Hi,  New to 3D printing, and 3D design software,

3D Printing
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1

Hi,

New to 3D printing, and 3D design software, I’m looking for a tool that would do what I hope to be an easy task, and be relatively easy to get started with.

I want to import a logo type image - potentially a vector but I can export as SVG, DMX etc? - that I can then extrude etc. working with the image paths.

I’m a Mac user and I’ve looked at options such as 123d Design and Inventor Fusion but can’t seem to see that as an option.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks.

Chris

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im not familiar with DMX? what format is that? to my understanding … DMX is a signal format for lighting programming :stuck_out_tongue:

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OK .dxf or .dwg - it was early!

4

One approach might be to create a DXF then use OpenSCAD to import and extrude it.

5

Inkscape has a good tool to create the .dxf from an image link: http://inkscape.org/doc/tracing/tutorial-tracing.html

6

FreeCAD can import SVG vector geometry and quite easily extrude it. Unfortunately, the Mac version is lacking compared to the Windows and Linux versions. It suffers from Mac-specific bugs because there is no Mac bug hunting & fixing. No dev own a Mac.

7

i did some searching/tests for conversion from Kicad/eagle to raster to vector to gcode. its in my blogs :stuck_out_tongue: … they may be helpful?
http://3roomlabs.blogspot.sg/

http://3roomlabs.blogspot.sg/2013/03/034-eagle-cad-testing-1-2-3.html

http://3roomlabs.blogspot.sg/2013/03/018-more-refinements-from-kicad-to.html

8

Thanks for all the suggestions. I’ll look into them all. My other research has thrown up a possibility that Blender can do this too.

I need to look at the options and see which seems easiest to grasp. The learning curve is proving very steep!

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yea i heard there is a plugin or something in blender that exports STL direct.

10

Thanks for all the suggestions. I’m trying Blender first and will look at the others if that fails Need to get it sorted as my Replicator 2 is due to arrive today :slight_smile: