Your first design in ShapeDis: from a sentence to a file

ShapeDis turns a description into an exact 3D model you can look at from every side, check, and download. This guide takes you through one design from the first message to the files. It needs nothing installed: it runs in your browser, on a laptop or a phone.

Before you start

• Open ShapeDis from the Get started button on the home page and sign in. The first time, you are asked to accept the terms of use.
• A new person gets 40 free credits, once, which is about 2 designs. No card is needed. See pricing for how credits work.
• Open Settings in the top bar to choose your language (English or Hebrew), mm or inches, and the printer new projects start on. You can change these any time.

Step 1: make a project

On the project list, type a name and press New project. A project is one part: its chat, its versions and its files all live inside it. A name like "Raspberry Pi mount" is enough; you can start a second project for the next part.

Step 2: say what you need

Type what the part is for and the sizes you know, in plain words. For example: "A clip that holds a 6 mm cable to the edge of my desk, 3 mm plastic, screw hole on top." You can attach a photo or a sketch to the message.

The model appears in the 3D view after its first good build, and the chat saves it as version 1. If a try fails, the view keeps the last good model and says so. A longer message does not give a better part: real sizes do. How to describe a part has examples, and says how many pictures a message can carry (up to 4).

Step 3: look, then ask for changes

• Drag to turn the model. Fit frames all of it.
• Click a face or a piece and it goes into your next message as a small chip, with its size, so the AI knows exactly which one you mean. Then say what to change: "make this hole 8 mm".
• Use Measure, Size and Section to check the real numbers. Point, measure and size covers each tool.
• Every change you make by chat becomes a new version. You can go back to any of them: see versions and history.

Step 4: check it

Open the Print tab. It shows whether the model checks out, which parts lean out far enough to need supports, and whether anything is bigger than your printer's bed. If your part has to fit something, ask for a mock of that thing and use the slide-in test. What the checks look at and mocks and the slide-in test explain both.

Step 5: download

In the Print tab, choose which pieces to export and press Download for printing. You get a zip with an STL and a STEP file for each piece, and one 3MF with all the pieces laid out on the bed. The files are not sliced: open them in your slicer, or take the STEP file into a CAD or CNC program. STL, STEP and 3MF says which file to use for what.

What it costs in credits

A credit pays for the AI's work on a message. On the Sonnet model, typical everyday parts use about 9 credits for the first message, about 4 for each follow-up change, and about 18 for a whole simple design of three messages. Large assemblies and long conversations cost more, and you can always see how many credits you have left.

What to keep in mind

• The model is made by an AI, so measure it and test print before you rely on it. The checks catch some problems, not all of them.
• It is built for parts you can describe and measure: brackets, clips, mounts, boxes, adapters. It is not for organic shapes such as figurines, and it does not replace an engineer for anything where a failure could hurt someone.
• ShapeDis does not slice or send anything to a printer. You take the files to your slicer.