Using blender 3d to create stl for CW pattern

I had a request to show how I sometimes go about doing 2.5d patterns using blender.

The main difference is the 2.5d model is not meant to be 3d from the very start. You are aiming for a specific image and perspective that will not be able to be rotated in 3d space for other views or at least not normally.

Did a free hand model drawing with the grease pencil as a reference and then built a 4 layer model that I could port into CW. Sorry my screen capture software does not capture the cursor so can be a little difficult to follow completely but should have all the key points on there.

As can be seen in the video there are 4 different pieces at different levels/layers that create depth in the pattern. Each is separate but since the perspective is hiding this fact it all works out.

The pattern is not meant to be anything good other than showing the completed pattern.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soly...ature=youtu.be

I hope every blender user is being inspired by Alan Malmstrom's latest patterns (I was). Sculpt painting is incredibly versatile and the process is also really easy. I say the process only because creating patterns like Alan's are not easy since they are all about his artistic skill.

But it is doable!

Open a plane. Go to edit mode. Subdivide 8 to 10 times (depends on what your computer can handle). Go to sculpt mode. Start sculpting. Blender now has metacap materials that really helps see what you are doing.

I have about an hour into the bull rider sculpt. Good patterns take time (hours to days). Take your time and slowly build up your detail.

Not super clean but I only spent about 2 hours on it. Good enough for a practice piece. Recommend height of 500 and small draft for this one.

pattern of the bull rider enclosed.

Impressive work Oscarl48!

:) pure luck.

As usual, really nice.

About 10 hours of 3d modeling and I think 11 separate models. I still have some tweaking to do on the 3d model and I'm not sure if I will throw into the pattern depot or keep for my personal library. What you will notice is there is only about 80% original models. Once you build a model and its in your library you can reuse with a new model or composition.

Use the append button.

Go to your library where your bend files are located and open the bend file you want. The bend file is actually a file container with all the piece parts that create the 3d model.

Select the Object folder.

In that folder you will have the geometry saved plus your lighting and camera. Select all the geometry only. You can select the lights and camera but you will have to delete them from your scene when opened.

By selecting the geometry and hitting the append button it will open that geometry into your new scene.

You now have the old saved model available to use in a new composition.

Nerded out on the model. Its hard to see because of the resolution but there are some steampunk gears as part of the model.

Showing off another pattern finished with blender. Another 10 hours straight of modeling.

This one drove me nuts. In the end the mesh was messed up because I did really sloppy techniques with switching normals and ngons and tris all over the place because I was too lazy to retopologize. Designer refused to port it. But I had the bas relief node on an older blender version that saved the day. It is not perfect since I ported it with an image. An stl would have been a lot cleaner if I could have managed it but I just could not get it to port and I am unsure what is causing the failure. The stl is running around 80 megs so that should not be the issue so it has to be the mesh.

Hopefully it can give a small amount of inspiration to get into the blender software and start cranking out some masterpiece patterns. :)

As usual, real nice oscar

Norm, thanks. :)

Completely screwed the pattern up though. I have to keep relearning modeling techniques. I realized near the end of the model build that the different levels of the model were all over the place and it was so complex with switch backs there was no fixing it unless I deleted half of it. (10 hours was enough!) Thank goodness for the bas relief node add-on I had. It did a really good crisp port of the pattern.

The cool part is once you have the model you can keep playing with it. I have really been trying to learn the other side of 3d modeling and creating art with it. Applied a crystal material to the model and then rendered with different colored lights.

Just finished this one for my personal library. Building a custom island cabinet for my kitchen and I'll be carving this pattern on the doors.

About a 2 hour modeling exercise.

Big difference between this one and the previous one is that I only had to model 2 elements and for both only half. Mirrored the element and then duplicated and rotated to create the overall model. I then appended previously built model to really speed up the build. Super happy with it.

Mirroring and rotating tutorial.

For new blender users created a short video on how I created the flower center. You can literally build a flower in about a 1 to 2 minutes.

