The disclosure provides a technique for recursively partitioning a 3D model of an object into two or more components such that each component fits within a predefined printing volume. The technique includes determining a set of planar cuts each of which partitions the 3D model into at least two components, evaluating one or more objective functions for each cut in the set of planar cuts, and selecting a cut from the set of planar cuts based on the evaluations of the objective functions. In addition, the technique includes, upon determining that a component resulting from the selected cut does not fit within the predefined printing volume, further partitioning that component.