drag to orbit · scroll to zoom

🔒 AIM MODE — drag to set gradient direction

🪨 off

Drop a .3mf or .stl file

or use the Load button → · or tap 🎲 Surprise me to play

1 · Model

Demo:

Orient & size

mm tall

Height-based styles follow the model's upright Z — rotate here if your model came in lying down.

This model is denser than the surface styles can handle. Simplifying rewelds it at colour-print resolution.

Mode—

Bands—

Tool changes—

Filaments needed

File—

Triangles—

Mesh—

Size (mm)—

🎛️ Filament loading guide which spool goes where

📦 Print planning volume · coverage · waste

Select colour

#ffffff

Amazon UK Bambu Store

Affiliate search link — opens Amazon UK with Strata's associate tag. Match filament brand, material and colour before buying.

Real filament colours

Spectrum

🌈

Welcome to Strata

Turn any model into a colour-banded 3MF you can print — gradients, retro stripes, optical blends and light-shaded looks, ready for Bambu printers or the Snapmaker U1.

⚡ FASTEST START

Just tap 🎲 Surprise me — it picks a random style & matching filaments instantly. Keep tapping till you like what you see.

Or build it yourself:
1 · Model — load your own STL/3MF, or tap 🏺 Shapes to generate one: vases, storage boxes, coasters, chess sets, signs & 30+ printable designs with dividers, text and options
2 · Style — 60+ styles; tap 🖼️ All styles or ✨ Looks to see each one ON your model
3 · Colours — filaments, presets, or pull a palette from a photo
⬇ Export — grab the 3MF and slice it

Feeling generous? 🎁 Gift (inside Shapes) makes a personalised present in one press — shape, colours and their name stamped on.

Pick your gear level bottom-left: 🕹️ Retro (just gorgeous gradients) · Standard · ⚡ Pro (everything, incl. the 🪣 paint tool).

The boat on screen is just a demo — load your own model before printing.

Lost later? The ❓ Guide button (top-right) searches every feature and jumps you to it.

❓ Guide · find any feature

Strata in four steps: Model → Colours → Style → Export. Search below, then tap Show me to jump straight to any tool.

📥

3MF exported

Your file is saved. A few things to know:

Colours appear after you slice. The model may look single-colour when you first open it in your slicer — the colour changes show up once it's sliced.
Check your slicer settings. Make sure your filament slots / colours match what you intended, and check the filament types and layer heights are set correctly.
Tested in Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer & SnOrca.
Use the latest Bambu Studio. Older versions may not read the embedded colour data correctly — update before importing.

Export options

Your slicer paints per triangle, so how clean the colour edges look in the slicer depends on mesh density. Higher density = smoother edges, larger file.

Mesh density · Refined

Merge flat colour regions (smaller file)

Collapses big flat same-colour areas into fewer triangles — recommended with Ultra to keep the file manageable.

Export options

Lighting

Floor reflection

Resolution (PNG only)

Higher resolution = larger file, slower export.

✨ What's new

Recent additions to Strata.

✨ Looks

Ready-made looks on your model — style, colours and settings in one click. Undo brings your design back.

🖼️ Style previews

Your model in every style — click one to apply it. Rendered from your current colours.

2 · Style

SOURCE COLOURS

ACTUAL BANDED RESULT ↑

📏 Layer inspector colour at any height

Gradients & blends

Light & shading

Design roles

Texture & geometry

🕳 Cavities keep base colour

Hidden interior surfaces (inside a cup, under an overhang) stay the base colour — fewer filament swaps, faster print, no change to what you see from outside.

🏷 Stamp text / logo

Font 🌈 Rainbow letters

Position around · 0° Height · 55% Size · 50%

Painted into the mesh razor-sharp and exported exactly as shown. Wraps around the model — use PLAIN for a classic name-on-solid look.

Clean colour depth 3 colours

Uses colours as design roles such as body, lower body, trim, caps and shadow. More colours can look richer but use more slicer filament slots.

Swap interval

Every (mm)

Layer height (mm)

Band spacing

Drag points · tap line to add · tap point to remove

X = position up the model · Y = where colours land. Stays monotonic so bands never overlap.