The video highlights how mirroring cuts the modeling in half. The elements are duplicated (Shift-D) and rotated (r) at a specific angle (90 degrees and a 45 degree and then back to 90 degrees). The video didn't capture the number pad numbers but I think its self evident where I used 90 degrees and the one 45 degree rotation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-5s2H1UR24

Wanted to show off my newest pattern for my personal library. Inspired by neo-classic design but not true to any period design. The center flower rosette is a new model that is going into my library.

For blender users, organize your pattern library by isolating individual elements for importing into future designs. I find I have to go back and do that. I thought I could figure it out but as my library is growing its a complete organizational mess and I am having a hard time finding the exact pattern I want when I want it. Eventually I find it but that is after looking at dozens of different models.

Not sure where I'll be carving this for just yet.

I tried Blender in the past but it was way to complicated and time consuming for me. When I heard about MOI3D by Ed on the forum, I fell in love with it and for me it was
a lot easier than Blender. I always start modeling with that software.

Bravo Oscar, you really mastered that software.

Here's a quick one I did with MOI3D.

Attachment 81810

Suzanne,

You do beautiful work with MOI. That is a very elegant flower rosette.

I am really enjoying learning Blender. It is a bear to learn and I have only mastered a very few basics. If I was on a 1000 foot path to learn the software I am at step 1or 2. It keeps getting better and better as well.

Oscar

I have so far been unable to get the new bas relief add-on to work for me since it has to run in blendercam which is a separate program than blender 3d. It is based on blender 3d but is running a separate rendering engine instead of the native and cycles engines.

For CNC pattern creation you really do want to be using blendercam but so far I haven't played enough to figure it out. It has algorithms for optimizing depth maps and also has capability to optimizing 3d printing models and can produce g-code. Having said that I have no clue how to use it.

So been playing around in blender 3d on trying to get passable depth maps to import into designer.

There are several techniques that can be used. They all work but they take different rendering setups.

In the node editor you can use the following node setup (see picture). Its a two step process. Save the resulting image to exr format. Reopen the image, apply as a texture to a plane, subdivide to a high poly plane, apply displacement modifier and then smooth out and tweak until happy.

If you do not plan to expand you artist skills to include creating 3d model art, animation or sculpting, learn blendercam instead of blender 3d. Both are free and both have a huge learning curve. :)

P.S. I changed the direction of the cup for the pattern vs the picture. It kept looking funny to me until I figured out what was wrong. I am a rightee and the cup handle was on the left. Completely wrong! lol

I do not think you need to run BlenderCam. I have the bas-relief working in Blender. I remember it saying you need blenderCam but you can get it to work in just Blender. (Do not ask me how I did it. I cannot remember!)

Dan, too funny. I think I got it to work once but I immediately broke it. I have been trying to figure it out for 6 months without luck. Thanks for letting me know its at least possible and that it works. I'll have to try again. That algorithm does magic on the depth maps. All the other techniques are okay but don't really compare.

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Originally Posted by bergerud

(Do not ask me how I did it. I cannot remember!)

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Dan,

It's the second thing to go!

Steve,

I am not going to ask what's first since it probably applies to me too. :(

My newest addition to my library. Probably some of the ugliest 3d topology modeling I've done so far but the outcome hides it well. You want to have clean topology and this is a complete and total mess but it works. :D

I wanted to add an additional line of geometry and it actually crisscrossed itself three times.

About 8 hours of modeling.

Blender 2.78a has been released and is a major update with the number of available add-ons that have been added. There is again a nice level learning curve for some of the new features. I haven't even started playing with it but it looks pretty impressive. The sculpting features while not anywhere zbrush level keep getting better and better.

A quick sculpting exercise. My version of a Frankenstein monster bust. I lost a lot of detail exporting as STL to designer due to the height of the model. I may try a bas-relief image process and see the difference. The pattern of the bust is 4x3in in the test image.

My wife has signed up for her first craft show as a vendor and has asked for a few items from me to add to her stock. I am giving her all of my prototype carving but decided to make a handful of spoons for her (if I can get my dust collector up and running this weekend).

My first attempt was rejected. She did not like it so sharing it with you'all. Hopefully someone will find it useful.

