From STL to a
printable wireframe

The interface has two halves: a control panel on the left where you set everything up, and a 3D preview on the right where you inspect your model and the result. The big blue Generate button sits at the bottom of the control panel.

1 Upload your STL

Everything starts with a 3D model in STL format.

1. Open the 📁 Input File panel at the top of the controls.
2. Click Choose STL File, or drag & drop a .stl file directly onto the drop zone.
3. The model appears in the right-hand preview. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom, and click a face of the cube in the corner to snap to a standard view.

2 Choose a mode

Right below the upload panel you choose how Gridify3D transforms your model. There are two fundamentally different modes.

Click 🔷 Wire Grid or 🥚 Surface to switch. The control panel updates to show the options for the mode you picked. We'll cover each in turn.

3 Wire Grid mode

Wire Grid turns your model into a printable lattice. You pick a pattern, set how fine it is, and how thick the rods are.

Choose a pattern

In the 🔷 Wire Grid panel, pick the pattern that's projected onto the surface:

• 💎 Diamond — the classic crossing-rods look.
• ⬛ Square — a regular grid of squares.
• 🔺 Triangle — triangular mesh, very rigid.
• ⬡ Hexagon — honeycomb cells.
• ⟋ Diagonal Weave / ⟍ Counter Weave — woven diagonal lines.
• ⬡ Voronoi — organic, irregular cells.

Set the pattern size

The Pattern Size slider controls how fine the grid is, measured in degrees. Smaller values = more, smaller cells; larger values = fewer, larger cells. Only seamless values are offered, so the pattern always wraps cleanly around the model.

Tube diameter & open areas

🎯 Center Offset

The pattern is projected outward from a center point. By default that's the model's centroid. The X / Y / Z offset sliders shift that center, which changes how the pattern wraps around the model — useful for asymmetric shapes. Hit ✕ Reset to recenter.

4 Surface mode

Surface mode keeps a solid shell of your model and decorates it. Shapes are placed at evenly spaced points across the surface, and you decide whether they're punched through the wall, engraved into it, or stamped onto it.

Lines & Intersections

This panel defines the grid of points where shapes will be placed.

Click 🔍 Preview Lines & Intersections to see exactly where shapes will land before you generate.

Punch / Engrave & Stamp

Here you choose the shape, then whether to punch, engrave, or stamp it.

• Shapes: ⚫ Circle · ⭐ Star · ❤️ Heart · 🌸 Flower · 🔵 Dome.
• 🕳 Punch cuts the shape as a hole straight through the surface wall.
• 🔻 Engrave carves the shape into the solid surface as a depression — the body stays intact.
• 🔴 Stamp raises the shape outward from the surface as a relief.

5 Shared options

These panels work in both modes and let you fine-tune the result.

🎨 Exclusion Zones

Sometimes you want part of the model left solid — a flat base, a logo area, a spot that shouldn't have holes. Exclusion Zones let you paint those areas directly on the model.

• ✋ Off — normal rotate/inspect mode.
• ⬆⬇ Select — click & drag on the model to mark a surface area.
• 🖌 Brush — paint zones freehand; adjust the brush Radius as needed.
• 🔀 Angle — when on, the selection stops automatically at sharp/concave transitions, so it's easy to grab just one panel or face.
• ↩ Undo / ✕ Clear — step back or remove all zones.

📐 Scale Model

Resize the model along each axis independently with the X / Y / Z sliders. Turn on 🔗 Lock axes to scale uniformly. ↩ Undo and ✕ Reset are there if you overshoot. The preview updates live, so what you see is what you'll print. Scale is available in both Wire Grid and Surface mode.

⬇️ Open Bottom / ✂️ Cut Bottom

For objects that need a flat, open base — like a tealight holder or vase — enable Open Bottom. It cuts the model at a height you choose and can add a rounded rim to tidy the cut edge.

6 Save & continue later

You don't have to finish in one sitting. A whole project — the model, all your settings, and any painted zones — can be saved to your computer and reopened any time to keep working.

The project buttons sit in the top bar of the control panel:

Saving

Click 💾 Save, give the project a name (and an optional note), and download the .edf file. Because the original STL is embedded inside it, the file is fully self-contained.

Opening again

Click 📂 Open and pick your .edf file. A dialog shows the project's details — name, note, original STL, save date and zone count — and gives you two ways to load it:

• 📁 STL & load — loads everything including the 3D preview, ready to continue or generate.
• Params only — loads just the settings, without the STL preview. Handy for applying the same setup to a different model.

7 Generate & download

Once everything looks right, it's time to build the final mesh.

1. Click the blue ◈ Generate button at the bottom of the control panel.
2. Your job runs on the server. Follow live progress in the 📋 Log panel and the progress bar. Generation typically takes 30 seconds to 3 minutes depending on complexity. If several people generate at once, jobs are queued fairly.
3. You can ✖ Cancel a running job at any time.
4. When it's done, the result appears in the preview and the ⬇️ Download STL button activates. Click it, give your file a name, and save it.

The downloaded STL is a watertight, manifold mesh — drop it straight into your slicer (Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, Cura, …) and print.

Tips & troubleshooting