Quick start
Your first print file takes about five minutes. Do the printer step first, because it sets the bed size, bead width and speeds that every other number depends on.
Choose your printer
Open the Printer tab and pick your machine. Check that the nozzle and canister sizes match yours. Potterware remembers this in your browser.
Start from a preset
Pick one from Presets… at the top, or keep the default studio vase. Presets change the design but leave your printer alone.
Shape the form
In Shape, set the height and maximum diameter, then drag the profile handles sideways or up and down, adding points where you want more curves.
Add a surface
In Texture, add waves, an image relief or vertical ripples. The preview updates as you go.
Check the print stats
The stats above the preview should read Fits the bed, and the clay estimate should fit your canister.
Export
Press G-code, name the file and download it. Scrub the preview first if you want to watch the print play back.
The workspace
The left side holds the controls, grouped into six tabs. The right side is a live preview of the exact path the nozzle will travel.
Moving around the preview
- Orbit by dragging with the left mouse button or one finger.
- Pan by dragging with the right mouse button, or with two fingers.
- Zoom with the scroll wheel or by pinching.
- Fit frames the whole print. Top looks straight down, which is the best view for checking base patterns and the seam.
Undo and redo
The arrow buttons at the left of the top bar step back and forward through your changes, up to 100 steps. A whole slider drag or handle drag counts as one step, and choosing a preset or opening a design can be undone too. A short note tells you what each step changed, for example Undo: Amplitude. Display settings such as the clay colour and Bead or Lines are not part of the history.
Bead and Lines
Bead draws the toolpath as solid clay at the width and height the printer will actually lay down, so you can judge surface texture and overhangs. Lines draws the bare path, which is faster to inspect on very large prints and shows travel moves clearly.
Preview scrubber
Drag Preview to play the print back from the first bead. The percentage is the share of the toolpath drawn. Stop it partway to inspect a base pattern, the seam ramp or the layer where a wave starts.
Status chips
The chips across the top summarise the current design. They update after every change.
- Layers
- Number of wall layers, from the object height divided by the layer height.
- Size
- Width × depth × height of the printed wall in millimetres, including waves and relief.
- Path
- Total length of extruded clay in metres.
- Time
- Estimated print time from the path length and your printer's feed rate.
- Clay
- Clay volume and the share of one canister it needs. Over 100% means you will refill mid-print. See Clay and bead size.
- Bed fit
- Fits the bed when every point lies inside your printer's print area, otherwise a warning with a Fit to bed button.
Fit to bed re-centres the print on a rectangular bed and scales the form down just enough to fit. On a SCARA it moves the print to the middle of the reachable ring. If even that is not enough, it tells you to use fewer copies or a smaller skirt offset.
Shape
A Potterware form is a profile spun around a vertical axis. You can also print the outline of your own 3D model.
The profile
The profile is a curve shaped by 2 to 12 handles, lettered from A at the rim down to the foot. Each label shows the diameter there in millimetres. A new design starts with five evenly spaced points.
- Drag sideways to widen or narrow the wall at that point.
- Drag up or down to move a point to a new height. The selected point shows its height in mm. The rim and the foot always stay at the top and bottom.
- Add a point by double-clicking the outline at the height you want, or press + Add point to place one in the biggest gap. It picks up the current width there, so the shape barely changes until you move it.
- Remove a point by double-clicking its handle, or select it and press − Remove point or Delete. Remove them all to leave just the rim and foot for a straight wall.
- Space evenly spreads the points to equal heights. Reset to 5 points returns to the original layout.
The handles pull the curve toward them so the wall stays smooth. To make the outline pass straight through every point, set Vertical profile to Angular.
Maximum diameter scales the whole profile at once. To type exact heights and diameters, open Exact profile values, which lists every point with an × to remove it and + Add point at the bottom.
- Object height4–1500 mm
- Height of the wall before scaling. Default 100
- Maximum diameter1–1000 mm
- The diameter a handle reaches at 100%. Default 100
- Vertical profile
- Smooth draws a soft curve guided by the handles. Angular joins the points with straight lines that pass through each one, for a faceted silhouette.
- Object sides3–360
- How many sides the form has in plan. Use 3–8 for polygonal pots and 100 or more for round ones. Default 100
- Horizontal profile
- Smooth rounds the corners between sides. Angular keeps them sharp.
- Object twist0–1800°
- Rotates each layer a little more than the last. The total twist is reached at the rim.
Imported mesh
Choose Imported mesh and upload an .obj or .stl file. Potterware slices it into layers and prints the outer outline of each slice. Set Up axis of file to match the program you exported from. Most STL files are Z up, and many OBJ files are Y up. Use sample loads a test vase.
