Laptop stand, customizable: any lift, slope and width

A laptop stand made of two open side frames joined by one crossbar. By default it lifts the back of the laptop 120 mm at a 12 degree slope, with a 12 mm lip at the front so the laptop does not slide off. The frames sit 230 mm apart outside to outside, which suits a 14 inch laptop of about 312 to 325 mm wide. Set the lift (90 to 160 mm), the slope (5 to 15 degrees), the width and the depth for your machine.

Customize Change it with AIFree STL, 3MF and STEP, no accountMeasured on the model

Parameters

Outer width (outside face to outside face)mm

Lift at the backmm

Slope angledeg

Depth (front to back)mm

Side piece thicknessmm

Frame bar widthmm

Front lip heightmm

Crossbar height above tablemm

Joint gap per sidemm

Sliders and downloads are free. Changes by the AI designer use credits like any design; new accounts start with free ones.

All three parts print flat with no supports: the side frames on a side face and the crossbar on its side. The crossbar ends pass through a slot in each rear leg and sit flush with the outside faces, with 0.15 mm of play per side. That play is the model's assumption, so print the crossbar first and adjust the joint gap if needed. The stand has no rubber feet or pads.

Parameters

Every slider in the viewer above, with the range the model accepts. The model rebuilds valid at both ends of each range.

Parameter	Range	Default	What it changes
Outer width (outside face to outside face)	180 to 255 mm	230 mm	Distance between the outside faces of the two side frames, which also sets the crossbar length. Narrow it for a small laptop, widen it for a large one.
Lift at the back	90 to 160 mm	120 mm	How high the back of the laptop sits above the desk. The front height follows from the slope and depth.
Slope angle	5 to 15 deg	12 deg	Slope of the top edge the laptop rests on. Steeper raises the keyboard angle and lowers the front.
Depth (front to back)	150 to 240 mm	190 mm	Front to back length of each side frame. Match it to the depth of your laptop so its rear edge is supported.
Side piece thickness	12 to 24 mm	16 mm	Thickness of each side frame, which is its print height. Thicker frames are stiffer and give the crossbar a longer joint.
Frame bar width	10 to 20 mm	14 mm	Width of the bars that make up each open frame. Raise it for a stiffer, heavier stand.
Front lip height	6 to 20 mm	12 mm	How far the front lip rises above the sloped edge to stop the laptop sliding forward.
Crossbar height above table	25 to 70 mm	45 mm	Height of the crossbar above the desk, measured to its centre. Move it if it gets in the way of cables or a dock behind the laptop.
Joint gap per side	0.05 to 0.3 mm	0.15 mm	Play per side between the crossbar ends and the slots in the side frames. Raise it if the bar is too tight, lower it if it wobbles.

Proof: measured on the model

What the design must satisfy and what our CAD engine measured on the model at the default values. Only measured values are shown here; nothing on this page has been printed by us yet.

Requirement	Wanted	Measured
Height of the side frame at the back	120 mm (the lift slider)	120 mm
Slope of the edge the laptop rests on	12 deg (the slope slider)	12 deg
Height of the slot in the rear leg for the 10 mm crossbar end	10.3 mm (0.15 mm play per side)	10.3 mm
Thickness of the crossbar end that goes into the slot	10 mm	10 mm
Crossbar length, ends flush with the outside faces	229.8 mm (outer width minus 0.2 mm)	229.8 mm

side_a: valid solid, one body, 192.5 x 16 x 120 mm, fits a 256 x 256 x 256 mm printer; overhangs: 1.0% of surface would need support.
side_b: valid solid, one body, 192.5 x 16 x 120 mm, fits a 256 x 256 x 256 mm printer; overhangs: 1.0% of surface would need support.
bar: valid solid, one body, 28 x 229.8 x 16 mm, fits a 256 x 256 x 256 mm printer; overhangs: 0.1% of surface would need support.

Print notes

Orientation: From the print plate (Print plate in the viewer, which shows the stand assembled by default): both side frames lie flat on a side face, and the crossbar lies on its side with its ends flat on the bed.
Supports: None
Material: PLA or PETG. PLA is stiffer, which helps a frame that should not flex under typing.
Layer height: 0.2 mm
Settings: 4 walls and 20% infill or more: the frame bars are only 14 mm wide
Hardware: None
Time and filament: About 7 h 30 min and 165 g at the default size: a rough estimate from the model's volume and surface (PLA, 15% infill, about 1 mm of walls, 0.2 mm layers), not a slicer.

Print the crossbar first and try one end in a side frame. The 0.15 mm play per side is the model's assumption: raise the joint gap if it is too tight, lower it if it is loose. A drop of glue in each joint keeps the stand square.
The crossbar is 229.8 mm long at the default width. The print plate puts the crossbar and one side frame on a first 256 mm bed and the other frame on a second; on a 220 mm bed place the crossbar diagonally.
Strength was not tested. There are no rubber feet or pads, so add stick-on pads if the stand slides on your desk.

How it was designed

Designed with buildcad's AI agent, checked by the buildcad team. This is the request it started from and an edited account of what it did (more on how text to CAD works).

The request
A laptop stand that lifts a 14 inch laptop by about 12 cm at a slight angle, two printed side pieces joined by a crossbar, prints without supports.

1
It sized the stand from the laptop
The agent took a 14 inch laptop as about 312 to 325 mm wide and set the frames 230 mm apart outside to outside, which leaves about 40 mm of laptop past each side. It read "12 cm lift" as the height at the back and picked a 12 degree slope.
2
It wrote the checks first
Before modelling, it listed what to measure: a 120 mm lift, 16 mm thick side frames that print flat, a depth of 190 to 195 mm including the lip, and a crossbar 0.2 mm shorter than the outer width so its ends sit flush.
3
First build
The first model built as three valid single bodies: two identical side frames of 192.5 x 120 x 16 mm and a 229.8 mm crossbar. Every measured check passed, and only 0.6% of a side frame's surface counted as overhang, so no supports.
4
It assembled the parts on the model
The agent slid the crossbar into both side frames in code: its shoulder seats on one frame, the other end has 0.15 mm of gap, and nothing overlaps. It probed the top edge 100 mm apart and found a rise of 21.26 mm, which is 12.0 degrees. All 18 slider extremes then rebuilt as valid single bodies.
5
What it left to the maker
Its reply says the joint gap was not tested on a real printer, suggests a drop of glue, and points out there are no rubber feet. Both are in the print notes above.
6
Our changes
We lowered the maximum outer width from 280 mm to 255 mm. The crossbar is 0.2 mm shorter than the outer width, so at 280 mm it would have been 279.8 mm long; at 255 mm it still fits a 256 mm bed. Later we made the model an assembly: the frames stand where they go with the crossbar through both slots, so the viewer shows the stand assembled, and the print plate lays the parts flat for the downloads. We also bevelled both faces of each side frame, not only one, because the plate may put either face on the bed.

One run of the agent: 3 min 31 s, about $0.41 of model time at list price (claude-sonnet-5-5). We changed the code afterwards, as described in the last step.

Change it with AI

Set the sliders, then press Change it with AI: a copy goes to your designs at those sizes and the designer opens with a suggested change you can edit. Its changes use credits like any design; new accounts start with free ones.

Change it with AI Describe your own part Use it from your own AI (MCP)