Open-Source code to convert images and text to 3D printable STL files

https://github.com/thearn/stl_tools

Hi folks, first post here. Thought I'd share my most recent project.
Thanks to the gov't shutdown, I've been left with a bit of free time on my hands.
Out of that has come a library that I just uploaded to Github, which converts image files and simple
text expressions to .STL files, suitable for 3D printing.

The code can be imported and used like any other python library. Running the
installation also generates a command-line script with the same functionality
and arguments, for those who don't want to write any python code of their own.

Thanks to some rendering functions from Matplotlib, this can also be used to render LaTeX expressions to high quality .png images,
and then as .STL files.

Please, hack on it and let me know what you think! Unfortunately I haven't been able to actually print any of the examples, since I
don't have access to my lab at the moment.

I'm interested in writing a robust webcam-based 3D scanner next. Most likely using [this piece of dark magic](http://opencv.org/) for the
heavy lifting.

Hi

This looks promising but i have no idea how to use it. (i didn't learn python yet.)

one advantage is that it use only necessary area defined by picture to create model.

But that example models are far from compatible for printing.
1. Models have lots of holes in mesh that needs to be filed
2. it has no thickness. You could add some "box" as a base where shaped model will be connected....

Hey thearn4,

interesting! Just for reference, you can achieve the same things with our ShapeJS environment:

https://shapejs.shapeways.com/

Give it a try and let us know what you think! If you have any questions, we have a forum that's dedicated to ShapeJS:

https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=thread&frm_i d=102&

Cheers,

Bart