In this series of SOLIDWORKS At Home, Sean designs a sheath for his fancy new chef knife to print on his 3D printer. In this final installment, he gives an overview of 3 methods for converting an image into extruded geometry.

The first stop is looking at the relatively new feature 3D Texture (released in SOLIDWORKS 2019). This tool converts black and white appearances (image files mapped onto the SOLIDWORKS Part geometry) into raised geometry.

The result is a mesh body, commonly used with a 3D printer for manufacturing. While Sean applies this to a flat face, 3D texture can also be used on more complex geometry (as seen in Jesse’s video linked below). Sample texture files can be found in the builtin SOLIDWORKS Appearance Library (Appearances(color) Miscellaneous 3D Texture) so you can jump right into using this!

Next, Sean shows the process he followed for utilizing the Autotrace Addin to convert the image into standard sketch geometry (in this case it produced splines, ellipses, and circles) for extrusion. While the Autotrace Addin is not foolproof, a high contrast image with clear boundaries for tracing gets Sean 90% of the way. With a little help from Fit Spline and the good old Spline sketch tool, we have a solid set of sketch profiles.

Finally, with some help from the free drawing tool Inkscape (and advice from fellow Engineer Garret Klein,   / garrettklein   ) Sean discovers how easy it can be to just convert a high contrast image into a DXF and simply insert it into his part as a sketch. Sean sure wishes he knew about this technique when was first working on this project!

Time Stamps
0:00 Introduction
00:44 3D Texture
02:13 3D Texture with black and white gradient (resulting in a transition from the flat to the raised areas)
02:44 Autotrace Addin
04:00 Inserting a DXF into the part as a sketch

Interested in more info about 3D Texture? Here’s a video from the 3D Printing Specialist, Jesse Haworth:    • Creating 3D Printable Textures with S...  

Need a more indepth look at Autotrace? Then check out this video by the irreplaceable Jacob Ames:    • Using Autotrace in SOLIDWORKS  

Looking for more ways to design from pictures? Look no further than this video from the upandcoming Alex Smith:    • Reverse Engineering from a Picture in...  

For more information on SOLIDWORKS: https://hawkridgesys.com/solidworks

For more information on 3D Printers: https://hawkridgesys.com/3dprinting

Technical Support Knowledgebase: https://support.hawkridgesys.com/

Music credits: Song: "Ice Tea" Artist: Not the King   / coreygagne