Home › Vortex cascade marble runs
Vortex cascade marble runs
A vortex cascade is a chain of funnel bowls. The marble circles each one faster and faster, drops through the hole in the middle onto a ramp hidden in the bowl’s pedestal, and rolls out of a doorway into the next bowl.
Start from a preset
Each preset opens in the generator, ready to tweak, test and download.
How it works
- Every bowl’s underside is a 45° cone, so it prints with no supports. The ramp inside the pedestal starts low enough to clear it.
- Bowls are laid out across the bed automatically, as many as fit your height and printer.
- The simulator follows the marble round every bowl, through every hole and down every ramp.
Settings you can change
| Bowls | The most bowls to fit; fewer are used if the height or bed runs out. |
|---|---|
| Bowl size and slope | Bigger, shallower bowls make the marble circle for longer. |
| Ramp length | Length of the ramps between bowls. |
Every style also lets you pick your printer, marble size (6 mm BBs to 25 mm shooters), groove shape, slope, wall height, base plate, label and colours.
Printing tips
Taller runs fit more bowls. Steel balls spin longest; glass marbles are lighter and stop sooner. Slice with supports off, 0.2 mm layers and 3–4 walls. The full print guide covers slicer settings and troubleshooting.
Other styles
- Spiral marble run towers: A spiral tower winds a track down around a central core.
- Zigzag marble runs: A zigzag run (or drop wall) sends the marble along a ramp, drops it onto the next ramp going the other way, and repeats all the way down.
- Freeform marble runs: A freeform run wanders across the printer bed in loops and bends, held up by fins with pointed arches (like a Roman aqueduct) or by thin pillars (like a roller coaster).
- Zigzag tower marble runs: A zigzag tower wraps a drop wall round a square core.
- Twin tower marble runs: Two spiral towers side by side, joined by a bridge on aqueduct arches.
- Racing marble runs: A wave racer is a zigzag wall with several identical lanes side by side.
- Loop-the-loop marble runs: A steep drop, a vertical loop, then a U-turn back alongside to the finish.