Playground: the part you shape yourself

In the previous article we walked you through how a part is born here: the idea, the drawing, the test prints, the finishing. There is one thing we did not say. The step people ask us about most often is the very first one. Someone writes to us wanting the same mount, but two millimeters wider. A vase, but taller. A holder, but for a different handlebar.

So we started building a tool that hands that step over to you. We call it Playground.

Sliders that change a real object

Playground is not a gallery of photos with options underneath. In the middle of the screen sits an actual 3D model, and every slider rebuilds it on the spot. Pull the height and the vase grows. Add ribs and they appear, twisted along the whole body. Type your text and it comes out engraved on the plate, in relief, exactly as it will be printed.

Nothing is a picture of a variant we prepared in advance. The object is generated from your numbers, in your browser, while you watch.

The limits are the promise

You will notice that some sliders narrow as you move others. Raise the vase and the minimum wall thickness climbs with it. Choose a wider phone and the arm needs to get longer. It looks like the tool is stopping you, and in a way it is.

Those limits are the same rules we apply by hand when we design a part: what holds, what stays standing on the print bed, what survives being used. Built into the sliders, they mean one thing. Anything you can configure, we can actually print.

A price with nothing hidden underneath

While you drag, the price moves with you. When you let go, it settles and confirms itself, and you can open it up: material, machine time, finishing. Next to it sit the numbers that explain the price better than we could: how many grams of filament go in, how many hours the printer runs, how much material the object saves compared to carving it out of a block.

We chose to show all of it because a custom part is not expensive by accident. It is expensive because a machine runs for hours for a single object, and we would rather you see that than guess at it.

Material is not just a color

You choose from the filaments we actually have on the shelf, and the object changes with your choice. PLA stays matte and soft. PETG picks up a light gloss. ASA looks technical and dry. You also choose the layer height, and here the compromise is honest: finer layers mean a smoother surface, more machine hours and a higher price. Coarser layers mean visible layer lines and a part in your hands sooner.

We built Playground so the conversation starts from a real object instead of a description. You come to us with a shape you already saw turning on your screen, and we take it from there.

Where we are with it

Playground is in an early stage. It already builds the geometry and calculates the price, but it is not yet connected to the shop, so nothing you configure there can be ordered today. We are testing it, breaking it and fixing it, and when it is ready you will find it in the menu like any other page.

Until then, the first step remains ours. Write to us with the idea and we will draw it, exactly as we always have.