Newbie question

[IJCNC]

Hi Guys

I have been using V-carve for nearly a year and am thinking of upgrading to Aspire. I want to make moulds from moulding board. Can I make a 3 d modle from a scaned photograph with aspire ? I mean only one side 3d so flat back |?

Ian

[dealguy11]

Yes, you can. Several people have done this, both for straight and curved moldings. The photograph should be taken on edge to the molding (so you can see the shape of the molding). It's probably easier to make the vectors from scratch, using the picture as a template (you'll get much cleaner vectors). Then use the vectors you create as a 2-rail sweep to extrude the molding.

[IJCNC]

OK ... whats a two rail sweep? I though I might be able to use a face on pic and use grey scale to produce a depth map?

Ian

[Adrian]

You can use a depth map but generally speaking the results do take a lot of cleaning up if the source is scanned photo.

This video will show you what a two rail sweep can. Video

Best thing to do is to download the Aspire trial and play around with the modelling capabilities. The two rail sweep is exceptionally powerful for all sorts of moulding and even turnings if you do two sides and join them together.

[dealguy11]

I agree with Adrian - you will probably be disappointed with the approach of using the grayscale as a depth map. It won't give you nice, sharp edges, you'll get a lot of noise, and you won't have precise control over the shape of the part.

Basically, when you use a 2-rail sweep, you make a vector in the exact shape of the edge-on profile of the molding. Then you make 2 vectors representing the length of the molding you want to cut, top and bottom. Finally, you invoke the 2-rail sweep function to "sweep" the shape vector along the length of the 2 rails. This is much easier than using grayscale photographs, and you get very precise control over the shape and size of the resulting molding.

2-rail sweeps are an amazingly powerful tool, because you can do things like make the rails curved, and use several shape vectors in the same sweep to change the profile of the resulting component (for example, you can make a leaf where there is a vein only in part of the leaf). If you use circles for the rails, you can make rosettes, as an example.

Making a molding with the 2-rail sweep probably takes about as long as it did for me to type this note.