GearHeads Corner

Art,

I had no idea where to put this or even what to name it, but this seemed like the best fit.

Over the last couple of months, I have been building an OpenBuilds OX.  I have everything complete except the router.  It cuts air like a champ and is much faster than I thought it would be.  It's approximately 25" x 38".  I've been designing a grandfather clock for my daughter and would like to make some wood appliques, for want of a better term.  I attached a couple of pictures of similar objects.

I have been looking all over the internet for some software that would allow me to design these or convert a 2D image to a 3D model so I can make them.  So far, I haven't come up with anything that costs less than $2000 that even comes close.

It appears to me that you are headed in this direction.  Have you considered adding this capability to Gearotic?

If not or until then, do you have any idea what I could use to do this?

Thanks,
Steve Fox

Hi Steve:

  True, software to make these extrusions ( generally refer'd to as "3d clip art" ) isnt usually cheap. I use Vectric , which comes with
quite a few of them, but many site sell them individually..

  This is because there generally is no easy way to go from 2d to 3d, information is lacking in the data to effeciently pull to
3d. Embossing is really what its called..but even that doesnt do the operation justice. Most of these are done one by one by humans,
VCarve always used to have tutorials on lofting them from 2d sketches. I may actually get close to the capability.. I never really know
where my investigations will take me , so I never say no.
  Id check Google for "3d clip art" , youll find a lot of free ones out there as well...

Art

I do a bunch of these as well.  I find they are often referred to as 2.5 D since they are restricted to x,y, and z  So if your buying these things as they are very time consuming if you're doing it yourself look for 2.5 D.
There are some really good tutorials in the program I use which is Aspire (a cousin of Vectric)  As you noted programs like Aspire are in the $2000 price range.  A really good program, with good tutorials but Gearotic is coming darn close to matching lots of the features and is way better with gears, ratchets, and speciality gears.

John