Online 3D printer slicer: your STL or 3MF in, G-code out

What the online slicer is

A slicer turns a 3D model into G-code, the list of moves, temperatures and extrusion amounts a 3D printer runs. SpeakCAD's online slicer does that from a browser tab: upload an STL or 3MF, pick your printer and a few settings, and download a file ready to print. The slicing itself is done by the unmodified OrcaSlicer 2.4.2 command-line slicer, with the printer, process and filament presets OrcaSlicer ships, on SpeakCAD's slicer service. There is no AI in it: it slices your file as it is.

Printers it slices for

380+ printer models from 60+ brands, each with the profile OrcaSlicer bundles for it: bed size, nozzle variants, firmware flavour, start and end G-code, speed and acceleration limits. The main brands:

Also in the list: Volumic (21), Wanhao France (17), Geeetech (16), Z-Bolt (9), SeeMeCNC (7), FLSun (6), re3D (6), CoLiDo (5), MagicMaker (5), FlyingBear (4), InfiMech (4), Kingroon (4), Lulzbot (4), Tiertime (4), BIQU (3), Blocks (3), Cubicon (3), DeltaMaker (3), Dremel (3), Eryone (3), Folgertech (3), WonderMaker (3), Comgrow (2), CONSTRUCT3D (2), innovatiQ (2), LH (2), LONGER (2), Raise3D (2), RolohaunDesign (2), SecKit (2), TwoTrees (2), Vivedino (2), Vzbot (2), WEMAKE3D (2), Afinia (1), Chuanying (1), Co Print (1), Ginger Additive (1), M3D (1), Mellow (1), OpenEYE (1), Peopoly (1), Phrozen (1), Positron 3D (1), RH3D (1), Tronxy (1), UltiMaker (1), Voxelab (1), Wanhao (1); and generic Klipper, Marlin, RepRapFirmware and Repetier profiles, whose bed size and start G-code may not match your machine. Every model is on the printers page, and the popular ones have their own page with the bed size and layer heights from their profile.

The settings you choose

• Printer and nozzle. The model and the nozzle diameter, among the variants its profile has.
• Layer height. The printer's own process presets, from fine to draft (on a Bambu Lab A1, 0.06 to 0.56 mm across its nozzles).
• Filament. A preset for the material, among PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU, PLA-CF, PETG-CF, PC, PA, PA-CF, as far as the printer's profile has one. Temperatures, cooling and flow come from the preset.
• Infill. A percentage.
• Supports. Auto turns on OrcaSlicer's automatic supports, which go only where an overhang is steeper than the profile's threshold, and the result says whether any were printed. Always puts them under every overhang past 45°, small ones included, even where the profile would print it in the air. Never slices without them. Tree or normal supports, and supports on the build plate only if you want none starting on the model.
• Speed. Quiet (0.6 x the profile's speeds), Normal, or Fast (1.3 x), always capped by the printer's and the filament's limits.
• Walls. The number of wall loops.
• Bed adhesion. Auto, None, Brim or Skirt.
• Auto-orientation. Turns the model onto its flattest base with the fewest overhangs before slicing; switch it off to keep the orientation of your file.

Everything else (temperatures, retraction, accelerations, seams, top and bottom layers) comes from the printer, process and filament presets as OrcaSlicer ships them. Your printers and their last settings are saved on your account.

What you get back

• The file. A plain .gcode for every printer, and a sliced .gcode.3mf for Bambu Lab printers: the file they print from the microSD card and that Bambu Studio sends over the network.
• The numbers. Estimated print time, filament in grams and metres, layer count, printed height, and whether supports were added, with their weight. To see them before you slice, with the cost in filament and electricity, the print time and cost calculator runs the same slicer without an account.
• Screen previews. When the printer's profile asks for them, the preview images its screen shows are embedded in the G-code.
• Prusa MK3 family. The file does not stop on the "File incomplete, continue anyway?" prompt.

What it costs

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. Slicer pack slices work only in the online slicer. Starter credits ($5 once, 50 credits, no subscription) also pay for 10 slices. Pro ($14.99 a month) and Unlimited ($39.99 a month) include slicing. On every plan, an account can start up to 60 slices a day.

Your file

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 one exception is a file dropped on SpeakCAD's slicer page before signing up: it waits, as a compressed 3MF, in private storage until you open it in the slicer and for 24 hours at most, then it is deleted.

On a Chromebook, an iPad or a phone

Nothing to install: the slicer runs in Chrome on a Chromebook, in Safari on an iPad or an iPhone, in Chrome on Android, and in any current desktop browser. Desktop slicers are apps for Windows, macOS and Linux, so on a Chromebook, a tablet or a phone this is the way to slice without borrowing a computer. On a phone the G-code lands in Files or Downloads, and goes from there to the printer's SD card or USB stick, its app or its web upload page. From a phone to the slicer covers each route, and each device has its own step-by-step page: slicer for Chromebook, slicer for iPad, slicer for iPhone and slicer for Android.

From ChatGPT or Claude

The same slicer works inside the conversation. Add the SpeakCAD Slicer connector to ChatGPT or Claude (no sign-in), say "slice my STL for my Bambu Lab A1 in PETG, 0.2 mm layers", and the assistant looks the printer up, checks the settings against its profile and opens the slicer in the chat with them selected: you drop the file there. Slice from ChatGPT or Claude has the set-up; SpeakCAD for ChatGPT and for Claude also design the part first.

When a desktop slicer is the better tool

The online slicer exposes the settings above and nothing more. OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer, Cura and Bambu Studio are free desktop apps you install, and they remain the better tool for:

• Multi-colour and multi-material prints: painting colours on a model for an AMS, an MMU or a tool changer.
• Modifiers and per-object settings: denser infill in one area, other settings for one part, changes by height range.
• Custom G-code: your own start and end G-code, a pause or a filament change at a layer.
• Tuning: calibration prints, and printer and filament profiles you edit yourself.
• A printer that is not in the list, which a desktop slicer lets you set up from scratch.

For one model sliced with your printer's standard profiles, from any device, the online slicer is the shorter path. STL to G-code explains what the conversion does and which settings matter.

When the part itself needs changing

A slicer prints the model as it is. If a hole is too small, the part is 5 mm too wide or it needs a mount, edit the STL with SpeakCAD's AI: it rebuilds the mesh as an editable model with exact millimetres. No file yet? Describe the part and the AI designs it. Both download G-code sliced for the same 380+ printers.