A little while ago, a French developer named Sylvain Huet contacted me through my Italian 3D printing news site about a software called 3D Slash, which he and his development team refer to as a “3D Piece of Cake”. After trying it for just a few minutes, I can confirm that it makes the approach to 3D modeling as sweet and painless as cake.
Most people who follow 3DPI are probably familiar with my limited, to use a euphemism, design capabilities: the maximum extent of my expertise is knowledge of Autodesk’s Shapeshifter and Tinkercad. 3D Slash fits right in with both pf these super-intuitive and automated design tools, while at the same time offering quite a few more design options and a greater freedom of creation (sorry for using your brand name out of context, Janne).
Apart from its extreme accessibility, one way in which 3D Slash is similar to Tinkercad is that they are both related to Minecraft, the online “mining” game that is shaping up more and more to be a “portal” between the virtual and physical 3D worlds. While Tinkercad offers Minecraft as an export option, 3D Slash offers it as an import option, meaning that you can import STL files which will be viewed as “cubified”, Minecraft-like objects which you can easily modify with the software’s hammer tool.
That is where the app actually becomes quite fun. Modelling and modifying objects is extremely easy, both on the online app (after or even without the 30-second tutorial) or on the downloadable stand alone app for most operating systems. You can simply “excavate” your model or import and super-impose a 2D picture to help you shape the object you are trying to design.
That’s all there is to it and, yet, 3D Slash gives you a surprisingly wide range of design possibilities. After you are done creating, you can export the STL file or get it 3D printed through some of the top 3D printing services: 3D Hubs, Sculpteo, and i.materialise. All 3D slash files are guaranteed to be 3D printable and you can get your 3D piece of cake delivered right to your door.