Tip. Uploaded meshes can have up to 150,000 triangles. If yours is bigger, reduce or decimate it in your modelling program first.
Scale
- Uniform
- One factor, 0.1× to 3×, for the whole print.
- Per axis
- Separate X, Y and Z factors, for ovals and squat or stretched forms.
- To size
- Type the finished width, depth and height in millimetres.
Texture
Surface effects move the wall in and out as it is printed. Horizontal effects work around each layer. Vertical effects lift and lower the layers themselves.
Horizontal waves
Waves push the wall out and in along each layer. Pick Sine, Saw tooth, Square or Jitter (random). Change the Jitter randomizer number for a different random pattern.
- Amplitude1–100 mm
- How far the wall moves. It is the real distance in millimetres, and masks or relief never reduce it.
- Repetitions3–200
- Points per layer. Two points make one wave, so 30 gives 15 waves around.
- Starts after / Ends at
- The share of layers left plain at the bottom, then the share of the remaining layers that get waves.
- Fade in / Fade out
- Grows the waves from nothing, or shrinks them away, over this share of the waved layers.
- Wave offset per layer
- Shifts the wave a little each layer, so the pattern spirals up the pot.
- Interior wave offset
- Moves the inner points of the wave inward, for a deeper texture.
- Waved / plain layers
- Alternates bands: this many waved layers, then this many plain ones.
Image effects
A black-and-white image wrapped around the pot can drive the surface in three ways:
- Relief
- Pushes the chosen areas out, or presses them in with a negative Relief depth (−10 to 10 mm). Soft edges follow the greys. Hard switches on at the threshold.
- Wave mask
- Waves run at full amplitude where the image passes the Threshold, and stop elsewhere. Pick a wave type above to see it.
- Both
- Relief and mask together.
- Effect follows
- White areas or Black areas. This flips the image without editing it.
- Mask vertical effects too
- Applies the same mask to vertical waves.
The texture library has twelve tileable patterns: Coral, Cells, Stone, Flutes, Twist, Ripples, Chevron, Checker, Dots, Brick, Scales and Weave. Choose Yours to upload your own image. Any photo works and is turned to greyscale. High-contrast images give the clearest results.
Placement and tiling
Tiles around and Tiles up repeat the image across the pot. Width is the share of the circumference the image covers, so 25% places one motif on one side. Horizontal and Vertical position slide it into place.
Vertical effects
Vertical waves raise and lower the bead as it travels around each layer, so the layer lines undulate and the rim turns wavy. They have their own type, Amplitude (0–100 mm), Repetitions, start, end and fades, and run together with horizontal effects.
Effect gradient sets where they are strongest. Grows to top builds from nothing at the foot to the full amplitude at the rim. Peaks in middle swells at mid-height and calms toward both ends. Because the effect grows gradually, neighbouring layers stay close together and keep supporting each other.
Printability. Many repetitions with a large amplitude make steep slopes in each layer, which soft clay may not hold. Raise the amplitude in small steps and check the slopes with the preview scrubber.
Layers, base & finish
These settings decide how the wall is stacked, where each layer begins, what goes underneath, and how the print starts and ends.
Layers and seam
- Layer height0.2–10 mm
- Height of each layer. It also sets the bead height. Default 1.5
- Layer change
- Seam ramp prints flat layers and climbs to the next one at the seam. Continuous spiral rises steadily all the way round, with no seam, as in vase mode.
- Seam ramp length0–40 points
- How many of the last points of each layer lift toward the next one. Longer ramps hide the seam better. Default 10
- Seam
- Fixed keeps the seam in one place. Follows twist rotates it with the form.
- Seam position0–10
- Where the seam sits around the form. 0 is the +X side, and 5 is opposite.
- Points per layer24–1000
- Resolution of each layer. Use more for fine textures and fewer for smaller files. Default 200
Base and skirt
Set Base layers (0–5) to print a solid floor. Zero leaves the bottom open, for planters or sleeves. Every pattern finishes at the seam, so the wall starts with a short step and nothing is dragged across the floor. With several base layers, the top layer prints outward to the seam and the ones below alternate direction, so each layer change happens in place. Five patterns are available:
- Concentric rings
- The original Potterware base: rings that step out from the centre, each one starting and closing at the seam. Base layer spacing controls the gap.
- Spiral
- One continuous spiral from the centre out to the edge, finishing at the seam. It has the fewest stops and starts.
- Parallel lines
- Back-and-forth lines at your chosen Angle. Turn each layer by rotates the next layer.
