Your model is bigger than your printer's bed. Tell this Blender add-on your bed size and it does the rest: it works out the cuts, drills matching alignment-dowel sockets in both halves of every joint, and exports print-ready STL files plus a print plan.

No hand-placing cut planes. No modelling connectors. No working out which piece fits where.

What you get

• Automatic bed-fit planning. Pick a preset (180 to 420 mm) or type your bed size. It uses the fewest parts, makes them equal in size (no thin slivers), and even turns the model onto its side if that needs fewer parts.
• Alignment dowels that actually fit. Matching sockets in both halves, loose dowels laid out on a print plate, adjustable diameter, depth and clearance (defaults: 6 mm dowel, 8 mm sockets, 0.2 mm clearance).
• Print-ready export. One STL per part, already turned to its best print orientation (largest flat face down), a dowel plate, and print_plan.txt listing every part size, volume and joint so you can dry-fit before you glue.
• Checks itself. Every result is verified: parts must add up to the original volume minus the sockets, exported parts are checked against your bed, and joints too thin for a dowel are reported instead of faked. If a cut cannot be made cleanly it stops with a message and creates nothing.
• Non-destructive. Your original is hidden, not deleted. One click on Clear Parts brings it back.

See it work

The download includes a solid 400 mm test model. With the default 220 x 220 x 250 mm bed it splits into 8 parts with 36 dowels; every part fits the bed, no warnings. It handles hollow models, models made of separate pieces, and dense meshes: a 1.3 million triangle model splits into 8 parts with dowels in about 15 seconds on a 2-core cloud CPU.

Tested

46 automated tests (geometry, watertightness, exact volume, socket clearance, dowel collisions, unit handling, dense meshes), plus a full buyer-path test of this exact download: installed from the zip into a clean Blender, sample imported, split, exported, and every file checked. Run on Blender 4.2.9 LTS and 5.1.2.

Who it is for

Anyone printing models larger than their bed: statues, helmets, props, cosplay, architecture, scale models, terrain. Especially if you would rather spend your time printing than cutting.

Who it is not for

• You want to choose exactly where a model is split (for example at the neck), or need curved or angled cut lines. Cuts here are straight and grid-aligned and are chosen automatically.
• Your model is not a closed solid and you want it repaired automatically. The add-on tells you exactly what is wrong but does not repair meshes.
• You need connector shapes other than round dowels.

Honest limits

• Needs a watertight (closed) mesh. If yours is not, Print Fix (a separate Blender add-on, $15, also on Superhive) repairs a copy and checks it; the two are tested together.
• Print orientation picks the largest flat face down; it does not plan supports. Your slicer still does that.
• STL files carry no colours or materials. Up to 200 parts per model.
• Tested on Linux. It is plain Python on Blender's own libraries, so Windows and macOS should behave the same, but I have not run them yet (untested on Windows and macOS).
• STL files have no units and Blender's default scene counts one unit as one metre. Set 1 Blender unit = 1 mm when you import an STL (the add-on reminds you if a model looks absurdly large).

Requirements

Blender 4.2 LTS or newer. Nothing else to install. Includes a step-by-step guide (HTML), the sample model, and the add-on (GPL-3.0-or-later, like most Blender add-ons: use it commercially, modify it as you like).

Free updates to v1.x. Questions or a model that misbehaves: message us through Superhive or open an issue at https://github.com/RoseCompanion/bedfit-splitter/issues.

Also by us: Bed Fit Splitter, Print Fix, Asset Preflight.