PrintPal 3D Map Builder

What is PrintPal 3D Map Builder?

PrintPal 3D Map Builder is a browser tool for sculpting, painting and decorating an invented landscape, then exporting it as a multicolor print file. You start from one of eight scenes, such as island, desert, canyon or volcano, and reshape the ground with raise, lower, smooth and flatten brushes. A paint tab colors the surface in grass, sand, rock, snow, water, lava and more, with a paint-by-height button for a quick first pass, and about 340 low-poly props from Kenney's free CC0 packs add houses, walls, towers, trees and bridges.

The printed size runs from 80 to 300 mm with a base of 3 to 12 mm. Export options are a color 3MF that Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer and PrusaSlicer open with each color ready for its own filament, an OBJ with an MTL file, or a plain STL. Tell it how many filament slots your printer has and it merges similar colors to fit. Bigger maps can be cut into up to 4 by 4 tiles joined by printed dovetail clips.

Designing is free with no sign-up, and you can save the project to your computer, but the Download button asks for a Pro or Studio subscription even though the page calls the tool free. It suits tabletop players and diorama makers who already pay for PrintPal.

What you can make

• Fantasy and tabletop terrain
• Island, volcano and canyon dioramas
• Village scenes with houses, walls and bridges
• Snap-together terrain tiles

How to use PrintPal 3D Map Builder

1. Open the map builder and pick a starter scene
2. Shape the land with the raise, lower, smooth and flatten brushes
3. Paint the surface or use Paint by height, then place houses, trees and bridges
4. Choose file format, tiles and filament slots in the Export tab
5. Download with a Pro or Studio subscription and assign filaments in your slicer