rwleigh Posted April 6, 2023 Share Posted April 6, 2023 Hi there... I'm wanting to 3D print a Happy Birthday stencil for a chef friend of mine, I'm after something like the image attached. What would be the best way to do this or does anyone have one similar already please? Many thanks, Richard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted April 6, 2023 Share Posted April 6, 2023 Well, for starters do you have a 3D printer? If you don't have one, look up 3D printing service companies in your area. Some UPS stores offer 3D printing services. Finally, I believe you will need to generate a STL file featuring the design of your choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwleigh Posted April 6, 2023 Author Share Posted April 6, 2023 24 minutes ago, ReMark said: Well, for starters do you have a 3D printer? If you don't have one, look up 3D printing service companies in your area. Some UPS stores offer 3D printing services. Finally, I believe you will need to generate a STL file featuring the design of your choice. Hi ReMark, I do have a 3D printer, a Fortus 450mc. I know i need an STL file for slicing with GrabCAD but i just wanted the DWG first, but that would be very hard for me to redraw so just looking for an easier option... Cheers, Richard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGAL Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 (edited) You need something like TEXT2GEOM by Seant this explodes the text into lines arcs etc that can then be joined together to make plines, ok next step is to make a solid say 1mm thick then subtract all the text form the solid, last step STLOUT. This is one I made a christmas bauble. ACAD.zip BCAD.zip Edited April 7, 2023 by BIGAL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 Another option would be to use some free programs. 1. Krita or Gimp to convert the image to black and white 2. Inkscape to create a scalable vector graphic 3. Blender to create the 3D model and then export to .stl format for printing The model below was a quick and dirty attempt. I spent about 1 minute in each of the programs listed above. There are some kinks and indents within the lettering, due to the image quality, but those defects could be cleaned up within the image editing software or within Blender to smooth out the rough spots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwleigh Posted April 8, 2023 Author Share Posted April 8, 2023 That looks good, I'd appreciate it if could share that dwg with me... I ended up finding an STL file online and printing this out which my chef friend tried last night and was happy with the result but I think I prefer the font in the original one that you have used. I have now been asked if I can do others, such as Congratulations or Happy Anniversary etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted April 8, 2023 Share Posted April 8, 2023 7 hours ago, rwleigh said: That looks good, I'd appreciate it if could share that dwg with me... I don't have a .dwg file. I could give you the .stl file, but if you want to make more of these you will need to learn how to do it yourself. I was thinking of making a video showing the steps. It's really very simple and only takes a few minutes, using the programs I mentioned in my previous post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwleigh Posted April 8, 2023 Author Share Posted April 8, 2023 4 hours ago, Cad64 said: I don't have a .dwg file. I could give you the .stl file, but if you want to make more of these you will need to learn how to do it yourself. I was thinking of making a video showing the steps. It's really very simple and only takes a few minutes, using the programs I mentioned in my previous post. I'd like to see a video tutorial on those programs to do more of these if you have the time. Not used them before and I think I might be doing a few more versions if I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted April 8, 2023 Share Posted April 8, 2023 1 hour ago, rwleigh said: I'd like to see a video tutorial on those programs to do more of these if you have the time. Not used them before and I think I might be doing a few more versions if I can. Ok, I'll work on it and upload it to my youtube channel and I'll post a link here in this thread when it's ready. It might take a few days to get it put together, but I'll try to get it uploaded as soon as possible. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwleigh Posted April 8, 2023 Author Share Posted April 8, 2023 8 minutes ago, Cad64 said: Ok, I'll work on it and upload it to my youtube channel and I'll post a link here in this thread when it's ready. It might take a few days to get it put together, but I'll try to get it uploaded as soon as possible. Much appreciated, no rush... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P Posted April 10, 2023 Share Posted April 10, 2023 (edited) Is the text a graphic like a gif, bmp of jpg? You could always make it into one I think. There was a LISP a while back (;;https://www.cadtutor.net/forum/topic/75162-bmp-file-to-polyline-mosaic/) that converts BMP file pixels into lines, could do something with that, convert them to lines with a thickness perhaps, then union or something them all to make a 3d solid? Edited April 10, 2023 by Steven P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGAL Posted April 10, 2023 Share Posted April 10, 2023 Steven P I have had limited use of INKSCAPE but it makes a dxf or dwg of an image. see post by Cad64 item 2. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted July 25, 2023 Share Posted July 25, 2023 I finally got around to finishing the video tutorial for this. It was quite a learning experience, since it's the first time I've created a video with audio, but I think it turned out pretty good. Hope it helps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLW210 Posted July 25, 2023 Share Posted July 25, 2023 Great Video. There is a CAD Sketcher Add-on, it may make exact extrudes easier, I need to try some CAD on Blender when time allows. The old way of exact extrudes was to place a vertex and move it the exact distance then extrude to the vertex. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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