Texturize Tutorial: Your First Textured Mesh

A short walkthrough from empty canvas to an STL you can slice. You will texture the starter cube, then optionally replace it with your own STL.

Step 1 — Add Texturize

From the empty canvas, click the Texturize card (utility row: “Texture any mesh — starts with a 50 mm cube, or load your STL”).

The left dock opens a single Texturize tab. The viewport shows a closed 50 mm cube, bare until you paint (Draw is already on). The overlay reports 12 triangles — that is the source cube, not the export mesh. Leave 3D Preview off so the cube stays closed; bump shading still shows the map.

Step 2 — Read the default recipe

Leave these defaults for the first bake:

Orbit the cube. It stays a smooth cube until you paint. Click All (or Draw over a face) — Knurl wraps the painted region without a hard seam on the corners (triplanar blend). The cube itself stays closed.

Step 3 — Try two other maps

1. Click Hexagons — cell ridges on every face.
2. Click Bricks.
3. Return to Knurl (or keep Hexagons) before export.

Step 4 — Mask the bed

If the bottom face still shows relief after All:

• Raise Bottom toward 15–25°, or
• Use Erase (or Ctrl / Shift) with Face, then click the bottom. The whole lid loses texture. Optional: paint one triangle then To crease (or double-click) — on the cube that is the same as Face at Crease 30°.

The bed should stay printable without a bumpy first layer.

Step 5 — Export STL

1. Click Export Mesh in the top toolbar. That bakes at High (~0.35 mm edges, 750k triangle cap) — not the 12-triangle preview.
2. Wait for the worker (a few seconds on the cube; longer on a dense STL).
3. Save the .stl file (desktop dialog) or let the browser download it.

Step 6 — Slice

Import the STL into your slicer. Suggested first-print settings for the 50 mm cube:

• 0.2 mm layer height, 0.4 mm nozzle
• 2–3 perimeters, 15% infill (or vase mode if you hollow it in the slicer)
• No supports needed for the cube sitting on a flat bottom

If the texture looks faceted in the slicer preview, re-export from 3dSynth at Ultra.

Optional — Load your own STL

1. Click Load STL / OBJ, or drop the file on the viewport.
2. If the part is on its side, click Place on Face and pick the triangle that should sit on the bed. That writes Rotate X / Y / Z together (not only X). You can still type those fields afterwards. 0° next to them zeros the rotation.
3. Revisit Size U/V so the pattern period matches the new bounding box (25 mm on a 200 mm vase is a fine wrap; on a 20 mm bead it is huge).
4. Export Mesh again.

Files over 15 MB warn that preview may be slow; over 100 MB are rejected. STEP and 3MF are not imported.

Optional — Live-link Mesh Sculptor

If the same project already has a Mesh Sculptor (or Node Sculptor mesh):

1. In Load Model, open Live module and pick that module.
2. Place / rotate lock; paint uses a UV stamp instead of triangle ids.
3. Changing Mesh Sculptor quality remeshes the source — Texturize re-previews automatically. Face-id paint from an old STL does not apply here.

Disconnect with Off — use cube or STL.

If something looks wrong

• No visible texture — paint with Draw (or click All); raise Texture height; confirm Invert is off unless you meant it.
• Seams on cube corners — stay on Triplanar; raise Transition only if you want harder face splits.
• First layer rumpled — increase Bottom angle, Erase the bed, or set Snap bottom (Advanced) to 0.2 mm.
• Overlap warning — texture height is more than ~10% of the smallest mesh size. Lower height or enlarge Size U/V.
• Slicer holes / intersecting walls — lower amplitude, raise export quality, or mask thin features.

Next steps

• Texturize overview — complete reference.
• Mapping · Textures · Masks · Preview and export
• Mesh Sculptor — design the solid, then live-link it.
• Presets & Projects — save the .3dsynth (recipe + imported mesh, not displaced vertices).