3D Printed Vase Online: Parametric Generator Without CAD

A vase is the second most popular thing people order in interior 3D printing after planters: a non-standard diameter for a specific bouquet, a shape that fits a particular corner of a room, a color that matches the interior. A ready-made model that checks all those boxes almost never exists, and modeling one from scratch in full CAD for a single vase is overkill.

I built a free vase designer — the same engine as the lamp shade designer, but with one key difference: a vase's bottom is always sealed. That's not a toggle — it's an invariant of the tool, otherwise it wouldn't be a vase, it'd be a lamp shade.

What you can configure

• Silhouette — drum, cone, dome, bulb, faceted, or a custom profile.
• Cross-section — circle, oval, polygon, or custom.
• Wall texture — smooth, ribs, basket weave, wave, pleats, or a fuzzy texture.
• Bottom thickness — set separately from wall thickness: thicker holds water more reliably, but uses more filament.

The first step, like in the lamp shade designer, offers ready-made presets — a ribbed cone, a faceted vase, a wavy vase, a pleated bulb — pre-assembled combinations so you don't have to turn sliders blindly.

Real two-walled geometry, not slicer vase mode

The tool builds full geometry with an actual wall thickness you set yourself, instead of relying on the slicer's single-layer vase mode. The model prints with ordinary profiles — with perimeters and infill — and holds its shape regardless of how a particular slicer is configured.

Water or dried flowers — worth choosing honestly

The designer has a use-case toggle: water (live flowers) or dried flowers/decor. It doesn't affect the geometry — the bottom is sealed either way — but it does change the print tip you get.

Worth being honest here: FDM printing on its own does not guarantee 100% watertightness along the layer seams, even with a sealed bottom. If you're planning to use live flowers and water:

• set at least 3–4 perimeters and 15%+ infill in your slicer;
• for reliability, coat the inside of the bottom and lower walls with a thin layer of epoxy resin — a standard trick for FDM watertightness, not anything exotic.

For dried flowers or decorative use with no direct water contact, none of this is critical — outer surface finish matters more there than sealing.

How to get the file

1. Open the vase designer — it works instantly in the browser.
2. Pick a ready preset, or build a shape from scratch: silhouette, cross-section, dimensions.
3. Set the wall texture and bottom thickness for your use case — water or dried flowers.
4. Check the size — the model is automatically capped at 255 mm on any axis and scales to fit a desktop printer's build volume.
5. Download the STL or 3MF and print.

If what you actually need on this same geometry is a light fixture instead of a vase, the same engine also works as the lamp shade designer — there, the bottom is always open instead.

The designer also works well as a first project for a kid with a new printer — a simple, clear shape with an immediately visible result before printing.