1
Education · high schools
Functional 3D printing for high school classes
On the school's Chromebooks, with nothing to install: students design parts that fit real things and print them on the school's printer. The school pays $30 a seat a year; students join with a link.How it works
From application to the first lesson
One person applies, pays and manages; students only need a free account with any e-mail address.2
Share the join link
Put the link on the board, in your class page or in a message, or paste the students' e-mail addresses to invite them. Each student presses Join and gets a seat while one is free.3
Students design, you follow
Every seat gets 25 credits a month and every download included. On your class page you see each student's credits, how many models they made and when they last worked, and you add or remove seats any time.Education at a glance
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Price | $3 a seat a month, or $30 a seat a year (2 months free), taxes included |
| Seats | 2 to 300 without talking to us, the leader's included; more on request |
| Each seat | 25 credits a month for the AI on the student's own account, every STL, 3MF and G-code download included, the online slicer up to 60 files a day |
| Hand tools | Holes, cuts, added shapes, extrude, text, rounded corners, shell, measure: free, every size typed in millimetres |
| Devices | Any browser: school Chromebooks, Windows and Mac computers, iPads, phones. Nothing to install |
| Printers | G-code sliced in the browser with the OrcaSlicer profile of 380+ printer models |
| Who can get it | Schools, universities, libraries and makerspaces: each class is checked and approved before it pays, usually within a day |
| Who pays | Only the leader: one invoice, card or the school's card. Students never see a payment page |
| Privacy | Each student's models stay private to them unless they publish them; the leader sees counts, not the designs |
Projects that fit a high school class
Each takes one or two periods, and each teaches a measurement: an inside size, a hole spacing, a clearance.“A wall mount for a 20 mm wide robot chassis rail with two M3 holes 15 mm apart”
Open this prompt in the editor“A drawer divider insert for a drawer 280 × 390 mm inside, four equal bins, 50 mm tall”
Open this prompt in the editor“A case for a micro:bit (52 × 42 mm) with a window for the LED grid and an opening for the USB port”
Open this prompt in the editor“A headphone hook that clamps on a 25 mm desk edge”
Open this prompt in the editorBuilt for school computers
School Chromebooks block installs, and most CAD and slicer programs need one. SpeakCAD runs in the browser: design, slice and download in one tab. If your printer takes files from a USB stick, students download the G-code; for a network printer, the 3MF opens in the printer's own app. See 3D printing from a Chromebook and slicing on a school computer.
Fits the curriculum
| Course | What students practise |
|---|---|
| Design and technology | A brief, measurements, iterations, a working part |
| Engineering | Tolerances, clearances, hole patterns, wall thickness |
| Robotics club | Brackets, mounts, enclosures for boards and sensors |
| Physics and maths | Reading and changing dimensions, scale, volume |
Costs you can plan
The school pays per seat, $3 a seat a month or $30 a seat a year, taxes included. A class of 25 seats paid yearly: $750 a year for the class, $2.50 a student a month. 25 credits a month is about 6 new parts designed by the AI (4 credits each, the first 3 small changes of a part free), or many more changes: a small change spends 2 credits, a size or a number 1 credit. Shaping by hand with the hand tools spends nothing.
Questions
$3 a seat a month, or $30 a seat a year (2 months free), taxes included. Only the teacher or the school pays; students sign up with a free account and join the class with a link. A class of 25 seats paid yearly: $750 a year for the class, $2.50 a student a month.
No. Any e-mail address works, and a student who already has a SpeakCAD account joins with it. The teacher can also invite students by e-mail: each invitation holds a seat until it is accepted.
Tinkercad is a great first contact with 3D shapes, especially for young children, and it stays free. SpeakCAD is for the next step: a part with real dimensions that fits something, designed by describing it to the AI or with hand tools where every size is typed in millimetres, on a Chromebook or a phone, then sliced for the school's printer in the same browser tab. Many classes use both.
Yes, any time from the class page. Stripe charges an added seat for the rest of the period and credits a removed one on the next invoice. A seat freed by a student who leaves can be taken by another one; its credits for that month were already given, so the new student gets theirs the next month.
Checkout asks for the school's name, address and tax number and Stripe issues the invoice and the receipt for every payment, ready for accounting. For a purchase order, a quote or more than 300 seats, write to us in the chat on speakcad.com: we answer within a day.
More for education
For teachersLesson-sized projects, the join link and what you see on the class page.For universities and labsFixtures, enclosures and prototypes with real tolerances for engineering courses and labs.For makerspaces and librariesSeats for staff and volunteers who help visitors print a part that fits.For studentsHow to get a seat from your teacher, and what you can do without one.CAD for beginnersThe easiest way to start CAD for 3D printing, step by step.