Name keychains in bulk
from one list of names
With Unlimited you paste up to 100 names, one per line, and download every keychain as its own STL or 3MF in a single ZIP. Design the style once below, then print a whole class or team in two or three plates.
By Philipp Baldauf · Updated September 29, 2026
Set the font, thickness, colours and hole here. The bulk tool uses one shared style for every name on the list.
How bulk export works
Bulk export is part of Unlimited ($9.99 a month or $89.99 a year). In your dashboard you open Bulk, paste the names or upload a .txt or .csv file, pick one style for all of them and choose STL or 3MF. The tool builds each keychain in your browser and hands you one ZIP with a file per name, named after the name (emma.stl, liam.stl).
Up to 100 names go into one run. The preview shows the first name; every other name gets exactly the same font, thickness, base, colours, first-letter size and hole size. A progress bar counts through the list. Keep the tab open until the ZIP downloads; if you cancel halfway, the files built so far still land in the ZIP.
From class list to ZIP
- 1
1. Design one keychain
Use the generator above or the one in your dashboard to get the style right with a typical name from the list. Try the longest name too, so you know how long the biggest tag gets.
- 2
2. Paste or upload the names
One name per line. From a spreadsheet, copy the column or save it as .csv: the first column is used and a header like "Name" is skipped. Files must be under 1 MB, which is far more than 100 names need.
- 3
3. Check the count
The tool trims spaces, drops empty lines and removes duplicates, ignoring case. If you paste more than 100, it tells you how many were dropped.
- 4
4. Pick STL or 3MF and generate
STL is one colour per file. 3MF keeps the letters and plate on separate filament slots, which Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer open with two colours already assigned.
- 5
5. Unzip and load plate by plate
Drag a batch of files into the slicer, let it arrange them, and slice. The next section tells you how many fit.
How many keychains fit on one plate
Typical counts with 5 mm gaps and a tag about 22 mm tall. A five-letter name makes a tag of roughly 60 to 65 mm including the ring. Print times are for PLA at 0.2 mm layers at standard speed.
| Name length | 180 x 180 mm (A1 mini) | 256 x 256 mm (A1, P1S, X1) | Time per full plate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short (3-4 letters, ~45 mm) | about 18 | about 36 | 4-6 h / 8-12 h |
| Medium (5-6 letters, ~65 mm) | about 12 | about 27 | 3-5 h / 7-11 h |
| Long (8+ letters, ~85 mm) | 6-10 | about 18 | 2-4 h / 5-8 h |
Each keychain uses about 8 to 15 g of filament, so a full A1 mini plate of 12 is 100 to 180 g. A class of 28 is three A1 mini plates or two on a 256 mm bed.
A class of 28, in numbers
Typical values for five-letter names at 5 mm thickness in PLA.
~5 min
Design and export
One style, one pasted list, one ZIP. The same job in Tinkercad takes an afternoon.
3 plates
On an A1 mini
12 + 12 + 4. On a 256 mm bed it's two plates.
9-14 h
Total print time
Start one plate in the evening and two the next day.
250-400 g
Filament
Under half a spool, roughly $5 to $8 of PLA at typical prices.
Printing a big batch without surprises
Print one first
Before you fill a plate, print the longest name once. You'll see if the hole fits your rings and the letters are thick enough. A bad first layer on a full plate costs 4 hours, not 30 minutes.
Sort by length
Put short names together and long names together. Mixed lengths leave gaps and you fit two or three fewer per plate.
One colour change per plate
Because every file shares the same thickness, the letters start at the same layer on every keychain. Without an AMS one pause at that layer covers the whole plate. Our guide to two colours without an AMS shows where to set it.
Clean the bed
Wash a textured PEI plate with dish soap before a long batch. Small parts pop loose from greasy spots, and one loose tag can knock over its neighbours.
Sorting and packing
The printing is the easy part. With 30 kids waiting, handing out the right keychain is where it goes wrong.
- Load plates in alphabetical order. The files in the ZIP are named after each name, so plate 1 gets A to F, plate 2 G to M and so on. When a plate comes off, you know which slice of the list it holds.
- Keep a printed list. Tick names off as you pull tags from the plate. You'll spot a missing or failed keychain right away, not on hand-out day.
- Watch for duplicates. The tool removes repeated names, so two kids named Emma give you one emma.stl. Print that file twice, or add an initial (Emma K., Emma S.) so each child gets their own.
- Bag or card them. Small zip bags or a card with a slot keep split rings from tangling. For a team, pack them per age group.
- Add split rings before hand-out. Opening 30 split rings takes longer than you think. A split-ring plier makes it a 10-minute job.
Selling keychains and wholesale orders
Unlimited includes commercial use, so you can sell the prints: at a market stall, on Etsy, or as a wholesale order for a school or sports club. A single $4.99 download is personal use only, which is another reason bulk runs belong on Unlimited. To price an order, the keychain price calculator adds filament, machine time and marketplace fees, and our guide to prints that sell has typical margins.
For market stalls, a common approach is to print the 50 to 100 most common names in your area ahead of time and take custom orders for the rest. An alphabet set of single letters is a cheap add-on; see initial keychains.
The limits of bulk mode
One run means one style. You can't give every name its own font or colour inside a single list; split the list and do two runs instead. Each line becomes one row of text, so a name with a second line (a jersey number, a year) doesn't fit the bulk format. Those you design one by one.
NameSTL doesn't print or ship anything. If you don't own a printer, you send the ZIP to a print service; how to get custom 3D printed names walks through that. If you want a printer for the job, the Bambu Lab A1 mini handles a class set in two days.
Questions people ask
Can I make name keychains in bulk?
Yes, with Unlimited. Paste up to 100 names, one per line, or upload a .txt or .csv file, and download every keychain as its own STL or 3MF in one ZIP. All names share the style you set: font, thickness, base, colours and hole size.
How many keychains fit on a Bambu Lab A1 mini?
About 12 five-letter name keychains fit on the 180 x 180 mm bed with 5 mm gaps. Short names fit about 18, long names 6 to 10. A full plate of 12 takes roughly 3 to 5 hours at 0.2 mm layers.
How long does it take to print keychains for a whole class?
For 28 kids, plan on 9 to 14 hours of printing, which is three A1 mini plates or two on a 256 x 256 mm bed. Designing and exporting the files takes about five minutes.
What happens with two identical names?
The bulk tool removes duplicates, ignoring case, so two Emmas give you one file. Print that file twice in the slicer, or add a surname initial to each name so they come out as separate files.
Can I sell keychains made with the bulk tool?
Yes. Unlimited includes commercial use, so market sales, Etsy listings and wholesale orders for clubs or schools are covered. A single download is for personal use only.
Can each name have a different font?
Not within one run. The bulk tool applies one shared style to the whole list. Split the list by font and do a run for each; every run gives you its own ZIP.