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Education · teachers
A CAD your students can use in the first lesson
No CAD course before the first print. Students measure an object, describe the part it needs, read and change the dimensions the AI chose, and slice it for your printer, all in a browser tab. You pay for the seats ($3 a seat a month) and share one join 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 |
Lesson-sized projects
Give the class one brief and let each student measure their own object: the parts all differ, the lesson is the same.“A holder for my calculator: 85 × 165 × 18 mm, open at the top, 2 mm walls, 0.4 mm clearance”
Open this prompt in the editor“A cable clip for a 6 mm cable that screws under a desk with one M3 screw”
Open this prompt in the editor“A name plate 120 × 30 × 4 mm with raised letters 2 mm high”
Open this prompt in the editor“A replacement knob for a 6 mm D-shaft, 30 mm across, with grip ridges”
Open this prompt in the editorA lesson in four steps
- Measure (10 minutes). Each student picks an object (a calculator, a phone, a water bottle) and measures what the part must fit, with a ruler or a calliper. Our measuring guide works as a hand-out.
- Describe (5 minutes). They type what the part is for and the numbers. The AI designs it in a minute or two and says which sizes it chose.
- Check and change (15 minutes). They tap a face to read its size, type a new one, add a hole or engrave their name with the hand tools, which spend nothing. This is where the learning happens: every number is visible and has a reason.
- Print (homework or next lesson). Download the STL, or G-code already sliced for your printer, and queue it.
Why the AI does not do the homework
The AI turns a description into a first version; it does not know the object on the student's desk. Students have to measure, choose a clearance (how much gap to leave), check what the AI picked and fix what does not fit. That is the design process, with the part of CAD that blocks beginners (drawing sketches and constraints) taken out.
What you control
- Seats: 2 to 300, yours included, added or removed any time.
- Who is in: the join link (renewable), e-mail invitations, removing a student.
- Progress: each student's credits, number of models and last activity.
- Budget: 25 credits per student per month, so one student cannot spend the class's budget.
Questions
Teachers, lecturers, lab and makerspace managers, librarians and club leaders at a school, a university, a library or a makerspace. You apply with the school, its website and your role; we check it and answer by e-mail, usually within a day, and only then can the class pay for seats. A personal e-mail address is fine if the school's website or a staff page shows you belong to it.
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. Credits land on the student's own account on the first day of every billing month; unused ones stay.
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.
$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.
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 high schoolsFunctional parts in a class period, on the school's Chromebooks.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.