More easy and speedy
Draw rounded curves over the model (so simplification & no pinched angles)
Then extrude and fillet ;)

Michael,

When I get home this evening I will post the .3dm file on the web.

Frenchy, Thanks for the tip on rounded corners. I was having problems with the Fillet as Michael pointed out. I am looking for a larger radius. Because of the closeness of the two points that you show in your image, I then become limited by the amount of radius that I can apply.

The support is great on this forum. Thanks all for the assistance.

Thanks

Joe

Michael,

Here is the .3dm file of the Chinese character.

Thanks

Joe

Hi Joe, thanks for posting the file.

But there does not seem to be any curves in it, can you please post the one with the curves that you were showing previously?

Also other people will not be able to see the background image that is set up in that file unless you also send the image file as well (seems to be called CW-1.tif). So if possible please post that as well.

- Michael

Sorry, Michael,

I thought you wanted to start from scratch.

Here the the character with the curves and extrusion.

I have also included a .jpg as the .tiff is too large to upload.

Thanks

Joe

Hi Joe - I guess what you are kind of looking for is a sort of "bubble" or kind of "puffy" type effect where the text kind of raises up from the background?

MoI is actually not a particularly good tool to use for such things because they are not very easy to do with a structured drawing type approach. Things that are kind of a bit more randomly blobby just are not always a great match.

There are a set of programs called "2.5D" programs that are much more oriented towards doing this which are controlled by making an image and having gradient areas of the image correspond different heights.

See this previous thread for some discussion on that:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2640.1

But there is also a free program called ZSurf which can produce a surface from a bitmap, which can then be loaded into MoI.

That would probably be the easiest way to approach this if I understand the kind of result that you want.

There is some more info on ZSurf and a download link here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=602.7


Here's a screenshot of what the result is of running your image (after sizing it down a bit, ZSurf can only go up to a max of 1600 pixels I think and requires .BMP format) through ZSurf and then loading it into MoI:



Is that the kind of result you are looking for? If it is, then this method would definitely be the quickest way to get there.

I've also attached a 3DM file of that result so you can load it into MoI to check it out.

- Michael

I like that Michael, turning on the control points scared me though, I quickly turned them off :)

-

Depending on what the desired result will be used for, I deleted the side wall and did a blend with the top and bottom surface edges and got a rounded looking object. Though the folding in the tight corners made for bad geometry, it could "Look" OK for other types of operations.

[EDIT] Re-read the original post and this would not make a good CAM STL [EDIT]

Thanks Michael for the idea on ZSurf. Producing surface maps is one of the things I need to do. My CAM program produces cut path information based on a surface map.

The goal is to have the top flat surface smaller than the bottom surface and then blend in between. BurrMan has a good idea. Is there a way in MOI that I can trace around the character, Copy the closed outline or outlines, then raise them along the Z axis (like the bathtub tutorial), shrink the copy(s) and then loft between the two or more character outlines. (Sorry thinking out loud) The only operation I would need help on would be the best way to shrink the copied outlines of the characters.

Unless there is a better way?

Thanks all for the quick feedback.

Joe

Seems you can use also a free prog like inkscape http://www.inkscape.org/
for have a perfect 2D drawing from an image with vectorization
But you must find a compatible format with moi ;)

Inkscape is awesome :D
Just uninstall Illustrator now and be free.

Hi Joe,

> Producing surface maps is one of the things I
> need to do. My CAM program produces cut path
> information based on a surface map.

Sorry, I'm not quite sure what this part means --- the 3DM file that I attached previously that was generated with ZSurf also had a surface in it.

Was that surface not suitable for you, or were you looking for a different style result or something?


> Is there a way in MOI that I can trace around the character, Copy
> the closed outline or outlines, then raise them along the Z axis (like
> the bathtub tutorial), shrink the copy(s) and then loft between the
> two or more character outlines.

Yeah, I think you would want to use the Construct / Offset command to go through this procedure.

