Piece Forge: model a piece from nothing

Piece Forge is where a piece of armour starts when there is no file to start from. You shape a wireframe cage, fit it to your body, flatten it into foam templates and price it — all in your browser. Nothing is uploaded; saving keeps the design, which rebuilds the model, the templates and the STL whenever you open it.

The first time you open it, a short walkthrough at the top takes you through the four stages. You can hide it, and bring it back from the same spot.

From blank to templates

1. Start a piece

   Pick a blank — helmet, chestplate, gauntlet, greaves or prop — or start further along with a preset: an open-face helmet, a full helmet with a visor plate, or a vambrace. A preset is an ordinary design, so everything about it can be changed.

2. Shape it

   Drag the orange handles. A pull carries the surface around it smoothly; mirroring keeps both sides the same. Select a handle to type a ring's exact size, add or remove rings, crease a ring into a hard edge, and choose how smooth the surface is. Layers stack plates and trim on top of the base shell; a layer can cover only part of the piece, counted in rings and segments from 1, as the ring panel counts them.

3. Fit it to you

   Choose a measurement profile and press Resize to fit. The fitted ring is sized to your measurement plus wearing ease — 10 mm unless you change it — for padding, a wig cap and room to move. If your profile has no measurement for this piece, Measure it takes you to the Measuring Room and back to the same design. Save first, so there is a design to come back to.

4. Unfold and print

   Unfold to foam flattens a layer — or every layer at once — into templates with seam numbers, bevel angles and glue tabs. Every piece is printed with the design's name, its layer and the foam thickness, so two layers' templates can't be confused on the cutting mat. Your unfold settings are saved with the design. See Print and cut foam templates for reading the sheets.

Pricing it and putting it on a build

The Cost tab prices each layer in its own material. Arrive from a piece on one of your builds (Model › on the build page) and the design is that piece: the Cost tab sets its estimate, rather than adding rows, and the build page links back to the design. Costing is part of Plus and Pro; modelling, fitting, unfolding and exporting are free.