Split3r 1.5.0: full color goes beyond the build plate
RECODE.AM #49
Split3r emerged as a response to one of the most frustrating problems in desktop 3D printing: what to do when a model is simply too large for a printer?
Philippe Boichut - founder of the French company Qualup SAS, with over a decade of experience in industrial FFF printing - developed software that intelligently splits models into printable parts, complete with precise joints and alignment pins.
The project debuted on Kickstarter in September last year:
The campaign was successful: 2459 backers pledged a total of over €111,000. It was a clear signal that the market had been waiting for exactly this kind of solution.
Since then, the Qualup team has been steadily releasing new versions of the software. The latest - 1.5.0 - opens up entirely new possibilities for the first time.
Full color!
Until now, Split3r worked with STL files. It handled cutting, joints, and export very well - but color was irrelevant, because STL simply doesn’t store it.
If you wanted to split a colored model intended for printing on a machine with AMS or another filament-switching system, you were on your own - which in practice meant painful and boring manual repainting of each part after cutting.
With version 1.5.0, that changes.
Split3r can now import a colored 3MF file exported from Bambu Studio, split it into parts that fit the printer’s build plate, and return ready-to-use 3MF files - with colors preserved on every fragment. Each part goes straight into the slicer, without manual repainting or guessing which region had which color.
It sounds simple, but the challenge was in the details. Blender - which powered Split3r’s geometry engine from the very beginning - could not handle color data from the 3MF format.
For months, Boichut worked on replacing Blender’s engine with his own implementation.
The solution - as is often the case with the hardest engineering problems - came suddenly, at night, as a complete concept. A few days later, version 1.5.0 was up and running.
The new geometry engine doesn’t just support color - it is also dramatically faster. Cuts are performed seven to eight times faster than in Blender. The engine operates directly on mesh surfaces without volumetric reconstruction, which means typical models are processed in seconds rather than minutes.
Importantly, it does not require a perfectly watertight mesh. Open shells, zero-thickness walls, overlapping surfaces - all are handled correctly, without the need for pre-repair.
Additionally, the mathematical core uses constrained triangulation for all cutting surfaces, ensuring dimensional accuracy without rounding or smoothing artifacts.
Blender remains available as an optional engine during the beta phase, although without color support.
Colored cross-sections: no more gray joints
Another practical improvement which is introduced is that cutting surfaces and tenons (alignment connectors) now inherit the dominant RGB color of the part instead of defaulting to neutral gray. In practice, this means fewer filament changes during printing, as the printer no longer needs to switch colors just to produce internal joints.
AutoShell and Smart Selection for colored models
Two features available in the Split3r Add-on have also been updated for color support. AutoShell - a tool for creating hollow shells - now generates an outer layer with preserved colors and an inner wall in the dominant color. The result can be re-split in Split3r without any color loss.
Smart Selection and Extract now work directly with colored 3MF files. If you want to isolate a specific region of a multi-color model, you can do it in just a few clicks - and the color remains intact.
Export the entire workspace to 3MF with one click
A new File menu option allows you to convert all PLY and STL files in the active workspace to 3MF in a single operation. Colored PLY files are exported with full RGB data, while non-colored PLY and STL files are converted as standard geometry. The entire folder structure is preserved in an export_3mf subfolder.
Split3r 1.5.0 is currently in testing and is expected to reach a stable release within a few weeks. The software is available via the developer’s store at https://shop.qualup.com.
Available versions include Split3r Basic (€60.00 excl. tax), Split3r Add-on (€35.00 excl. tax), and Split3r Full - which includes both Basic and Add-on - for €95.00 excl. tax.