Sketch to STL
Extrude a hand-drawn outline into a printable solid. Give it a thickness and it comes out as an STL for the bed.
Works with: screen press · DTF printer · RIP software · heat press
Drop several files at once to convert the whole folder in one pass. Got a different format? A PNG, JPG, HEIC, PDF, SVG or DXF still comes out as STL.
Or draw here with a mouse, a finger or a pen
× removes a colour and its shapes; click a swatch to change it. Every format follows.
- Runs in this tab
- No sign-up
- Full resolution out
Batch
Every file is traced on its own at its own resolution, with the settings in the panel. A file converted here comes out identical to the same file converted by itself.
Every format
Conversion settings
Trace settings
Full-colour trace for print and web.
Fine-tune
Raise it to clear dust, grain and stray dots; 0 keeps every mark.
Untick for pixel art: the outline then follows every pixel edge.
With Remove background: how close a colour must be to the background to go with it.
Machine output
Height follows the source aspect ratio.
Laser and Router follow the traced outlines. Engrave photo burns the picture itself, line by line, for photos and portraits.
Heat transfer vinyl is pressed face down, so it has to be cut mirrored. The second box is the overcut in millimetres: a drag knife starts each shape pointing the wrong way, and running past the start covers that stretch properly so the piece weeds out clean.
Beam or bit width. Left at zero the tool runs down the centre of the line, so a part finishes one tool width undersize. Set it and the path is offset by half, with holes offset the opposite way.
Holes before the part that holds them, so nothing comes loose while there is still cutting to do. Also shortens the travel between cuts.
See it on your product
Put this artwork on a 3D mug, tumbler, sign, phone case or canvas, turn it all the way round, or drop it onto a photograph of your own blank. The preview page has the product picker, the colours and the placement controls.
Open the preview and renderHow it works
Upload the artwork
Colour art for separations; a transparent PNG for an underbase.
Set the choke or offset
In real millimetres, not pixels, the press does not care about your image resolution.
Download the set
One file per ink, with registration marks in identical positions on every film.
Convert a sketch to an STL for 3D printing
Convert sketch to STL: photograph a drawing, and it is traced and extruded to the thickness you set, giving a watertight solid a slicer accepts. Sketch to STL online runs in your browser, so there is no sketch to stl app to install; it works on a phone too.
It is a sketch to stl free tool with no account. Sketch to stl online free results open in Cura, PrusaSlicer, Bambu Studio and Tinkercad.
SVG to STL, JPG to STL, PNG to STL
The same extrusion runs from a vector (SVG to STL) or a picture (JPG to STL, PNG to STL).
Text to STL
Type the text in any editor, export it as an SVG or a clear black-on-white image, and drop it here: letters come out as raised solids with their holes kept.
Why it matters
Registration marks that actually register
Marks are drawn at identical coordinates on every separation, outside the artwork bounds. That is the whole point of them, and it is what a separation exported layer-by-layer from a design tool usually gets wrong.
Underbase choked, never spread
The white layer sits inside the colour art. Match the artwork exactly and any registration drift on press shows as a white halo, the most common DTF complaint.
Real millimetres
Chokes and offsets are specified in millimetres and resolved against your stated output size, so a 0.4mm choke is 0.4mm on the garment.
Holes preserved
Counters and windows stay open through the offset, so an underbase does not fill in the middle of an "O".
Is Sketch to STL worth paying for?
A STL is the file a shop actually runs. Walk through the artwork requirements a laser cutter, a CNC shop or a sign maker publishes and the same request appears: send something a machine can follow. What turns up instead is a screenshot or a logo pulled off a website at 600 pixels, and somebody redraws it by hand — twenty-five to forty minutes — or sends it to an art service at $25 to $60 a file.
The conversion here is free and unlimited and stays that way. The paid plan is what unlocks the machine formats, which are never watermarked at any tier because a mark in a cut file is extra cut paths a machine would run.
Questions
How do I convert a sketch to an STL for 3D printing?
Draw in dark ink on white paper, photograph it, upload it here, set the width and the extrusion height in millimetres, and download the STL.
Is the STL watertight?
Yes. Top, bottom and walls are closed, and holes are cut through, so slicers do not report errors.
How much choke should I use?
Between 0.3mm and 0.6mm covers most DTF and screen work. More on stretchy fabric, less on a rigid substrate.
Why is my underbase smaller than my art?
Deliberately. It is choked inward so registration drift does not reveal white at the edges.
Can I get black-and-white films?
Yes. Separations can be output as solid black, which is what film output for screen exposure needs.
Reading on STL and machine files
Sketch to STL: here, by hand, or on a server
| Veconvert | Illustrator, by hand | A paid vectorizer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Free preview; one file for $3.49 as a guest ($3.99 for technical files), $6.50 in bulk | $23 a month | $8–15 a month |
| How long it takes | Seconds | 30–60 minutes by hand | Seconds |
| Skill needed | None. Drop the file | You have to be able to draw | None |
| Where your file goes | Nowhere. It stays in this tab | Stays on your machine | Uploaded to a server |
| STL with real units | Yes | Yes, with setup | Usually pixels |
| Machine files too | DXF, G-code, PLT, STL from the same trace | Separate export each time | Rarely |
More converters and tools
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