LureLab
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Design your own lure. See it swim before you print it.

Shape a crankbait, jerkbait, glide bait or swimbait, balance it, airbrush it, and watch a physics simulation swim it on your retrieve. Then export print-ready files, or have the maker build it for you by hand.

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Design during the trial, with one 3D-print export in total. No credit card or automatic paid renewal.

  • Physics-based swim simulation
  • Airbrush paint studio
  • 3D-print export
  • Hand-built custom lures
A fire tiger deep-diving crankbait rendered in the LureLab design studio, with its long clear bill and two treble hooks
Length
2-1/2 in
Weight
3/8 oz
Buoyancy
Floating
Max depth
13.3 ft

What's inside

Everything between the idea and the water

Most homemade lures take a dozen prototypes before one swims right. LureLab lets you do most of that testing on screen, so the first one you print is already close.

  • Physics-based swim simulation

    Wobble, roll, dive curve and line tension come out of the physics, not a canned animation. Change the bill and watch the action change.

  • Paint and airbrush studio

    Spray fades, lay scale netting and tiger bars, add text, eyes and your own decals, right on the 3D model.

  • 3D-print export

    Split shells with ballast pockets, wire channel and bill slot, or two-part molds for soft plastics. 3MF or STL, plus a build sheet.

  • Hand-built by the maker

    Share the shape, quantity and finish you have in mind. We discuss production options and feasibility before preparing a separate quote.

How it works

From blank to bite-ready in five steps

  1. Pick a starting point

    Start from one of 10 proven designs, from a square-bill to a weightless stick worm.

  2. Shape and balance it

    Tune body, bill angle, line tie, hooks and weights. One click ballasts it to float, suspend or sink.

  3. Paint it

    Airbrush the pattern in 3D and get a step-by-step paint guide for the real thing.

  4. Swim-test it

    Cast it, crank it, twitch it, walk it. Read the wobble, roll and depth before you build anything.

  5. Print it or commission it

    Export files for your printer, or have the maker build it by hand and ship it to you.

Swim simulation

Physics, not animation

Below is a 5-7/8 in two-piece glide bait on a slow, steady retrieve (1.1 ft/s), seen from above. Every pose is a frame from the simulator. The S-glide repeats every 2.5 s and swings about 4.6 in to each side, and nobody keyframed it.

Top view of a glide bait swimming a wide S-shaped path from left to right, shown as fading snapshots every half second with its nose path dashed in teal
Nose pathSnapshots every 0.45 s; the solid lure is the latest frame and the thin line runs to the rod tip.

What the simulator models

  • Wobble from vortex shedding. The bill sheds vortices the way it does in water, and that is what drives the wobble. Change the bill angle or the line tie and the action changes with it.
  • The water moves with the lure. Added mass (about as heavy as the lure itself, side to side), body drag and bill lift are all included.
  • Line, hooks and split rings. The line sags and drags, and the trebles swing on their hangers. Bigger hooks really do dampen the action.
  • Your retrieve. Steady, stop-and-go, twitch, walk-the-dog and lift-and-drop, on a long cast or in a test-tank view.
  • Read-outs anglers care about. Wobble frequency and width, roll, nose angle, running depth and line tension.

Honest about the limits. It is a fast, reduced-order model, not a full fluid simulation. It gets the character of the action and the trends right, and we check it against published tank tests. Absolute wobble width can still be off, so a bathtub test is the final word.

Dive curves from the simulator

The same 2-1/2 in deep diver on three line sizes, cast and cranked back from splashdown (left) to the rod tip (right). Thinner line has less drag, so the bait digs about 2.3 ft deeper.

Simulated dive curves for the deep-diving crankbait Depth in feet against distance from the rod tip, for 8, 12 and 17 pound mono. Thinner line runs deeper. Values are listed in the table below the chart. 0 4 8 12 16 0 20 40 60 80 14.7 ft 13.3 ft 12.4 ft Distance from rod tip (ft) Depth (ft)
Maximum depth, 82 ft cast, 2.6 ft/s (1.8 mph) steady retrieve
8-lb mono (0.26 mm)14.7 ft
12-lb mono (0.33 mm)13.3 ft
17-lb mono (0.38 mm)12.4 ft

Paint studio

Airbrush it before you pick up the airbrush

Paint the way lure painters do: white base, flash, fades, stencils, eyes and a clear topcoat, layer by layer on the 3D model.

  • Airbrush, eraser and color picker with opaque, transparent (candy), pearl, fluorescent and metallic paints.
  • Stencils and patterns: scale netting, bars, tiger stripes, spots, splatter, gill plates and a lateral line.
  • Text, eyes and decals. Put your name on the belly or drop in your own image.
  • One-click schemes to start from: shad, sexy shad, chartreuse, fire tiger, ghost, craw, chrome, perch and more.
  • Take it to the bench: a printable paint guide with 1:1 views, a color list and the order of every coat.
  • Airbrush B
  • Eraser E
  • Color picker I
  • Text T
  • Eyes
  • Decal
  • Mirror M
  • Chartreuse
  • Fire tiger
  • Perch
  • Red head
  • Crawfish
  • Ghost

The same square-bill body in six classic schemes, rendered in the studio.

3D-print export

The export builds real parts from your design, then folds their weight back into the model, so the read-outs and the swim test match the lure that comes off your printer.

Trial accounts include design tools and one 3D-print export in total. Further exports require a subscription. Monthly and annual subscriptions both include 10 exports per subscription month.

  • Hard baits: left and right shells with ballast pockets, rattle chamber, through-wire channel or screw-eye pilot holes, bill slot and alignment pins. Or one piece with pause layers to drop the weights in.
  • Jointed baits: every section split in halves, with hinge knuckles or eye links.
  • Soft plastics: a two-part pour mold with sprue, vents and registration keys.
  • A build sheet with the weight budget, the hardware list and the assembly steps, including what the halves should weigh before you glue them shut.
  • 3MF or STL for any slicer. Files are in millimeters, as slicers expect; the build sheet shows inches and ounces too.
The exported print parts of a deep-diving crankbait on a print bed: one shell half seen from the outside, the other flipped to show the ballast pocket, wire channel and pin holes, and the separate bill
The actual export of the deep-diving crankbait preset: two shell halves (one flipped to show the inside) and the bill.

Custom builds

Rather not build it yourself? I'll build it for you.

Send the design straight from the studio. You get a quote first, and you only pay once you accept it.

How custom builds work Meet the maker

  1. Send your design

    The shape, weights, hooks and paint, exactly as you saw them in the studio.

  2. Get a quote

    We review feasibility, quantity, materials and finish, then quote the price and estimated timing separately.

  3. Discuss the build details

    Talk through the shape, quantity and production options before confirming what can be made and requesting a separate quote.

  4. Built by hand and shipped

    Follow it from production to tracking to your mailbox.

Your first 14 days are on us

Design and try one 3D-print export during the trial, with no credit card. Monthly and annual subscriptions both include 10 exports per subscription month. Your saved designs stay in your account after the trial.

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