Welcome to Shapeaway

Shapeaway is a sculpting app for Windows that behaves like real clay. You start from a lump (a ball, cube, cylinder, coil or slab), then push, pull, carve, smooth and paint it with a mouse or a pen tablet.

The clay is a volume, not a mesh of polygons. That one fact explains most of how Shapeaway feels:

• You can carve straight through a part to make a hole, or stick two lumps together and smooth the join. Nothing tears or folds inside out.
• There is no topology to manage, no remeshing, and no repairs before printing. Every export is watertight.
• Detail is set by a detail level rather than a triangle count. When you need finer detail than the clay holds (pores, scales), you add a detail mesh.

What people make

• Art: character busts, creatures, stylised props and turntable renders, lit with studio presets and finished with materials and hair.
• Prints: figures, miniatures, mugs and planters, split into parts with pegs, on lettered bases, exported as STL or multi-colour 3MF.
• Game assets: sculpt in detail, then bake normal and colour maps onto a low-poly OBJ.

How to use these docs

• New here? Install Shapeaway, take the seven-step tour, then follow Sculpt a duck.
• Looking something up? Press Ctrl K to search, or use the shortcut reference.
• Something wrong? See Troubleshooting.