As the heading says, I want to type a word and give the edges of the letters a round, does anyone use software that can do this easy enough that I can then send to the 3d Printer.
thanks in advance
Ken
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As the heading says, I want to type a word and give the edges of the letters a round, does anyone use software that can do this easy enough that I can then send to the 3d Printer.
thanks in advance
Ken
You could create 3d text in Sketchup and use the third-party bevel / rounding plugin to round the edges.
123 Design is super easy to do text with and is made to export 3d printer files and it's free too boot.
I wonder if he means a rounded (domed) top
Use blender, it's free and all can be done in the one program, I wouldn't bother with anything else to do text, it does a perfect job.
Once you have it done to your liking, select the object, press CTRL-C, mesh from curve, export to STL and there you go, under a minutes work.
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Well Geoff, I have blender downloaded, but haven't played with it yet..... guess I will now.
I do use Sketchup with the Roundcorners plugin. That also would take about a minute to do.
If anyone wants to know how to in catia or solidworks. Here's how:
In Catia or solidworks, use draft, writes some letters and save them as vector such as dxf or dwg. Then you import your text which is vector based. Extrude and use edge fillet.
Works very well.
Hey Richard, you do know there is a little free soft to avoid the step in the sketcher, right ?Quote:
Originally Posted by richardphat
I was too also going to ask about the steps. If it's the same steps, that is.
The curved top, whether from Blender or Sketchup/Roundcorners, will be stepped according to the layer height, correct?
Hello Geoff, I have begun the Learning curve of Blender and it seems to be perfect as it allows an easy and quick method of adding a Bevel. Problem I'm trying to get around now is the Sizing. I have changed to Metric, and trying to work out how I can make the Text a certain size so when I export to STL it comes into ReplicatorG correctly. Any solution to this?Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoff
Thanks
The text is based on the metric scale you are using, if you google "Blender metrics' that will show you how to set it, I have a busy day otherwise I would sit here and screenshot and show you, but if you havent replied by later today i will find some time to show you.Quote:
Originally Posted by KenR60
Important, make sure after scaling an object, you CTRL-A reset Scale. THEN export. Also your export has a scale also, I would export to scale 100 if things are too small because you are probably set at a metric scale of 0.1 instead of 1.
OK will give all that a Go, Thanks Geoff
I believe some free trials such as coreldraw, or the new draftsight have to be confirmed. I download it but never tried it yet to be honest.
I do know they have the option to save in dxf or dwg.
Thanks Richard, I have a few other programs that all work to a certain point and then I'm back to square one. Blender does everything I wanted quick and easy enough ( to a Point ) I'm just learning the best way now to size what I want correctly so I can import the text into ReplicatorG. When you are so used to CAD and working to a millimetre its so hard using programs that aren't creating things the same way :-)
Oh DAMN .... I forgot something very Important, the old method I use allows me to Separate each Letter so that I can move it so that it touches the next Letter. Easiest way is to show you in photos.
Ross and Tam, the Black Font shown has to have the R moved to the right until it touches the o, then the o and the s have to be slightly widened so they all touch like shown in the next section below. I understand I can possibly get away with Kerning I think its called, the Ross would work moving all letters closer, but Not the Tam as only the T needs moving the other letters are fine. The White Font outlined in Black is what I get now, EXCEPT I Can't Fillet or Bevel the edges. If I'm making the Names from Timber or MDF its fine as I don't need to Fillet or Bevel, but if I want to sent the names to my 3D Printer I want it bevelled or Filleted to clean up the sharp edges. Another thing, sometimes the final item needs to sit on a Table with ALL Letters so not having the R and T dropping below the Bottom of the Lowercase letters. So again I can do this all with my old method. SOOoooooooo ... is there anyway of ... I think I answered my own Questions after all this! LOL .. I should be able to do a separate Text Item for each Letter, bit messy for a Long set of Names but that would allow me some movement of each letter, depends how quickly I can make each name correct.
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Ok Ken, I have a couple of mins now... (have my parents visiting tonight... scramble to clean the house of kids insane mess.!!)Quote:
Originally Posted by KenR60
In Blender when you open a default scene, the scale is set to 1 by default, but this is no good.
See example pic# 2, the Dimensions of the stock cube it loads are 2 metres... yet when you import that into Replicator G it's Tiny isnt it??
Open the metrics panel
Attachment 3164
Now, the default scene is set at scale 1.0..
Even tho the Cube says it is 2 metres wide, Blender will still export it at a base scale (because it wants to be difficult) which is 0.001 and it will only be 2mm small..
Blender considers a scale of 1.0
1 unit = 1 metre.
(once you figure this one small thing out, everything makes alot more sense...)
Picture below shows the wrong scale..
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We need to set this to 0.001
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The default cube dimensions will now be 2mm which is what it is when you export it as an STL and load it into replicator G..
Starting to make sense? Now when you model something, if it says for example it is 5cm wide, it will be exported at 5cm wide.
If you have pressed S and rescaled your object at all during modelling, make sure you reset the scale on it, select the model, (CTRL-A) Reset Scale, so that the scale reads
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Then when you export to STL, don't touch anything... just export it as normal...
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Thank You for your Time Geoff, I will try all that :-)
OK, .. I have set Blender up so it opens each time with the Word TEXT and the Scale set to 0.001 - all works perfect, now is there a way I can setup the height of the font so that can show up correctly each time I click NEW? in this example I typed in 0.015 into the Extrude for 15mm Extrusion and the Text extruded like I had type 15 metres even though it says 1.5cm so I'm guessing that's because the word Text isn't scaled to the correct height yet.
Attachment 3173Attachment 3174
Whatever I have done now doesn't extrude anymore? I've put the Length of the Text at 5.39 cm and even tried extruding it to 2.26 metres without seeing any change
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Maybe if someone can sent me a Blender File with the Defaults corrected and then I can save the defaults here?
Hey Ken- I'm still pretty new to Blender but this video really helped me get a feel for working with models for printing:
http://youtu.be/zHxs4uerHjw
Also, once you have your design done, prepping it for printing is explained here:
http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/p...or_3d_printing
OK easier way?
Dont use the text extrude function.
Create a flat text, CTRL-A , Mesh from Curve.
Attachment 3176
Press Tab (EDIT MODE) press A to select all
Press E on the keyboard
Pull it down to a decent height... you can set the extrusion manually...
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Obviously I did not rescale this text so the dimensions are very small, but you get the idea.
Just do all your bevelling and effects before you do this. Also if you cant figure out how to load new fonts let me know its pretty easy.
Yes loading fonts I worked out from youtube, just couldn't work out how to save them so that each time I go new or open Blender my font is ready. I will check out the youtube link, thanks
ken
Here is the first test, I learnt two things. 1) the Fillet is on bothside ( Front and Back ) and 2) The Fillet must make it think something else is coming as it closes in the Capital Letter on Both Sides.
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