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Thread: Some advice?

  1. #1

    Some advice?

    I need to make this but I want to 3D print it. Anyone know how I would model the cut out with the letter that fit in to it? The name is not the name needed.
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  2. #2
    Staff Engineer
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    Jun 2014
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    What software do you prefer to use for your modeling tasks? Right off the top, Tinkercad is an easy program to use. It has all the features you require to create this model in short order.

    Possible sequence of steps:

    Drag cube into edit window, size to desired dimensions.
    Select Text, type letters, size to desired dimensions.
    Position text over cube, deep enough to meet your requirements. Select text, use "Hole" feature to remove space for letters from cube.
    Select all items, use Group feature to finalize shape.
    Export base to STL file.
    Undo until the text is stand-alone, delete cube, export text.

    Doing the steps above will result in text that is likely to be too large (exact size) to fit in the holes. It may be necessary to scale down either in Tinkercad or in your slicer to make the letters fit as desired. Depending on your printer, you would want to scale each letter individually by an appropriate "kerf" size, which would be determined by experimentation.

  3. #3
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    Jul 2014
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    absolute doddle in openscad.

    just subtract the letters from a cube. Print word, print cube.
    Or oval or circle, hexagon etc.

    As far as scaling the letters individually. Nah, as long as the word is a single stl, then just scale the whole thing :-)

  4. #4
    Staff Engineer
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    I'm a fan of OpenSCAD as you likely know, but I suspect the OP might be a bit of a beginner to the 3D modeling world.

    Regarding the letter scaling: take the letter A for example. The center of the A is a triangle. The depression cut from the primary block is going to be a specific size. The letter that created the depression will be the same size. Scale it down and the triangle cut-out in the letter becomes smaller than the non-depressed area in the main block, yes? Effectively the same thing for any letter with an enclosed area, such as P, R, O, etc.

    After creating my "instructable" above, I realize that it will not work for this reason.

    I'd probably create one set of letters in Inkscape for making the depressions, then inset the paths an appropriate distance without rescaling the letters. This would keep the cut-outs in the proper position and provide necessary clearance. Extruding the paths can then be done in Tinkercad or in OpenSCAD as desired.

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