Copyright, using plans.

A moral question, can you scan a drawing, modify it and print a model for personal use only? Also are there any 3d programs that let you scan a drawing, modify it and use it to print an item. Want to be able to remove dimensions etc. Can u copy the drawing and put it on another layer? What is Autodesk 123 3d like to use?

Stephen.

In my opinion, it depends on what you're doing with the drawing. You want to scan a 2D drawing, to make it 3D? I have not seen a program that does that automatically. You can read up on all of the 123D apps here http://www.123dapp.com/

Send a note to the copyright holder asking to make a personal copy if you want to be 100% moral. Overall though, pretty much nobody cares in this particular situation. When it comes to file sharing on a mass scale, that's when copyright holders start taking notice. If you obtained the original copyrighted material in a way that compensated the copyright holder, then, it is perfectly moral to make your own personal copies for personal use.

I've only used 123D Design a few times, but I know that what you would like to do is possible using JPG format. In 3D modeling this is known as using reference images.

DesignSpark Mechanical (Which is a reduced function version of SpaceClaim) and Autodesk's Fusion 360 are two other free applications that will work for what you would like to do. The Fusion 360 website says free trial, but it's actually free to use for personal use.

DesignSpark Mechanical is the one I know about the most and it is most definitely the most intuitive and easiest to use. In this application you would simply copy the image to the clipboard and then paste it into the 3D viewpoint. Or, you can load an image from your hard drive using file insert. It excepts most common image types. Once the image is loaded in the viewport you can turn it off and on in the structure tree. You can also, scale it, translate it and rotate it by clicking on the image and manipulating the controls. You can change the transparency in the image properties (lower left) or lock it's position and scale.

Yeah, there is nothing that will convert 2D to fully 3D, however, there is this. It sort of makes a stretched out 3D version of the 2D image. A 3D sculpting application called Zbrush can do the same.

Good advice, always ask for permission if you want to copy someone else's work and only do it if they explicitly say its Okay with them.

It's been a long time (2001, 2002?) since I used it, but Autodesk Map had tools specifically designed to digitize scanned paper maps. I suppose the same software could be used on engineering drawings instead of roads, streams and other features drawn on a map. However, you'll still need to be able to read and understand the drawing enough to model it in 3D.