Hand tools
Seven hand tools, each one sentence long
SpeakCAD is the most intuitive CAD for 3D printing: tap a face and type a size to shape a part with simple tools, or describe it to the AI, on your phone or computer, and download a print-ready STL, 3MF or G-code sliced for your printer. The simple tools are these seven: Hole, Cut, Add, Extrude, Text, Round and Measure, in a rail above the chat. Each does one thing you can say in a sentence, on the face you tap, sized and placed with the millimetres you type.The tools
Cut
A rectangle, circle or slot cut into the tapped face, through or to a depth: a rectangle gets a corner radius, and a rectangle or a slot an Angle.On a print: Cable slots, windows for a connector or a display, recesses for a rubber foot or a magnet.Key C on a computerGuide: Hand toolsAdd
A tab, boss or peg (a rectangle, circle or slot) of the size you type, standing on the tapped face; a rectangle or a slot turns to the Angle you type.On a print: Mounting tabs, stand-offs for a board, pegs that locate a lid, stops.Key A on a computerGuide: Hand toolsExtrude
Pull a whole flat face out, or push it in, by the distance you type.On a print: A thicker plate, taller walls, a deeper pocket or a longer peg, without redrawing the part.Key E on a computerGuide: Extrude a faceText
Raised or engraved letters on a flat face, up to 40 characters in one bold sans font, their Letter height, Depth and Angle typed, placed from the face's edges.On a print: A label, a name or a part number on a box, a tag or a lid, or the screw size next to its hole.Key T on a computerGuide: Raised or engraved textRound
Round the corners of a part: the edges parallel to the tapped face's normal (tap the top of a box to round its four vertical corners), with the radius you choose.On a print: Vertical corners that warp less on the bed and do not catch; a single edge is an AI request.Key R on a computerGuide: Round the cornersMeasure
Two taps for a distance with its X, Y and Z parts; the tapped face's size and the wall thickness behind it.On a print: Check a hole spacing or a wall thickness before you print, or before you cut into it.Key M on a computerGuide: Hand toolsAfter Apply: retype, move, turn, duplicate, remove, undo
A hole, a cut, an added shape or a text stays editable after Apply: retype its size, Move it (tap where it goes, drag its handle, or retype its distances from the face's edges), turn a rectangle, a slot or a text with its Angle (edits placed since 5 October 2026), Duplicate it (a line, a grid or a circle of copies, or, but for a text, a mirror image), or Remove it. Duplicate, on the card of a placed edit: copies of a placed hole, cut, added shape or text in a Line, a Grid or a Circle (around the face's centre or a tapped point), or a Mirror of a hole, cut or shape, up to 100; the count and spacing stay numbers on its card. Screw head, on the Hole card: a Counterbore (socket head) or a Countersink (flat head) around a hole, sized by the M2 to M8 presets (M3: a 3.4 mm hole, a 6.5 × 3.4 mm counterbore or a 6.6 mm countersink). Every hand edit is a numbered version: Undo steps back one at a time, down to the empty model for a model you started by hand, as long as the AI has not answered on it. The model shows a ghost of what each change moved.Guide: Move a hole or a cutGuide: Rotate a slot or a rectangleGuide: Duplicate a hole in a row, a grid or a circleGuide: Countersink or counterbore a screw holeThe AI item, for the rest
The last item in the rail, AI, is for what the tools do not do: point at a spot on the model and tell the AI what to change there. Rounding a single edge, hollowing a part, moving a lid or building from a photo is a request to the AI: 2 credits (up to 10 on a very large model), and the AI keeps your hand edits. A download of a part with AI work in it spends 4 credits.How many taps a task takes
Measured on the editor, next to the steps Tinkercad's and Onshape's documentation gives for the same job:- An M4 through hole in an 80 × 50 × 3 mm plate, its centre 6 mm from the left edge and 6 mm from the front edge: 4 taps and 2 typed numbers.
- An open box (a floor and four walls) with its vertical corners rounded to 8 mm: 2 taps and 1 typed number on a computer (3 taps on a phone).
- Make the plate 5 mm thicker by pulling its top face out: 3 taps.
- Move that hole 10 mm along the plate: 1 tap and 1 typed number.
- A row of four M4 through holes 10 mm apart along the same plate, the first one's centre 6 mm from the left edge and 6 mm from the front edge: 6 taps and 4 typed numbers.
Where a part starts
A new model opens on an empty editor with four starter shapes (Open box, Plate, Cylinder, Tray) and an upload. Your own STL or 3MF opens for the tools with no AI turn when you upload it with the Upload an STL or 3MF card in a new model's empty editor, drop it on the Edit an STL box with the change left empty, on the online slicer and press Change it with AI with nothing typed, or on SpeakCAD's card in ChatGPT or Claude with no change. The result downloads as a watertight STL or 3MF, or as G-code sliced for one of 380+ printers.What it costs
Shaping a part by hand (a hole and its screw head, a cut, an added tab, raised or engraved text, an extruded face, rounded corners, and copies in a row, a grid or a circle) and downloading what you shaped are free. Each AI request spends 2 credits, a download of AI work 4 credits, and G-code 5 more.Questions
Seven: Hole, Cut, Add, Extrude, Text, Round and Measure. Hole drills a round hole where you tap (M2 to M8 presets, with a counterbore or a countersink for the screw head), Cut takes a rectangle, circle or slot out of the face, Add stands a tab or boss on it, Extrude pulls a whole flat face out or pushes it in, Text writes raised or engraved letters, Round rounds the corners of a part, and Measure reads distances and wall thickness. A hole, a cut, an added shape or a text stays editable after Apply: retype its size, Move it (tap where it goes, drag its handle, or retype its distances from the face's edges), turn a rectangle, a slot or a text with its Angle (edits placed since 5 October 2026), Duplicate it (a line, a grid or a circle of copies, or, but for a text, a mirror image), or Remove it.
Yes. Shaping a part by hand (a hole and its screw head, a cut, an added tab, raised or engraved text, an extruded face, rounded corners, and copies in a row, a grid or a circle) and downloading what you shaped are free. Each AI request spends 2 credits, a download of AI work 4 credits, and G-code 5 more. On the live demo the hand tools work without an account; downloading needs a free one.
Yes. Tap Duplicate on the card of a placed hole, cut, tab or text and pick Line (Copies and Spacing), Grid (Copies × Rows), Circle (around the face's centre or a tapped point, over an Arc angle) or Mirror (across the face's centre line; not for a text). Up to 100 copies, and the count and the spacing stay numbers on the card; Remove the copies takes them away.
No. Text writes in one bold sans font, raised or engraved, up to 40 characters on a flat face. Serif or monospaced letters, or text wrapped around a curved face, are an AI request (2 credits); fonts of your own are not available.
No. Round rounds the corners of a part: the edges parallel to the tapped face’s normal, such as the four vertical corners of a box when you tap its top. A pocket you cut gets its own corner radius on the Cut card. A single edge, or the top edges of a box, is an AI request (2 credits).
Read more
Intuitive CAD for 3D printingFive everyday tasks counted in taps, next to Tinkercad and Onshape.Shape a part by hand: the guideAll the tools in one walk-through, with the numbers to type.Online CAD for 3D printingThe tools side by side with Tinkercad's and Onshape's.A Tinkercad alternativeWhat maps to what, and where Tinkercad still wins.Edit an STL you downloadedOpen your file with no AI turn and add the hole it is missing.Live demoThe real editor with a ready part, no account needed.