Help & support.
Direct answers about printers, checks, and what leaves your Mac.
Printer first, then artwork.
profile · rack · runSet the machine up once. Every relief after that is sized, coloured, and slope-limited for the printer you actually own.
Printer.
Pick a preset or enter your usable bed, nozzle, layer height, and material slots.
Filaments.
List the spools you have loaded and which slot each one sits in. For a lithophane, set one to Translucent.
Generate.
Choose artwork or try the sample, press Process to preview the surface, then Export to build and check the 3MF.
Geometry, stated honestly.
checks · models · slicingThe app checks that the model is sound. It does not guarantee the print succeeds; that stays with your slicer and your judgement.
Process, which previews the sculpted surface, its contact sheet, and a print estimate, takes minutes. Export builds the full mesh, re-reads the 3MF, and runs every check for the mode, so it takes longer, especially at fine pitch on a large footprint. The run log shows each stage as it runs. This is geometry computed on your Mac, not a filter.
Because the printer decides the millimetres. Usable bed size bounds the footprint, nozzle diameter sets the analysis pitch, layer height sets the floor for printable detail, and your loaded filaments become the material plan. Enter it once and every later model already fits your machine.
Topographic Flow reads your picture as a landscape, with erosion and drainage carved in. Carved Panel reads it as a bas-relief, a figure standing off a ground plate, with an optional rim for a lid or a framed plaque. Lithophane reads it as light: a translucent plate you hold up to a lamp. The first two need a printer profile with four loaded material slots; a lithophane needs one translucent spool.
The export fails and the app names each check that stopped it, and the JSON report holds the measured numbers. A file that fails is never shown as validated. That is intentional: a mesh that fails a watertightness, slope, or cap-depth check would waste filament and hours, so Topoform says no instead of handing you something that only looks fine in a preview.
If ElegooSlicer or OrcaSlicer is installed in your Applications folder, Export asks it to test-import the new 3MF. For terrain and carved panels a rejection stops the export; for a lithophane the verdict is recorded as evidence. A slicer that is missing, hangs, or will not start is recorded as skipped, and the file is judged on its geometry checks.
It loads a bundled test picture with its lithophane surface already processed, so the contact sheet, tonal levels, and print estimate appear before you choose any artwork. To export it, choose an output folder and have one loaded spool set to Translucent; the Load a natural translucent spool button adds one.
No. With nothing connected the app works entirely offline and every mode, style, and export is available. A connected model only adds optional art direction (a style, a height, sculpt settings, and a suggested filament for each colour channel) and the studio chat, which can propose a whole build you apply in one click. It never generates geometry.
A cloud model service with your own API key, a custom endpoint address, or a model server running on your Mac, which costs nothing and keeps the traffic on your machine. You pay a cloud service directly under your own account; Topoform adds no markup, no proxy, and no subscription of its own.
In the macOS Keychain, in an app-scoped item. Never in preferences, log files, or exports, and never transmitted to Silo Systems. Removing a service removes its Keychain item.
Only what you ask it to. Ask for art direction sends the artwork, which can include metadata embedded in the file, and a prompt describing your printer, filaments, mode, print budget, and notes. The studio chat sends your messages, the current setup, and the artwork unless you turn off Send the artwork. Test connection sends no artwork or text, only your key if one is set, to list models. Processing and exporting send nothing. Requests go straight from your Mac to that endpoint under your key; Silo Systems runs no server and receives no copy.
No. Topoform is not a slicer and writes no G-code. Open the 3MF in your slicer, map each colour channel to a loaded filament (a lithophane has just one), then slice as usual. Purge settings, orientation, supports, and bed adhesion remain your slicer's job and your decision.
For terrain and carved panels the contact sheet shows the source artwork, the four-material topology, a hypsometric relief with contours, the printable slope field, the drainage network (terrain) or surface normals (carved), a material render, two gallery views, a cross-section, the slope budget by scale (terrain) or where the depth went (carved), and a height histogram. For a lithophane it shows the tone map, wall thickness, a simulated backlight, the printed layer index, and tone order. The JSON report carries every measured number behind each verdict.
Yes, for lithophanes, which need one translucent spool. Terrain and carved panels are four-channel pipelines and need a printer profile with four loaded material slots, such as a CANVAS, AMS, or MMU3 setup.
The App Store listing is translated. The app's interface and its validation report are in English.
Topoform is a one-time Mac App Store purchase at $19.99. Every mode, style, and export is included. No subscription, no usage credits, no account. Any cloud model service you choose to connect is billed by that service, directly to you.