- Crosshatch
- Lines that turn 90° on each layer. A single base layer gets both directions.
- Sunburst
- Spokes from the centre to the wall, arranged so the last spoke and the outline finish at the seam.
Line spacing (1–20 mm) sets the gap between lines or spiral turns. Finish with an outline ring seals the edge of line patterns. Scale base shrinks or grows the floor relative to the foot, so 0.95 tucks it slightly inside the wall.
The skirt is a loop around the print, drawn first to get clay flowing. Skirt offset is its distance from the foot. Default 17 mm
Start and finish
- Prime before the skirt
- Extrudes a set length of bead in place at the start point (Prime amount, 1–150 mm), so clay is flowing before the skirt begins.
- Wipe off the rim
- At the end, moves inward off the wall without extruding (Wipe distance), then lifts (Lift). This keeps the nozzle from dragging a blob across the rim.
Sculpt
The sculpt cage is a ring of handles wrapped around the form. Push and pull them to bend the wall the way you would nudge a pot on the wheel. The wall always passes through every handle.
Moving handles
- Drag a handle in the 3D view. With Freely, it follows your mouse on the plane facing you. With Perpendicular to surface, it slides only straight in and out of the wall.
- Drag an arrow on the selected handle to move in one exact direction: red X, green Y, blue Z (up and down) or gold straight out of the surface.
- Type exact values in Out, Around and Ring up (all in mm) for the selected handle.
- Moving a handle up or down moves its whole ring, so layers stay flat and printable.
Symmetry and grid
- None
- Each handle moves on its own.
- Mirror
- Moves are mirrored across the X axis.
- All around
- Every handle on a ring moves together. This is the quickest way to make a belly, neck or flare.
- Handles around / Rings
- 3–24 handles per ring and 2–12 rings. Changing the grid keeps your current shape as closely as it can. Default 8 × 4
Reset handle puts the selected handle back, and Reset cage clears all sculpting. The Sculpt tab shows a dot while any handle is moved. Sculpting also applies to multi-print copies, but you need to turn multi-print off to edit the cage.
Printer & clay
Your printer setup is saved in your browser on its own, so loading a preset or a design never changes it.
- Printer
- Sets the bed shape and size, start and end G-code, base feed rate and extrusion multiplier.
- Print speed0–500%
- Scales the printer's base feed rate.
- Extrusion0–500%
- Scales how much clay is pushed per millimetre. It also widens the bead in the preview and the clay estimate.
- Nozzlemm
- Nozzle diameter. It sets the bead width. Default 4
- Canisterml
- How much clay one load of your extruder holds. Default 1000
- SCARA position
- 3D Potter Scara only: where on the reachable ring the print is centred.
Edit printer profile
Fine-tune the selected printer: base print speed (mm/min), extrusion multiplier, print centre X and Y, start G-code, end G-code, and an optional pause command to insert when the clay runs out, such as M0 or M600. Restore printer defaults undoes your edits.
Export profile saves your tuned printer as a small file you can send to a colleague or keep as a backup. Import profile loads one.
Clay and bead size
Potterware works out the bead you will actually print, then uses it for both the preview and the clay estimate.
weight ≈ volume × 1.9 g/ml
For example, a 4 mm nozzle at 100% extrusion with 1.5 mm layers gives a 4.0 × 1.5 mm bead with a cross-section of about 5.5 mm². A 27.7 m path then needs about 153 ml of clay.
When a print needs more than one canister, the preview marks each refill point with a ring on the wall. The G-code gets a ; REFILL CLAY HERE comment at that point, followed by your pause command if you set one. The export sheet lists the heights where each refill falls.
Tip. The estimate assumes the clay comes out at the bead size shown. If your prints use more or less clay than predicted, change Extrusion until the preview bead matches a measured print.
Multi-print
Turn on Print several copies to lay out a grid, up to 10 × 10. Gap between copies sets the spacing. Lift between copies raises the nozzle for each move. Extrude while moving between copies keeps clay flowing during those moves, which some extruders need to avoid a dry start.
