Designing Cookie Cutters in Fusion 360

Cookie cutter shapes pressed into rolled-out dough showing clean cut edges

Fusion 360 is what Minted Prints uses for every design in the catalogue. The parametric workflow suits cookie cutters well because the geometry is fundamentally dimensional — you care about exact wall thicknesses, cutting edge widths, and overall proportions in millimetres. Fusion keeps all of that in an editable timeline, so adjusting a 70mm design to 90mm is a parameter change, not a rebuild. This guide covers the exact process from blank canvas to exported STL.

What you need

Fusion 360 is free for personal use. Download it from autodesk.com and sign in with a free Autodesk account. The "Personal Use" licence covers exactly this kind of hobby project — designing files for your own printer. If you sell the STL files commercially, the commercial licence applies.

The cookie cutter structure

Before touching Fusion, it helps to understand what a cookie cutter is geometrically. It's a closed path — the design outline — extruded to a height. Within that extrusion, you have two zones: the cutting edge (thin, typically 0.4mm, at the bottom) and the handle body (thicker, typically 4mm, for the rest of the height). Some designs are uniform wall thickness throughout; simpler to model but the handle is slightly less comfortable to grip.

Step 1: Create a new design and set units

Open Fusion 360. File > New Design. In the top-right, check that your units are set to mm (not inches). Go to Preferences if you need to change it.

Step 2: Sketch the outline

In the toolbar: Solid > Create Sketch. Click the XZ plane (the top-down view). You're now in 2D sketch mode.

Draw your cookie cutter outline using the Spline or Line tools. For organic shapes, Spline is better — it gives you smooth curves. For geometric shapes (stars, hexagons), use the Polygon or Line tools with precise dimensions.

Design considerations for the sketch:

Aim for outside dimensions of 60–100mm for standard cutters. Smaller than 50mm is tricky to handle; larger than 120mm needs very careful bed adhesion when printing.
Keep inside corners at a minimum radius of 2mm. Fusion's Fillet tool under Sketch > Modify can add fillets to sharp inside corners.
Close the sketch path completely. Fusion will warn you if the profile isn't closed when you try to extrude. Use the Trim and Extend tools to close any gaps.

When the sketch is done, press Stop Sketch in the top-right of the canvas.

Step 3: Offset for wall thickness

You now have one closed path — the design outline. A cookie cutter isn't a solid shape; it's just the walls. You need an inner offset to define the wall geometry.

Re-enter the sketch (double-click it in the timeline). Use Sketch > Offset. Select all curves in your outline, set offset distance. For a standard cutter:

If you want uniform walls: offset inward by 4mm. This gives you a 4mm wall throughout.
If you want the two-zone approach (thin cutting edge, thick handle): offset inward by 0.4mm first — that's your cutting edge profile. Then offset that 0.4mm path inward by 3.6mm for the handle wall.

The 0.4mm cutting-edge offset is the Minted Prints standard. It matches the default 0.4mm nozzle width on most FDM printers, meaning the slicer renders it as exactly one wall thick — a clean, sharp edge.

Stop the sketch.

Step 4: Extrude to height

In the toolbar: Solid > Extrude. Select the area between your outer outline and the inner offset (the ring of wall material, not the hollow center). Set the height:

Standard cutter height: 18–22mm. 20mm is the Minted Prints default.
For thick cookie dough (shortbread at 8mm thickness): go to 24mm so there's enough handle above the cut depth.
Minimum practical height: 15mm. Below that, the cutter is hard to hold.

Click OK. You now have a 3D cookie cutter body.

Step 5: Add the cutting edge taper (optional but recommended)

A flat-bottom cutting edge works, but a tapered edge cuts dough more cleanly. To add the taper:

Create a new sketch on the bottom face of the cutter.
Offset the outer cutting edge inward by 0.2mm (creating a 0.2mm inner ring at the base).
Use Solid > Loft to loft from the bottom face (narrower, 0.2mm ring) to the top face (the 0.4mm full wall). This creates a slight bevel on the cutting edge.

This step is what gives the Minted Prints designs their cleaner cut compared to uniformly extruded cutters.

Step 6: Export as STL

Right-click the Body in the Bodies folder (left panel, Browser). Select "Save as Mesh". Set Format to STL. Set Refinement to "High" — this increases the polygon count for smoother curves. Click OK.

The STL is saved to your local disk. That file is ready to import into your slicer.

Recommended dimensions reference

Cutting edge wall thickness: 0.4mm
Handle wall thickness: 4.0mm
Total height: 20mm
Minimum inside corner radius: 2mm
Minimum protrusion width (fingers, antlers, spikes): 4mm
Recommended overall size range: 60–100mm

Using parameters to make the design flexible

The real value of Fusion 360 is parameters. Before sketching, go to Solid > Modify > Change Parameters and add user parameters: cutter_height = 20mm, wall_handle = 4mm, wall_cut_edge = 0.4mm. Reference these in your sketch offsets and extrusion heights instead of typing the numbers directly. When you want a 90mm version of a 70mm design, change the sketch dimensions — the wall thicknesses and height update automatically.

After exporting

Import the STL into your slicer and print using standard settings: 0.2mm layers, 3 walls, 60°C bed, 8mm brim. See the print guide for the full settings. If you'd prefer to draw a freehand shape first and convert it, the Procreate workflow covers the art-to-STL route. Browse the catalogue for designs that demonstrate the parametric approach at the collection page.