Designing Cookie Cutters in Procreate

Procreate is where a lot of custom cookie cutter ideas start — it's a natural drawing environment, and iPad + Apple Pencil lets you sketch quickly. The catch is that Procreate outputs raster images (.png, .jpg), not 3D geometry. Getting from a Procreate sketch to a printable STL requires one conversion step, but it's straightforward once you know the pipeline. This guide walks through the whole process.

Why Procreate works well for this

Most cookie cutter shapes are 2D silhouettes extruded into 3D. That's the geometry equivalent of drawing a shape and pulling it upward. If you can draw the outline cleanly in Procreate, you have 90% of the design work done. The conversion tools handle the rest.

Procreate's vector-export capability (introduced in version 5.2) also means you can export clean paths without rastering — but even a clean PNG at high resolution works for this workflow.

Step 1: Set up the canvas

Create a new canvas in Procreate. Use a square canvas at 2000x2000px or higher — higher resolution gives the vectorisation step cleaner results. Set the background to white.

Turn on the drawing guides: Canvas > Drawing Guide > 2D Grid. Set the grid spacing to match your intended cutter size. For an 80mm cutter, 1 grid square = 10mm is a convenient scale. This helps you keep the design proportionally right before exporting.

Step 2: Sketch the silhouette

On a new layer, sketch the rough shape with any brush. Don't worry about clean edges yet — just get the proportions right. A Monoline brush at 8–12px works well for initial sketching.

Key design considerations for cookie cutters specifically:

• Avoid very thin protrusions. Narrow spikes (thinner than about 3mm in the finished cutter) will be fragile in PLA. A deer antler with extremely thin tines is a classic example — needs to be 4mm+ at the thinnest point to survive handling.
• Avoid deep concave interior angles. Tight inside corners trap dough and are hard to clean. Aim for a minimum inside radius of ~2mm.
• Keep the overall silhouette readable. The cut cookie is the silhouette. Intricate detail inside the shape won't show in the baked result — those details require a stamp or embossing tool instead.

Step 3: Clean up the outline on a separate layer

Create a new layer above your sketch. Use the Monoline brush at 6px and trace a clean, single continuous closed path around your sketch. Turn off the sketch layer visibility when you're done — you should have a clean black outline on a white background.

Use Procreate's Selection tool (the freehand lasso) to check that the outline is fully closed. Any gaps will cause the vectorisation to fail or produce a broken path. Zoom in to 100% and look for gaps at corners and junctions.

Step 4: Export from Procreate

Two options:

• SVG export (best quality): If your outline layer uses vector-style tools, go to Share > SVG. This gives Inkscape or Illustrator a clean path to work with.
• PNG export (easier): Share > PNG. Export only the outline layer (turn off all other layers first), 2000px minimum. White background, black outline, no transparency needed for this step.

Step 5: Convert the 2D outline to a 3D STL

This is the step that turns a flat drawing into printable geometry. You have several good options:

Option A: Inkscape + OpenSCAD (free, gives full control)

1. Import the PNG into Inkscape (free, inkscape.org). Use Path > Trace Bitmap with the default single-scan settings. This generates a vector path from your raster image.
2. Clean up the path with the Node editor. Remove stray anchor points, smooth corners slightly if needed.
3. Export as SVG from Inkscape.
4. In OpenSCAD (free, openscad.org), use the import() and linear_extrude() functions to turn the SVG path into a 3D solid. A basic script:
   linear_extrude(height = 20) { import("your-cutter.svg"); }
   Set height to 20mm for a standard cutter. Export as STL from OpenSCAD (File > Export > Export as STL).

Option B: CookieCad (web-based, fast)

cookiecad.com lets you upload an SVG or PNG and will generate a cookie cutter STL with configurable wall thickness, height, and cutting edge directly in the browser. It charges per export after a free tier. Good if you want one-click simplicity rather than full parametric control.

Option C: Send the design to us for a custom commission

If the conversion steps feel overwhelming for a one-off design, our custom orders service accepts Procreate exports directly. Email the PNG or SVG to [email protected] and we'll run it through our CAD pipeline, which includes offsetting the cutting edge to 0.4mm, adding a 4mm handle wall, and test-printing before delivering the STL.

Step 6: Check the STL before printing

Open the exported STL in your slicer (Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, or Cura). Look for these potential issues:

• Inverted normals (appears hollow or inside-out): run the STL through Meshmixer's "Make Solid" function or use PrusaSlicer's "Fix through Netfabb" button.
• Non-manifold edges: usually caused by gaps in the original Procreate outline. Go back to Procreate and close them.
• Scale: slicers often import SVG-derived STLs at wrong scale. Check the dimensions — a 80mm cutter should show ~80mm width in the slicer. Scale to correct if needed.

Once the STL looks right in the slicer, print it with the same settings as any Minted Prints file: 0.2mm layers, 3 walls, 60°C bed, 8mm brim. See the print guide for the full settings reference.

Tips for better Procreate designs

• Animals and characters work best as simplified outlines — think cut-paper silhouette rather than detailed illustration.
• Letters for a monogram cutter are easier in Procreate than drawing from scratch — type in the letter using a display font as a reference layer, trace the outline, then convert.
• Save your Procreate files alongside the STLs. If you want to tweak the design later, you'll thank yourself for having the original artwork.

For a parametric approach that gives you direct dimensional control, see the Fusion 360 design guide. For an overview of design tools and workflows, see designing cookie cutters.