Shapemaker

What is Shapemaker?

Shapemaker is a free browser tool for designing geometric forms to print or draw. You start from a Platonic solid, an Archimedean solid such as a cuboctahedron or rhombicosidodecahedron, a sphere, a globe or a random hull, and change it with sliders while a 3D preview updates.

Size is set in millimeters as a diameter or edge length. Form controls make the shape solid or hollow, set the wall and round the edges. Distortion controls add jitter, truncation, spikes, subdivision and smoothing, and a Dual switch swaps faces for vertices. With Dual and an elliptical opening, a sphere becomes an open ring ball, and the Ring ball and Ring lantern presets show this. You click a face to choose which side rests on the bed, and the STL comes out already oriented. It can also export an SVG line drawing.

It is a new, small MIT-licensed project from July 2026. It suits makers who want math-art ornaments, lantern shells or teaching models without CAD.

What you can make

• Platonic and Archimedean solids
• Open ring balls and lantern shells
• Spiked and faceted ornaments
• SVG line drawings of shapes

How to use Shapemaker

1. Open Shapemaker in your browser
2. Pick a base shape or a preset
3. Set size, wall, openings and distortion
4. Click the face that should rest on the bed
5. Export the STL and slice