What this template is for
All seven Soma pieces — twenty-seven cubes in total — as flat nets. They assemble into a 3×3×3 cube 240 different ways, and into a great many other shapes besides.
Also called soma puzzle · polycube puzzle · 3x3x3 cube puzzle · paper puzzle cubes — all the same shape, and this is it.
- Classroom geometry and spatial reasoning
- Puzzle and brain-teaser gifts
- Maths club and STEM activities
- Desk toys and party favours
How to use this template
Set your measurements above, then download the file that suits whatever you are already working in. All four are the same soma cube, drawn to the same size — only the format changes, and every one of them is free.
- PDF printing at home
- Print it at 100 per cent and cut it out. This is also the file to hand a print shop: say "actual size, no scaling".
- PNG 300 dpi Canva, Photoshop, Procreate
- Upload it as an image, lock it in place, and design your soma cube on top of it. Works on the free Canva plan and on a phone. Full Canva walkthrough →
- SVG Cricut, Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity
- Vector, with the cut lines, fold lines and labels on separate layers so you can style or delete them independently. Cricut and Silhouette walkthrough →
- DXF Silhouette, laser and vinyl cutters
- Two layers, CUT and FOLD. The free Silhouette Studio Basic opens DXF where it will not open SVG, so this is the one to use there.
Putting your own design on it: you do not need any of those programs for a logo or a pattern — add a picture in the panel above and drag it onto the soma cube. It is trimmed to the cut outline and embedded properly in the PDF, and it never leaves your computer. Getting it printed properly →
Printing it
- Type the size you need above, in millimetres, centimetres or inches.
- Download the PDF and print it at 100% — never “fit to page”, or every measurement comes out wrong.
- Too big for your paper? Tick Split across several sheets and it prints across as many as it needs, with overlaps and matching letters to tape together.
How to put it together
These pictures are the soma cube itself, not a generic diagram — change the measurements above and the template changes, but the three steps never do.
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Cut the solid lines
Every solid line is a cut. Scissors are fine; a craft knife against a steel rule is neater on the straight runs. Cut the inside shapes, like a thumb hole, before you free the outline — the sheet is easier to hold while it is still whole.
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Score every dashed line
Dashed lines are folds, and they want scoring first: run an empty ballpoint, a bone folder or the back of a butter knife along a ruler. Card folded without scoring cracks along the outside of the bend. Fold each crease both ways, then back — it makes the shape almost close itself.
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Fold, glue and hold
Cut each net, score and fold every dashed line, then close it with tape on the inside. Do one piece at a time and keep the letters: the puzzle is much easier to talk about when the pieces have names.
Glue: a glue stick is enough for paper; use white PVA on card and hold each seam for thirty seconds. Tape works on the inside of any seam if you would rather not wait. Let a box dry standing up, not lying on a flap.
Questions about the soma cube
- What is the Soma cube?
- A dissection puzzle of seven pieces — one made of three cubes and six made of four — that fit together into a 3×3×3 cube. There are 240 essentially different ways to do it, which is what makes it a good puzzle rather than a one-trick one.
- Why are there no glue tabs?
- The same reason the Platonic solids here have none. These get cut, folded and taped on the inside, and a plain net is unambiguously correct, while pairing up tabs is the kind of thing that looks right on screen and fails in your hands.
- How are the nets worked out?
- Every face of a polycube unfolds onto the same square grid, because each turn is a right angle. The tool walks the surface of each piece, laying every face into the next square along, and only accepts a layout where no two faces land on the same paper, nothing touches a face it is not folded to, and no square is walled in.
Print your own design on it
Every template here takes your artwork. Add a picture in the panel on the left — a logo, a photo, a pattern — drag it where you want it on the soma cube, and it prints with the template. It is trimmed to the cut outline automatically, so nothing spills over the edge, and it goes into the PDF as a properly embedded image.
No other free box template site will do that, and your picture never leaves your computer — there is no server here to send it to.