Reliefs, Texture Cavities & Rounding

Voxels are blocks, but your prints don't have to be boring. Cubie offers three tools for surface detailing.

Reliefs

A relief modifies the geometry of a single voxel face — cutting into or extruding from the surface.

Relief Types

Cubie ships a growing set of relief shapes, including:

1. Spike — pyramid point. For teeth, spikes, fur texture.
2. Square — square protrusion. For mechanical details, panels.
3. Dome — rounded cap. For eyes, rivets, buttons.
4. Bevel — angled cut. For smoothing edges, chamfers.
5. Cone, Cylinder, Stud, Hair, Diagonal — extra textures and protrusions.
6. Happy, Cat, Dog, Robot, Standard — decorative face stamps.
7. Loop — a strap loop (lug) for attaching bands or keychains.

How to Apply

1. In Assembly mode, select a part.
2. Open the Appearance panel — it contains Relief, Cavity and Edge Round sections.
3. Select the relief type and click on voxel faces to apply.

Spike relief turns each face into a sharp pyramid — great for spiky or textured surfaces.

Bevel relief adds chamfered edges to each voxel face, giving the model a paneled, mechanical look.

You can apply relief to specific faces — here Spike is used only on the top row of voxels.

Note: The InspectPanel shows joint safety warnings (safe/risky/danger) if a relief may affect joint function.

Texture Cavities

Creates a hollow shell with a textured pattern inside. Saves material and adds a unique look.

Pattern Types

1. Gyroid — gyroid pattern (popular in 3D printing).
2. Cellular — cellular structure.
3. Diagonal — diagonal lines.
4. Circles — circular cutouts.
5. Logo — emboss a logo or symbol.
6. Inset — inset pattern.

How to Apply

1. In Assembly mode, select a part.
2. In the Appearance panel, choose a pattern from the Cavity section.
3. The cavity is applied to the selected part — material is removed, creating a lightweight shell.

Diagonal cavity creates angled line cutouts through the part walls.

Circles cavity combined with a decorative Happy relief on the front face.

Gyroid cavity creates an organic lattice structure — popular in 3D printing for its strength-to-weight ratio.

Edge Rounding (Round & Chamfer)

Smooths voxel edges, reducing the characteristic "blocky" look. Choose Round for soft curves or Chamfer for a flat 45° cut.

How to Apply

1. In Assembly mode, select a part.
2. In the Appearance panel, select Round or Chamfer from the Edge Round section.
3. Click faces or rows to select areas for rounding. Selected areas are highlighted.
4. Press Done to apply.

In Round mode, the part becomes semi-transparent showing the voxel grid. Click faces to select them for rounding.

A full row of faces selected (highlighted in cyan). You can select individual faces or entire rows.

After applying heavy rounding: sharp voxel edges become smooth curves.

Combining Effects

You can mix and match reliefs, cavities and rounding to create unique surface styles. Experiment with different combinations for your designs!