Hi.

What is a good way to make 3D, raised type that can be converted to an .stl file for 3D printing?

I need to make some flat plaques with text for zoo exhibits.

Thanks!

~T.~

Tim Lawrence ConservationArts.net

I'd think best to use a greyscale image. PS does that. DOgwaffle and others too. Then you can essentially start by typing thetext with text tools, white on balck. White is high raised elevation, black is low. Various grey levels inbetween by way of blurring or smoothing the greyscale elevation map. Want to add old weathered look for a dino tag? add erosion, noise,...

The load the greyscale and turn it into 3D. Add thickness. to make it a solid. Most 3D printers need it as a solid.

If you're on Windows 10 you have an app included that can take your greyscale and add thickness to it. I'd think PS can do it too. Then export to STL or OBJ and use the 3D app on Windows 10 to load and print. The app is called 3D Builder, included with WIndows 10. The Creator's edition has painting options too if you want to colorize deep places for a rusty look for example, when it's a metallic plaque, or other aging effects for cardboard texture, wood etc...

Thanks. Are there any tutorials for any of that process? What search terms would I use to find tutorials for the 'load the greyscale, turn it 3D and add thickness' part? ~T.~

of course if you explore the finalprinting side of it with 3D Builder on Windows 10 you'll notice it has some abilities for adding embossed text built in with it so you might only need to do the tag's geometry in your imaging tool, and then finish there. Me, I prefer however to visualie various renderings before going to print. PS has a whole gammut of rendering options in 3D. You should easily get to something like this in straight PS. Just explore the 3D menu options, especially greyscale. For example start with black background, draw the tag's shape and fill it mid-grey, add a punched hole, add some raised (brighter) text. Blur it slightly for raised transitions.

Cool. Thanks. Will experiment.

SNARKLER posted at 6:08PM Sun, 16 July 2017 - #4309947

Cool. Thanks. Will experiment.

Please be sure to share your results or at least various steps leading to them if you can't share it all. I'm curious about how you do it in PS. I have a general sense of some of the steps and the details will vary depending on which version of PS one uses.

I'll also try a few more techniques to produce an even closer mimic to what you showed first. Including the braille, since there are online converters.

by the way on that last note, I am curious: I see the braille letters as punched in, not sticking out. Is it my perception that's flawed, is the lighting playing a trick on me? I just can't imagine the braille dimples to be going into the material, I always assume the way to feel them by touch is for them to stick out. Is that a glitch in this case?

staigermanus posted at 6:14PM Sun, 16 July 2017 - #4309966

by the way on that last note, I am curious: I see the braille letters as punched in, not sticking out. Is it my perception that's flawed, is the lighting playing a trick on me? I just can't imagine the braille dimples to be going into the material, I always assume the way to feel them by touch is for them to stick out. Is that a glitch in this case?

ah now I see, yes it was playing a trick on me. I always assume the lighting to come from North, North East, above, or let's say from 9am to 3pm, but this one is from below and so the inverse size was lit, making me think it's a hole rather than a dimple. My bad.