Slice an STL for your printer from ChatGPT or Claude

What the connector does

The SpeakCAD Slicer server gives the assistant two tools. Both are reads, and neither needs your file:

• find_printer searches the online slicer's catalogue of 380+ printers from 60+ brands (Bambu Lab, Prusa, Creality, Elegoo, Anycubic, Sovol, Qidi, Flashforge, Voron and the rest, from the OrcaSlicer profiles the slicer uses). For each printer it returns the bed size and height, the nozzle sizes, the layer heights that have a print profile, the materials that have a filament profile, and the file the printer takes: a .gcode, or a .gcode.3mf for Bambu Lab.
• prepare_slice takes a printer and the print settings you want, checks them against that catalogue (a 0.3 mm layer on a nozzle whose profiles stop at 0.28 mm is refused with the allowed values), and returns a link that opens the online slicer with everything selected.

A third, authorize_slice, is only for the slicer shown in the chat when the connector is signed in with a SpeakCAD account: when you press Slice, it pays for the slice on that account and lets the slicer service take the file.

That is the whole trick: the assistant is good at the conversation (which material for a garden part, how much infill for a bracket), the slicer is good at the geometry, and the link carries the answer from one to the other.

Inside Claude: the slicer in the conversation

Claude renders interactive tools, and the SpeakCAD Slicer connector uses that: the slicer appears in the chat as a small app. You drop the file on it, turn the part around in 3D on your printer's bed, adjust the settings if you like, press Slice, and the G-code comes back with the print time and filament weight and a download link. The assistant is told the result, so you can ask it about the print time or change a setting by talking. The same app shows a ready-made library part in 3D when the assistant looks one up, and, with the SpeakCAD connector, a part SpeakCAD's AI designed for you, with its dimensions to adjust, ready to slice. You get 3 free slices a day there without an account; after that, the slicer asks for a free SpeakCAD account (or a sign-in) and opens on speakcad.com with the same printer and settings. With the signed-in SpeakCAD connector, slices are paid by the account exactly as on the site.

What it does not do

• It never sends your file through the assistant. You drop the STL or 3MF on the slicer, in the chat or on the SpeakCAD page, and it goes from your browser straight to the slicer service.
• It does not return the G-code to the assistant: the assistant gets the print time, the filament weight and a download link, never the file.
• It involves no AI on SpeakCAD's side. The slicing is the unmodified OrcaSlicer 2.4.2 command-line slicer with its bundled profiles; the assistant only chooses settings.
• It does not do multi-colour painting, modifiers, per-object settings or custom G-code. One model per file, standard profiles; a desktop slicer stays the tool for the rest.

What it costs

In Claude and ChatGPT: 3 free slices a day, no account. Then a free account, in the chat or on speakcad.com: The online slicer gives every account 1 free slice, its first (a free account, no card). After that, a slice uses one slice from a Slicer pack (20 slices for $3, once, never expire) or 5 credits, and slicing is included in Pro and Unlimited. Re-slicing the same file with other settings within 10 minutes is free. Finding a printer and checking settings with the connector is free.

Where the file goes

The file goes from your browser straight to the slicer service, never through SpeakCAD's web servers. It is sliced in a temporary folder that is deleted when the job ends, and it is not kept. The tool calls the assistant makes carry only the printer name and the settings; SpeakCAD counts them per day and per assistant, stores none of the content, and never sees your conversation.

Good requests

• "Slice for a Prusa MK4S, PLA, 0.20 mm, 20% infill, no supports."
• "I have a phone stand STL. Which settings for my Bambu Lab A1 mini in PETG?" (the assistant reads the profile, suggests the settings and gives the link)
• "Is the Elegoo Centauri Carbon supported, and which materials?"
• "My Ender-3 V3 SE has a 0.6 nozzle: link me the slicer with 0.24 mm layers."

Give the brand and model as they are printed on the machine. For a printer without a profile, the "Custom" brand has generic Marlin, Klipper and RepRap profiles; every printer with a profile is listed on the printers page.

Without the connector

The connector is a convenience. The online slicer works on its own: open it, drop the file, pick the printer and the settings by hand. And when the part itself needs designing or changing, the SpeakCAD connector hands the assistant's description to the AI editor, which returns an STL, a 3MF or G-code sliced the same way.