Say for example you have a curve like this:



If you select it and then run Construct / Offset, that will let you build an offset curve which will give this result:




You can repeat that a few times if you want to produce multiple offsets.

The offset curve will follow the shape of the original curve but maintaining a constant distance away from it, that's usually what you want for the kind of thing you are talking about, rather than just a direct scaled copy.

Then you can select the offsets and switch to a Front or Side view and use Transform/Move to move them to be on different Z positions before lofting between them.

However, in your case you have pretty complex blobby-ish outlines with some parts having narrow squeezed areas - that will tend to cause problems because the offset will kind of run into itself in narrow zones. That can cause problems in trying to match up the pieces when doing a loft all at once, you may need to split complex outlines up into some smaller chunks before lofting the pieces, so that you can control how things are connected during the loft better.


The Z-Surf approach is probably a better fit for the kind of shape that you have here.

If you want to have more control over how the side parts are shaped in the Z-Surf method, that is possible by introducing some blending and gray scale gradients into the image before running it through Z-Surf.

- Michael

Michael,

"Thanks Michael for the idea on ZSurf. Producing surface maps is one of the things I need to do. My CAM program produces cut path information based on a surface map."

I was just indicating that ZSurf will more than likely work. The Chinese characters are scanned in after being hand drawn. I can then run them through ZSurf to produce the height maps and then import them either directly into my CAM program or bring them into MOI and then export to .STL.

I will try the Construct / Offset command. Since I posted I have also been playing around with the Transform/Scale command as well.

Thanks

Joe

Hi Joe,

> I was just indicating that ZSurf will more than likely work.

That's good news because that's a lot less work! :)

When you use the ZSurf approach you don't draw any curves at all, it just takes the image directly.

The main download for ZSurf is here:
http://mwt.net/~sjedging/ZSURF4.zip

To use it with your character image, you need to resize the image to be less than 1600x1600 in width and height, and save it as a BMP format image (it needs to be saved as a full color image). Then it can be loaded into ZSurf, and when you hit the run button, it will cook up a file in the in the same folder as ZSurf4.exe named srf.igs - that file can then be loaded into MoI.

I think that you'll also need to hit the "invert" option inside of ZSurf, either that or invert the colors when you save them as a BMP file.


> Since I posted I have also been playing around with the
> Transform/Scale command as well.

Yeah scaling is different from offsetting. You can't produce an evenly spaced result just from scaling alone except in special cases like a circle.

- Michael

Hi Pilu,

No problem with *.eps ;)

Open in INKSCAPE -> BMP trace -> Save as *.eps
Open/import this *.eps with Moi3D -> edit and extrude....in minutes.

I have attached the (raw) *. eps file

I would recommend to use Petr's RebuildCurve(s) Script after importing your .eps... http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2776.1

Hi Joe,
I had another idea that can be good to create a surface for the character shape.

You can use the array to path function and create the wall shape as you want, then do some curve trimming to clean up and reshape the areas that bunch together. In the real tight corners, you can do some extra ops like sweep and network with those generated curves to fill those in.

So, draw your profile on the path:





Then array on path:




Then move into these areas and work the curves to create a smooth transition here:




Possible trims....Lofts....Sweep....Networks.

THe other thing to remember is if you are camming many of these, a 3d toolpath will be a much longer more intense job. 2d operations are preferable when applicable. If you array enough around the path to match a step amount, you could use a profile operation to create the edge. (many small curves) Or you could then trim these generated curves in the front view, with a few different levels in the Z direction, then connect those trim points with a curve to generate multiple curve paths that follow that surface curvature. Then again a profile cut in the cam package.

Let me know if I didnt make sense and I can Illustrate better.

BurrMan,

That is very interesting. I did not think about using the array command. Still way too new with MOI.

When you indicate to use more 2D operations, I would assume you are referring to the flat sections of the curves.

What is curve trimming?

Thanks

Joe

Pilou,

What would be the advantages of using inkscape? Can inkscape perform height maps?

Thanks

Joe

No limite of size ;)