My idea is to have the 3d image be bidirectional. That is, I want one part to rise out of the surface, but I have one part of the design element that I want to be inverted.
The first issue is that the STL includes a base which is being imported along with the design elements which is then influencing the model. Probably, it would be possible to use a 3rd party software program to part out and modify the STL, but that is outside of the scope of normal support (someone volunteering to do a detailed walkthrough, ideally w/ a freely available tool would be welcome).
A further concern is that the design has been modeled to be thicker than the stock:
We will remove everything and start over, making notes along the way, documenting one possible approach — there would of course be myriad ways to do this.
Note that “Max” is used to preserve the 3D design, and that setting the thickness to match the dimension derived from using the cursor to get the thickness via the Status Bar allows us to have:
I am guessing this is a clock. That STL needs to be flattened. The best tool for that is Alibre’s Relief Maker, which (I think) Carbide 3D sells. I have the V3 Pro version and it is awesome. That said, it’s a chunk of change for one casual adjustment. I have it in my bag of tricks because I do so much of this kind of work. It needs to be probably .375 - .5" deep and (I am assuming) a .75 substrate needs to be cut 3d to the material edges. Anyhow…that’s how I would do it.
Good guess, cheu. But, this is actually a custom whisky smoker for a friend/colleague who is departing. He loves fishing and good whisky. I wanted to make something uniquely special for him. I wanted the 3d design to be present, but not excessively tall since the part will be handled regularly. Why would you flatten the STL? I use SculptOK to generate depth maps/STLs. I can flatten it easily in the interface there. But, I’m always interested in the why.
Ahhhh. I am very familiar with SculptOK. The reason I said that was because of Will’s comment that the STL was too deep for the substrate. Also that you wanted the head of the fish to stand proud whilst the tail is “inverted”, which I took to mean below the surface plane. That of course would require a full 3d carve to the edges of the material. I wrongly assumed it was a purchased or borrowed STL because with that capability you probably wouldn’t have asked support in the first place. But flattening and keeping detail are inversely related. No one does it better that Relief Maker and I don’t get a dime for saying that. It’s better than Zbrush (at flattening) and although I have Zbrush I would use RM first.
Gotcha. I will give RM a try. I’m always looking for better ways to accomplish the goal. The whole fish body should be above the surface plane, with the line and lure below. But you pose an interesting challenge that I’m going to take on now that I have a few new tools in my bag. This would look particularly cool if the fish were crossing the final surface plane.
