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The Dielines API lets you generate dielines and create interactive 3D mockups programmatically. This post walks through the full flow, from your first sandbox request to a hosted, rotatable mockup page.

If you prefer to watch first, here is a recent screencast that demonstrates the entire process end to end:

The examples below use curl, which is a command you run in a terminal (Terminal on macOS or Linux, Command Prompt or PowerShell on Windows). curl is built into all modern versions of these operating systems.

If you would rather use a graphical client, paste the same URL, headers, and body into Postman or Insomnia. Both are free and friendlier for first-time API testing.

The Sandbox environment uses the same API key as production, but requests do not consume credits. The free demo template (becf-11f08) accepts custom dimensions and is the right way to try the API end to end. Other templates on the Sandbox return dielines in their default options — to generate custom dielines from any other template, you will need API credits and the production endpoint.

• Sandbox base URL: https://sandbox.api.diecuttemplates.com
• Production base URL: https://api.diecuttemplates.com

The following request uses our free demo template (becf-11f08) to generate a dieline PDF:

curl -X POST \
  https://sandbox.api.diecuttemplates.com/dieline-templates/becf-11f08/dielines \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Dielines-Api-Version: 1.0" \
  -d '{
    "format": "pdf",
    "variables": {
      "unit": "mm",
      "material": 0.5,
      "length": 100.0,
      "width": 50.0,
      "height": 150.0,
      "dimension_texts": false
    }
  }'

The response contains a dieline id (for example di_ueipnpyp0rlw) and a download URL for the PDF. You will need this id in the next step.

Full documentation, the list of available templates, and every variable you can set live here: Dielines API — Getting Started.

Creating a mockup is a two-step flow:

1. Generate a dieline and keep the returned id.
2. Upload your print-ready artwork to that dieline.

Use the request shown above. Save the dieline id from the response.

Post your artwork file to the dieline you just created:

curl -X POST \
  https://sandbox.api.diecuttemplates.com/dielines/di_ueipnpyp0rlw/3d-mockups \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Dielines-Api-Version: 1.0" \
  -F "file=@/path/to/your/artwork.pdf" \
  -F "name=My Design" \
  -F "outside_design=true"

Accepted artwork formats: PDF, PNG, JPEG, SVG. The response returns the 3D mockup id and a hosted URL such as https://www.diecuttemplates.com/3d/llnmb1oh8r — open it to see what a live mockup page looks like.

You can list all mockups attached to a dieline:

curl -X GET \
  https://sandbox.api.diecuttemplates.com/dielines/di_ueipnpyp0rlw/3d-mockups \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Dielines-Api-Version: 1.0"

These are two separate products:

• The Premium website subscription gives unlimited access on diecuttemplates.com — dieline downloads, nesting, the manufacturing cost calculator, 3D previews, and so on. It does not include API access or API credits.
• The Dielines API is billed separately, in credits. You can either buy a one-time credit pack or subscribe monthly. Pricing details are here: API pricing.

Sandbox testing is always free, regardless of which product you have — so you can build and verify your entire integration before purchasing any credits.

The API portion of a 3D mockup pipeline is just two requests:

1. POST /dieline-templates/{id}/dielines — returns a dieline id.
2. POST /dielines/{id}/3d-mockups — returns a mockup id and a hosted URL.

If you hit anything specific while testing in the Sandbox, send us the request you are making and the response you are getting and we will take a look.