Supported printers
| Family | Models | Print area | Base feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Potterbot | Standard | 500 × 430 mm, centred | 1500 mm/min |
| Version 7 All | 500 × 430 mm | 2500 mm/min | |
| 9 Standard | 420 × 360 mm | 1500 mm/min | |
| 9 Micro · 9 XL | 250 × 260 · 500 × 460 mm | 3000 mm/min | |
| 10 Micro · 10 Pro · 10 Super · 10 XL | 280 × 265 · 415 × 405 · 415 × 405 · 490 × 490 mm | 3000 mm/min | |
| LUTUM | 4M · v4.5 · v4.5 Pro · 5 | 430 × 450 mm | 3000 mm/min |
| Delta WASP | 2040 · 4070 | Ø 200 mm | 3000 mm/min |
| 40100 | Ø 400 mm | 3000 mm/min | |
| Keep/Czibes | Delta | Ø 200 mm | 3000 mm/min |
| 3D Potter | Scara | Ring, radius 380–860 mm | 3000 mm/min |
Export
Press G-code in the top bar. The export sheet summarises the job, shows any warnings and previews the file.
- Download .gcode
- The file for your printer, with your file name.
- Copy G-code
- Copies the whole file, for pasting into a printer's web interface.
- 3D model .stl
- A solid model of the printed bead, for renders or a slicer check.
- Toolpath .obj
- The bare path as lines, for Rhino, Blender or other CAD software.
Every file starts with a commented list of all the parameters used, so you can always tell how a print was made by opening its G-code in a text editor.
Before printing. Check that the sheet shows no bed warning, that the printer named in the summary is yours, and that the clay estimate fits your canister or has refill points marked.
Designs & presets
Save designs as you work, with a thumbnail, and share them as small files.
Saving designs
Press Designs, type a name and press Save (or Enter). Each card offers Open, Replace (overwrite it with the current design) and Delete.
- Export current design (.json) saves one design as a file.
- Export all designs saves your whole gallery as a single file, which makes a good backup.
- Import file loads either kind of file.
Stored in this browser. Designs live in the browser you made them in. Clearing site data or switching computers starts you with an empty gallery, so export anything you want to keep. Your printer setup is not part of a design, and uploaded images or meshes are not stored, so upload them again after opening a design that used them.
Presets
Presets are starting points. Choosing one replaces the current design but keeps your printer, file name and display settings.
| Preset | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Studio vase | The defaults: a smooth 100 mm vase |
| Ribbed tumbler | Fine sine ribs, 4 mm deep |
| Twisted pentagon | Five sides, 144° twist, seam follows twist |
| Spiral fluted jar | Square waves offset each layer, 2 base layers |
| Rippled bowl | Vertical sine ripples growing to the rim |
| Jitter planter | Random jitter with a gentle twist |
| Coral relief cylinder | Image relief with the Coral texture |
| Masked ripples | Sine waves masked by the Cells texture |
| Woven relief bowl | Weave texture relief on a wide bowl |
Troubleshooting
Messages appear as a short note at the bottom of the screen. Here is what each one means and what to do.
“Your session has expired. Reload the page to keep designing.”
Potterware sessions last 12 hours. Reload the page. Your current design is saved in the browser and comes back after the reload.
The bed chip says “Outside the print area”
Press Fit to bed. If it still doesn't fit, reduce the maximum diameter or scale, lower the multi-print count, or reduce the skirt offset. Waves and relief add to the footprint too.
I turned on Wave mask but nothing changed
The mask shapes waves, so it needs a wave type. Pick Sine, Saw tooth, Square or Jitter under Waves. To mask vertical ripples, turn on Mask vertical effects too.
“Your uploaded image (or mesh) has expired”
Uploads are kept on the server for three days after their last use. Load the file again.
“That mesh has too many triangles”
Reduce the model to under 150,000 triangles in your modelling program, for example with Decimate in Blender or ReduceMesh in Rhino, and upload it again.
“You are going a little fast”
There is a per-visitor limit on previews and exports. Wait a few seconds and continue.
The export sheet asks me to sign in
This site requires an account to export G-code. Press Sign in, then come back to the page. Your design will still be there.
The clay estimate doesn't match my real prints
Make sure the nozzle size is right, then adjust Extrusion until the preview bead width matches a measured print. Clay density varies. The weight uses 1.9 g/ml, which suits most stoneware and earthenware bodies.
My mesh prints sideways
Switch Up axis of file between Y up and Z up in the Shape tab.
Reference
Keyboard
Glossary
- Bead
- The coil of clay the nozzle lays down. Its width comes from the nozzle and extrusion, and its height from the layer height.
- Seam
- The point where each layer starts and ends, and where the nozzle steps up.
- Skirt
- A loop printed around the piece first, to start the clay flowing.
- Prime
- Clay pushed out in place before the skirt.
- Wipe
- A dry move off the rim at the end of a print.
- E value
- The extruder position in G-code. Potterware writes absolute E, growing along the path.
- Feed rate
- Nozzle speed in mm/min: the printer's base feed times Print speed.
- Canister
- One load of clay in your extruder, in ml.