For 3D printing businesses · In development

Run your print farm, not your inbox.

Additive Architect puts quotes, scheduling, materials and customer updates for a 3D printing business in one place. Ari, its AI printing assistant, helps your customers send files that will print.

Join early access See how it works

Ari, the Additive Architect assistant, a small robotic bee, sitting on a spool of orange filament working on a laptop

The problem

Every print job comes with emails, file revisions, material questions and customers asking when it will be ready. The printers can run all night. The admin around them is still done by hand, one message at a time.

The roles

What is an Additive Architect?

Traditional manufacturers set minimum orders, so they have fewer customers for the same revenue and can give each one an account manager. 3D printing works the other way. Orders are small and varied, every one comes with its own files, materials and questions, and the admin grows with every customer.

In the shops we researched, nobody's role was clearly defined, and one person often handled everything from answering customers to clearing build plates. One shop owner told us that running several jobs at once is essential, and very hard to do alone.

The research pointed to two roles that need different skills and different information.

Additive Architect

Talks to customers, checks whether their parts can be printed, writes the quotes and plans what each printer runs next.

Additive Technician

Runs the machines. Knows the state of every job and printer and which material is loaded where, checks every part before an order ships, and keeps the equipment maintained.

With the work split this way, each person sees what they need for their job, and they hand work to each other through one shared record of every job. The product takes its name from the first role, and Ari helps the Architect with the slowest part of it: working out whether a customer's file will print.

How it works

Each job has one record, from the first quote to delivery. The person quoting, the team running the printers and the customer each see the part they need.

For Additive Architects

Start the day knowing what needs you

This morning Wed 14 Oct · 8:00am

Needs you

JOB-2294Quote ready to review Waiting

JOB-2288New file revision Waiting

Finishing today

JOB-2283 · Kodamadone 3:20pm Printing

JOB-2286 · Crumpdone 5:45pm Printing

JOB-2290 at risk

One part failed overnight on Deckard. The reprint moves delivery to Fri 23 Oct.

For Additive Technicians

A clear list of what to do next

Your tasks Wed 7:40am

Clear plate · Hull

Awaiting clear

Weigh spool 7 · PETG

Low stock

QA · JOB-2290

In progress

Bike brackets5 of 8 passed

For your customers

Honest updates, even when a print fails

Your order JOB-2290

Quote accepted
Mon 10:12am · You
Paid
Mon 10:14am · System
One part failed and is being reprinted
Wed 2:05am · Technician
New date: Fri 23 Oct.
In production
Wed 9:30am · Technician
Shipped

Ari, a small charcoal robotic bee with orange bands and glowing lens eyes, hovering

Meet Ari

A customer uploads a model and says what it's for. Ari reads the measurements our code takes from the file and explains, in plain English, anything that might cause problems. The customer can ask follow-up questions, like what changes if they print it in resin, and Ari runs the checks again. Your team reviews everything before a quote goes out.

Customer upload bike-bracket-v3.stl

You · customer

It's a bracket for a bike rack. It'll live outdoors.

Ari · AI assistant · Found issues

Preliminary check · your team will confirm

I checked your file's measurements. Parts of this bracket are thinner than our guide recommends for FDM.

For outdoor use, PETG would hold up better than PLA.

Thinnest wall0.6 mmFDM-02FitsHull, Kodama

You · customer

What if I print it in resin?

Ari · AI assistant · Re-checking

Re-checking with resin

How we use Claude

Ari is an agent built on Claude. Our own code measures each model file and checks it against a set of printing rules. Claude explains the results in plain English, and when a customer asks a follow-up question, it decides which of our tools to use: re-check the part in another material, see whether it fits a printer, look up a guideline or pass the question to your team. Every answer is checked in code before anyone sees it, and if a check fails, the customer gets the measured results instead. We're building Additive Architect itself with Claude Code and Claude Design.

How we're building with Claude

Ari, the robotic bee, studying an orange wireframe of a bracket with measurement lines around it

The research

Shaped by people who print for a living

Additive Architect started as a university research project in 2023. We interviewed people who work in 3D printing about where their time goes. They described the same problems: checking whether a part can be printed takes hours, many customers don't know what's possible, and the way a shop handles a failed print decides whether the customer comes back.

Slicer software architect
Prototyping lead at a robotics company
Independent print business owner

Privacy

Your models stay yours

Customer model files are never sent to an AI model. Our own code measures the file, and Ari only sees those measurements.

The model file bike-bracket-v3.stl Stays private

Measured by our code

Thinnest wall0.6 mmFDM-02 Volume38.2 cm³ Size84 × 40 × 22 mm

Ari · AI assistant Sees the measurements, never the file.

Why we're building this

Miles worked in a 3D printing workshop in London and left because the admin had taken over the job. His university research found other print professionals with the same problems. Additive Architect is the tool he wanted back then, and he's building it now with a small team in Auckland.

Join early access

We're building Additive Architect now. Tell us how your shop works and we'll contact you when early access opens.