Creating models for beginners

[crackersjv]

What I ultimately want to do is create a stencil for painting which I’ll print in 3d.

I’ve created a png with transparent areas for the lettering. I imported it into sketchup and exploded it and then extruded it to 3d then I saved it as collada for use in a 3d program. While sketchup shows the transparent areas but in other software it’s just an oblong block.

So what is the next step to save this as a solid with cut-outs for the lettering in a form that can be developed for 3d printing?

Not too technical and no jargon please

Thanks

[john_drivenupthewall]

you need to trace the outline to create the shape…

or use a plugin the automates the tracing…

john

[crackersjv]

Hi John, thanks

Is there a recommended free plugin to perform that function?

Many thanks

[Geo]

Is there a recommended free plugin to perform that function?

Yes, there is. See this topic:

Performance differences using flat colour materials or jpegs

A texture image will weigh more on file size and performance than a simple material color. But if you keep the texture image size to a minimum you shouldn’t have any problems. Here’s a quick example made with @TIG 's Image Trimmer plugin. Beer.skp (1.4 MB) Experiment with it. Try making an array of, say, 2500 of each component; 7500 total instances. I found the model still performs quite well. You may want to turn off the shadows first. [image] More about Image Trimmer in this topic…

And here’s another method:

Create a 3D model from raster line art with help from Adobe Illustrator

Have you ever found an image or even made a quick sketch (the old fashioned kind) and wanted to quickly make a 3D model out of it? If you have Adobe Illustrator and SketchUp Pro, here is a quick way to do that. Place your image into an Adobe Illustrator document. From the toolbar select "Image Trace" OR select the Image Trace dialog from the Illustrator Menu Window > Image Trace [image] Adjust the Image Trace settings. If you are just looking for flat shapes from line-art (or near l…

There are recommended free learning resources as well.

Given the description of what you’ve already accomplished…
Investing perhaps twenty minutes in learning would enable you to create what you want.

That is, simply trace the outline of the stencil and then erase what you don’t need.
Then extrude it to 3D.