3D Printed Portrait

Autodesk Fusion 360, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Capture, Cura, Octoprint, and Printrbot

This is a quick tutorial on creating a nice little 3D printed face portrait. Start by taking a picture with Adobe Capture which creates a vector file. From there we can bring it through Adobe Illustrator and Fusion 360 to create a 3D printable file.

Here is a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyq5EWlA-uM

Download Fusion 360 here:

http://autode.sk/Fusion360Download

After installation create an account to login. Fusion 360 is free for non-commercial use. It will start in a 30-day trial. At the end of the trial you can either purchase a license for $300/year for commercial use or select that you will be using it as a student, hobbyist or startup, which allows you to use it free.

When you launch Fusion you will be in a new design.

Learning the basics

It is recommended that you do some of the basic tutorials before attempting this one.

This tutorial is fairly simple, but assumes the user has a basic knowledge of working in Fusion 360.

Adobe capture is available on the iTunes app store or Google

Play store. It is a cool little app that makes converting pictures to vector art a simple process.

Select shapes in the top menu

Aim at your subject

Slide the bar left and right to get a nice preview of the vector definition and hit the capture button

Next you will see a preview of the vector file.

If you want to adjust go back and try a different slider position.

I have found this works best against a semi dark background. Too much light and you don’t get the contrast for the vector.

Now save the image to your library.

Open up a new document in Illustrator.

Select on My Library in shapes.

You should see your shapes from Capture

Drag the shape onto the canvas

Rotate or scale o your liking

Double click the vector group to individually delete unwanted shapes

Select File/Document Setup -> Edit art boards

Drag the art board to encompass your shape.

Save as SVG

Start a new design

Select Insert/Insert SVG

Select the top plane from the graphics area

Open the the svg file

Set the scale to be 1/72 (this is the conversion from Illustrator points => inches)

Select exit sketch

Create a new sketch on the top plane

Draw a rectangle that encompasses the imported shape.

Select exit sketch

** Note you should now have 2 sketches in your model

Select Create/Extrude

Select the rectangle

Set the distance to be -.25”

Select ok

Select Create/Extrude

Select all the face profiles (see video for quick tip)

Set the distance to -.125” (this should set it to be cut automatically)

Select OK

Select Modify/Fillet and add a 1” fillet to the outer corners

Select Modify/Chamfer and add a .125” chamfer to the upper edge

Select MAKE/3D Print

Select the model

Set the resolution to “high”

Either select your 3D Print utility or uncheck to save an STL file locally.

If you select Cura the file will come into your bed

Set the desired settings

If you want, you can scale the geometry here as well.

Save the g-code or print from here

Connect to your OctoPrint Server

Connect to the printer

Upload the new g-code file

Open the file

Hit Print

Here are some pics of the final results.