3D Carving Patterns

[Rob Wilson]

Does anyone know of a Windows compatible computer program that can take a flat scanned pattern and turn it into a 3D model that can be rotated on the computer screen?
Any help or direction is appreciated.

[scott3569]

Re: 3D Carving Patterns

humm, not sure...my first thought would be maybe doing a search to see if there might be a web based program. like a cad program I know that there are some free web based ones but not sure if they will do what your looking for

[bigsallysmom]

Re: 3D Carving Patterns

google sketchup might be what you need

[rickm]

Re: 3D Carving Patterns

i played with this idea in the past and found out there really isnt anything. of course someone may have found something by now but i didnt have any luck. The way it was explained to me is that a photo is a flat plane and its impossible to give depth as the program has no idea of the original depth if that makes sense. if you find something let me know Im interested as well.

[pallin]

Re: 3D Carving Patterns

My understanding is that such programs must store each line segment as numbers that represent the end points in three dimensions. A complex form may require thousands of line segments - the more segments, the better the resolution. I have had software that converts a 2-dimensional drawing into line segments that can be manipulated (stretched, shrunk, bent), but not made 3-dimensional. I have also seen CAD (computer-aided design) programs that can store line segment data from a probe input device. My guess is that such software is very expensive because not many people use it - something only an engineering design company could afford.

[Rob Wilson]

Re: 3D Carving Patterns

Thanks, folks for the info. Maybe some more ideas may come in. If I find one that works well, I'll post it for everyone to see.