I am also only uploading the patterns. This will give folks some flexibility since I have not carved it and don't know how they will carve.

****For the blender users, I have not seen any cool spoon design pictures. The models take like 5-10 minutes to make. The aesthetic design of course can take hours to finalize to make something pretty.

Going for a simple design. Wife okayed it so will be carving hopefully a few tomorrow.

Nice. I want to see how that turns out.

Oscar, I agree with your wife (women have to stick together) this last spoon is a more pleasing spoon than the first one. Should be a good seller for her.

A friend tried to console me once on my art. He said, "you know artists are only recognized for their genius after they are dead. People going to really like your art when you are dead!" lol

I am only crying a little bit inside.

Worked on my dust collector this morning. Completely clogged with shavings. Cleaned it out and reattached the hoses and started once and then failed to start again. Dead as a door nail.

I kicked it, hit it with a hammer, yelled and cursed at it, everything I know to repair electrical equipment and nothing worked. It stayed dead. I heard if your shoot them with a high powered rifle they sometimes start working again but I didn't believe that one.

I ran to harbor freight and bought a replacement plus tons of stuff I don't need or already have three of.

I just started the test carve for the spoon. About an hour on normal. We'll see how it turns out.

- O

The pattern worked out fine. The two sided carving also came out as usual. About a 1/16th - 1/8 difference between the two sides. Also because they were not lined up it did not pierce so had to go to the band saw. Not terrible but a lot of hand work to clean up. I finished the rough cleaning with files and tomorrow I'll clean up with sandpaper, stain and laquor. I'll post the final pictures tomorrow but this is what I got today.

At some point I'll have to figure out the process/procedures to get both sides to line up better.

If you could make a jig to put a punch mark on both sides of the board in the center then jogging to those positions as jog to center. That would be the best bet for getting both sides lined up. Along with using a well squared board.

To make the jig you could put a couple of nails into long boards with the nails barely protruding, and then bolt the boards together with a board size in between that you want to space them out with, making sure to bolt them together while the nails are lined up using another squared board with lines drawn on it.

Alan, thanks. If I continue making two sided carvings I am going to have to figure it out. I haven't had much use for jigs up to this point since I mainly do one offs. Not sure if I want to do production work.

After some work with files and sandpaper I finished two spoons. Not super great but for a small town craft show may be okay. If not they will make nice gifts.

Well I've found that marking the center on both sides and then jogging to those marks to start the carve is the best way to center the two sided carve. Just measuring and marking with a pencil is better than when the machine measures the board.

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Originally Posted by oscarl48

Alan, thanks. If I continue making two sided carvings I am going to have to figure it out. I haven't had much use for jigs up to this point since I mainly do one offs. Not sure if I want to do production work.

After some work with files and sandpaper I finished two spoons. Not super great but for a small town craft show may be okay. If not they will make nice gifts.

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oscar148 is it possible to get those spoon as a ptn or they are in the store if so what name you go under

Alan, again thanks. At some point I have to make time to learn how to do some of that stuff. I have so many projects on going I am not dedicating enough time to master the machine the way I should. Are you still playing with blender? I am astounded at what it can do every time I use it. I think after almost three years I am an intermediate beginner on a few aspects of it. Still haven't played much with animation.

Henry, here you go. Again for anyone carving them please use your good judgement on the setup. I still have work to do on that obviously.

Since I had the model decided to slap some material on it and make a render.

For the blender users, I used the blender internal render engine and procedural materials. Cycles is awesome but BI is still pretty cool.

Thank you oscar appreciated

Thats really cool, a matching fork would also be cool, hint hint. LOL

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Originally Posted by normrichards

Thats really cool, a matching fork would also be cool, hint hint. LOL

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hint hint I second that, mine came out great fork would be nice

Henry, thank you for sharing. They look great. I am glad you were able to carve them. Yours came out better than mine. lol

We'll see about forks in the future.

Okay. I was way over thinking the project. I just loaded the spoon and cut slots in it. Instant fork. Took about 30 secs. Way longer to convert it into an actual pattern. It was right at 100 megs so designer kept crashing. Had to go back and reduce the size of the model but finally got it to work.