces a stepped square-wave parting line that breaks up the visible seam into a pattern. Once printed and glued, the seam is much less obvious than a clean plane cut. Orca's flat cut leaves a single hard line at the seam.

Set tolerance for your filament

Rule of thumb: PLA shrinks roughly 0.2–0.3%, PETG 0.4–0.5% and ABS up to about 0.8%, and the figures vary by brand and part geometry. splicestl's default 0.2 mm peg tolerance is tuned for PLA; for PETG or ABS, raise it to 0.3–0.4 mm. Print one test peg first — the peg dimensions are listed in the ZIP's README.

Print one piece at a time, or all at once

OrcaSlicer supports both. For a 4-piece split, you can pack all four onto the build plate (faster, more supports), or use OrcaSlicer's Print Mode → One at a Time to print sequentially with a clean head park between pieces. The latter is better for fragile detailed pieces where one piece's first layer would scrape another mid-print.

Verify each piece fits before printing

After loading the pieces into Orca, use the Auto Arrange tool (default shortcut A) and check that no piece extends past the build plate edges. splicestl already guarantees each piece is within the dimensions you specified, but if you changed printer settings between splitting and slicing, it's worth a glance.

The summary

OrcaSlicer's Cut tool is good for single-plane splits with Plug / Dowel / Snap connectors or a dovetail — the same feature set as Bambu Studio's Cut, since they share the code. For models that need several cuts, an automatic fit to the build volume, joinery beyond a dovetail, or interlocking cut surfaces, cut the STL in splicestl first, then load the pieces into OrcaSlicer for slicing. It is a short pre-processing step that covers everything Orca's Cut cannot.

What changed — 9 November 2026: Added how Cut differs from Split to objects and Split to parts.

What changed — 13 October 2026: corrected the Cut tool description against the Bambu Lab and Prusa documentation (Plug / Dowel / Snap connectors and a Dovetail mode, rather than "cylindrical dowels, 5 mm default"); removed two joinery modes (puzzle, T-slot) that splicestl no longer ships; corrected cut-shape count to six; added the quick answer, sources and the full FAQ in visible form.