Check the Thrixel API key, the cube balance, and how many jobs are running. Call this before submitting a large batch so you can size it to the budget and the concurrency cap, and after a 'jobs already running' or 'out of cubes' error.

Costs: detail / sculpt / texture are a flat 40 cubes each; reduce_triangles and rebake are free; create / edit / autofix are metered on actual model usage (tens of cubes, sometimes more). Concurrency is capped per plan; an admin account is unlimited.

Create a 3D model from a text description, optionally guided by reference images. This is the default way to make a game prop, vehicle, building, weapon or piece of furniture.

Output is a rough but EDITABLE multi-part mesh: parts are separate, named nodes, so you can later retexture or transform individual pieces. Prefer this over thrixel_sculpt_model whenever the subject is man-made or made of distinct components.

Waits for the job to finish, saves the GLB, and returns the file path plus a rendered thumbnail. Look at the thumbnail before building on the result.

Describe the object itself, not the request: 'a weathered wooden market stall with a striped awning' works, 'make me a stall' does not.

Create a dense, organic 3D model from a text description and/or a single reference image. Costs 40 cubes.

Use this for creatures, characters, plants, rocks, food, cloth - anything sculpted rather than assembled - and whenever you are starting from a photo. The output is ONE high-density textured mesh, not separate parts, so it is less editable than thrixel_create_model. For man-made objects with distinct components, use that instead.

Waits for the job to finish, saves the GLB, and returns the file path plus a rendered thumbnail.

Turn a rough model into a high-resolution mesh with a PBR texture. Costs 40 cubes and runs on a GPU - expect a couple of minutes.

This is the step that makes an Architect blockout look finished. It regenerates geometry, so it is NOT the way to reduce triangle count: use thrixel_reduce_triangles for that, which is free and faster.

A reference image drives the look. Give a prompt describing the desired appearance and one is generated for you, or reuse an existing one with reference_image_id.

Generate fresh textures for a model without touching its geometry. Costs 40 cubes.

This is the cheap way to restyle: to make a whole set of assets cyberpunk, retexture each one against the same reference image rather than regenerating them. Pass the same reference_image_id every time to keep the set consistent - reusing an image is not re-charged.

Works on any completed model, not just detailed ones. To restyle only some parts, name them in apply_to_node_names.

Cut a model down to a triangle budget. FREE and fast - always use this to lighten an asset instead of re-running thrixel_detail_model at a lower target, which costs cubes, takes minutes, and gives you a different model rather than a lighter version of the same one.

Keeps the existing texture. Works on any completed model: detailed and sculpted models are rebuilt with cleaner topology, other models are decimated in place. The right endpoint is chosen for you.

Typical game budgets: hero prop 20k-50k, background prop 2k-10k, distant scenery under 1k.

Save a finished model to disk in a specific format.

Most tools already save a GLB automatically, so you only need this to get a different format, or to re-save a model from an earlier session. Every format is available on every plan at no extra cost. GLB is the right choice for web and Three.js and is served directly; FBX, OBJ, STL and USDZ are converted on demand, so the first request for one takes longer.

Show what a model actually contains: its part names, per-part triangle counts, and a rendered thumbnail.

Call this before any operation that targets specific parts - thrixel_edit_model, thrixel_retexture_model and thrixel_reduce_triangles all take exact node names, and guessing them fails. Also use it to check a triangle budget before shipping an asset.

Check whether a job has finished. Only needed for jobs submitted with wait=false - every other tool already waits and returns the finished asset.

List models already in this Thrixel account, newest first. Use it to find and reuse an existing asset instead of generating a duplicate, or to recover a submission_id from an earlier session.

Change an existing model with a natural-language instruction, keeping everything you did not ask to change. Use this to iterate rather than regenerating from scratch - it is faster and preserves the parts of the asset that were already correct.

Works on Architect, Auto-fix and Edit results. Say what the result should BE ('the roof is corrugated metal, rusted at the edges'), not just what to do ('make it rusty').

To change only some parts, pass their exact node names in focus_on_node_names - get those from thrixel_inspect_model.

Run an automatic refinement pass on a model: the system critiques its own output and repairs what it finds, with no instruction from you.

Use it when a generated model is roughly right but sloppy, and you cannot articulate what is wrong. If you CAN say what is wrong, thrixel_edit_model is more direct and usually better.

This is one of the slower operations - expect a few minutes.