Gradient direction · Vertical Z

Right-click drag on the model to aim · left-click to orbit

Touch/aim mode on — drag on the model to swing the gradient axis. Pinch/scroll still zooms; tap again to orbit.

Rotation around model · 0° Tilt up from horizontal · 90°

sideways / painted meshvertical / layer changes

Solid amount · 25%

all blendsolid ends · narrow blend

Transition curve · linear

fade fastlinearlinger

Blend

Gradient = colours fade into each other up the height. Even mix = all colours weave evenly the whole way. Confetti = a fine random speckle of all colours.

Cycles · 1 · single fade

single2 = mirrorrepeating

Blend shape

Shapes where the colours transition. Even = steady. Ease = colours pool at the ends, quick blends. Soft ends / Sharp middle = longer / shorter blends. Rising / Falling = the first / last colour dominates.

Colour positions · drag each handle to place that colour up the height

base ↓top ↑

Mix ratio · 1:1

more colour 1more colour 2

Weave thickness · layers per colour

Layer pitch · finer = smoother blend

Colour swaps land on layer boundaries — set your slicer's layer height to this exact value so the thin alternating layers print as designed. 0.08–0.10mm reads smoothest.

This printer/direction paints the fade into the mesh as clean bands — the pitch buttons above set the band width (0.08 = finest printable). What you see is exactly what exports.

Smooth · auto-blend colours

Inserts an extra filament between each pair of your colours so the blend stays smooth even in close-up. You'll need to load the extra filament(s) — they appear under Filaments needed.

Mix = true optical average — clean for neighbours (red→yellow→orange), muddy for opposites. Vivid = travel around the colour wheel (green→yellow→pink) for bright intermediates.

Waterline height · 42%

Colour 1 below the line, colour 2 above — one clean swap. Drag to set where the split sits up the model.

Colour steps · 8

Random band widths around the average set by the interval above.

Mix · 1:1

more colour 1more colour 2

Blend mode

Layer height · fine layers blend better

💡 Shades the model with a virtual light. Colour 1 = shadow, Colour 2 = highlight. Each tone band becomes a distinct filament, exported as Mesh Colours — works in any slicer. Similar to Prusa's ColorMix Shading, but snaps tones to real filaments so no optical-mixing slicer plugin is needed.

Light direction · 135°

rotate the light around the model

Light height · 45°

low / rakingoverhead

Tone steps · 5

chunkysmooth

Contrast · 1.0

Snap tones to real filaments

On: each tone becomes a loadable filament colour (printable anywhere). Off: use the exact optical blend (needs a mixing-capable slicer).

Tone palette · click to lock a slot to a specific filament · right-click to unlock

Cut regions · 4

cleaner, larger regionsmore detail

🪨 Solid base height · off

pattern everywheresolid all the way up

Scale · 5

large blobsfine grain

Scale · U 1.0× V 1.0×

wide1×narrow

Rotation · 0°

0°90°175°

Flat face mask · off

off · texture all facessides only

Merge flat colour regions on export

Collapses adjacent coplanar same-colour faces into a convex hull fan — reduces 3MF file size on models with large flat surfaces.

Surface preview

Faceted shows exactly what the slicer will paint (per-triangle) — raise mesh density below for cleaner edges. Smooth previews the ideal per-pixel pattern as a target (export is still per-triangle).

Surface paint mesh

Paint export quality · Balanced

fastbalancedhigh quality

Export as

3 · Colours

4 filaments

🎲 Random shuffle

Presets quick start

Project

Saves the model together with its exact paint — colours, style, AI part colours and every sweep/touch-up — as one .strata file. Reopen it to pick up exactly where you left off, no re-loading the STL.

Save / Load Settings

Settings are the look only (no model). They persist in this browser and can be exported as a file.

SHARE · send someone your exact look

…or use a look code

Opening the link reproduces your exact look — colours, style, direction and every slider. The model itself isn't included.

Clears your remembered settings (colours, style, printer) and reloads the starter look.

CLAUDE API KEY · for ✨ Describe

Bring-your-own-key: stored only in your browser and sent straight to api.anthropic.com — Strata has no server. Get a key at console.anthropic.com. Typical cost is a fraction of a cent per describe.

Export / Share

Printer

More exports — GIF · PNG · palette card

vibe-coded with love by r2k