Vibe coding is a hot topic these days. Some people love it, others can’t stand it. For me, vibe coding isn’t a one-size-fits-all tool. It has its own place, which reminds me a lot of another hobby I recently picked up: 3D printing.

Let’s play with the analogy. The vibe coding editor (or CLI) is like a 3D printer. Claude Code is like a Bambu Lab printer, popular, high quality, and not the cheapest option. Different models are like different filaments, each with their own properties. System prompts are your calibration profiles. User prompts are the design files and slicing results. And in the end, the editor turns all of this into something usable, just like a 3D printer does with filament and CAD files.

There are three main reasons why this comparison feels spot on.

Perfect for Prototyping

Both vibe coding and 3D printing are perfect when I want to experiment without worrying about long-term maintenance. They let me get a prototype out quickly so I can test ideas.

When I vibe code, I often use it at the start of a project to explore the solution space. It reads and writes code fast, and it has a ton of examples “baked in”. A lot of the time, I don’t even care if the code runs. What matters more is seeing how it fits into the bigger picture and how it “smells”.

3D printing works the same way. Plenty of people use it to test ideas before moving on to precision manufacturing or large-scale production.

Great for Niche Needs

Both tools also shine when you have specific requirements that off-the-shelf solutions don’t cover.

For example, my wife and I wanted a family finance tracker that balanced transparency and privacy. Most services make every transaction visible when you’re on their couple plan. But we wanted something different: a way to mark some transactions as private while still keeping accurate statistics. Since nothing like that existed, I vibe coded a custom website, with full frontend, backend, and database, tailored just for us. That’s when I really started to feel the power of vibe coding: the freedom to request features.

3D printing gives you that same freedom. If you can design it in CAD, you can turn it into something real.

Making Things Fit

Not everything plays nicely together out of the box. That’s another area where vibe coding and 3D printing overlap: they’re great at building connectors.

Coding agents can understand different software interfaces. And since Python is the language that most LLMs know best, vibe coding makes it easy to generate the glue that connects frameworks together.

I use 3D printing for similar problems in the real world. I’ve made plenty of small parts that let objects connect or fit when they weren’t designed to.

Wrapping Up

Vibe coding and 3D printing are both tools that shine in specific contexts. They’re not always the right choice, but when you need to prototype fast, build something custom, or connect things that don’t normally fit, they’re incredibly powerful. The key is knowing when to use them and when to stick with more traditional approaches.