Can anyone help me with this texas topo carve

So Even and Katelyn designed this and made a how to. Well you can say that. I have followed that and after hours and hours still cant even get close.

Could anyone help me with making a SVG of this file.

I have tried to contact Evan and Katelyn via FB and there website with no reply

Looking to do this on a piece of black walnut that will be a entry table for out home.

DSCF2507

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You don’t really want an *.svg for this - those are only vector files, which are purely 2D. You want a 3D model, from which you can set up your CAM operation.

E&K give a link to Thingiverse where you can download mesh files (*.stl) for any state. You’ll have to convert that mesh into a model, which is where the challenge lies. I used MeshLab to convert the triangle mesh to a quad mesh, exported as an *.obj, then imported into Fusion 360 and converted into a model.

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that’s where i have the problem. I followed the directions they gave and it looks nothing like what they ended up with. I am a noob and after about 8 plus hours im defeated. do you know anyone that can do it for me for a decent price?

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If you just want the model, I can make it for you for free, if you’re willing to wait a couple of weeks (or someone here might beat me to it).

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I’m gonna beg to differ @cg49me. That qualifies as 2.5D and can be accomplished with an .svg drawing.
There are websites who can generate these. This is a starting point Terrain2STL

@EricLavoie, search the forums here for maps. There are some awesome ones with links to how they did it.

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@EricLavoie Link to their post/how to?

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You’re correct, it could be, but you’d need to make at least one separate curve for each layer, and “mountains” and similar disconnected island features for a given layer would require more. That’s an especially tedious way to do it. You’d still have to go through the mesh-to-something conversion anyway, might as well go mesh-to-model and let CAM do the heavy lifting for you.

The way E&K did it was to perform a 3D adaptive operation in Fusion 360 with the finishing stepdown set to their desired layer height.

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yeah but there directions are not the best. i tried to follow them but no matter what i do it looks nothing like theirs

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yeah im willing to wait. Thank you so much

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I havent nailed down the procedure yet but the bullet points are:

  • Download / generate an STL-file
  • Open F360
  • Import Mesh STL
  • Edit Mesh (Right-Click timeline icon at bottom)
  • Change to Model enviroment
  • Disable time line / Design history
  • Edit Mesh to Brep (face count may be reduced to <10k prior) which will make a solid
  • Go into CAM for tool setup.
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The way I’m doing a project (aka: the manual/hard-way):

  • Using a generated map (I have a Garmin map product), import into Inkscape.
  • Create paths based on topography (this part is the time-consuming work).
  • Stroke paths and fill sections with a greyscale color (each level of grey is interpreted as a different carving depth).
  • Export as .SVG and import into Easel.

I’d post a picture but I’m still on step two. :slight_smile:

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Here is a quick video I made that at least show the transition from a saved STL to a machinable solid in F360:

While in the Mesh environment one can reduce face count (F360 prefer <10k faces) but I haven’t played with it much yet.

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thank you ill try this

That’s a great method for staying entirely in F360 @HaldorLonningdal. The only “problem” is that your end model is still composed of triangles, and F360 works in quads, so if you try to scale or edit your model you can end up with some wonkiness. The pain is that, even though F360 has a mesh editing environment, it doesn’t have a utility for converting/interpolating from triangles to quads (yet? hopefully…). For the moment you have to use an external application (i.e. MeshLab) for that part.

BUUUUUT, since you’re reducing the number of faces (polygons/triangles) as your first step, that makes the triangle-based model alot easier for F360 to chew on. Totally valid method, and honestly might be the best choice for you, @EricLavoie, since you’re not looking for anything super detailed.

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@cg49me

I havent found a way within F360 to convert to quad yet, only reference I can find is by using Autodesk Remake.
Besides facet count the main “limitation” are the flat polygons the solid is generated into. Finding a simple way to smooth them out would be sooo nice :wink:

The simulation of 3D Adaptive only (no 3D detail pass) though look like it can work fairly fine as-is as the flat triangles dont show. The tool path do have some straights/edges but not as apparent.

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@EricLavoie

Here is a bullet list which will most likely help you, assuming F360 is your go-to CAM.

First Meshmixer:

  • Import downloaded STL-file
  • Click Select, click once on the topo map and click Modify->Select All (the entire STL will now be orange in colour)
  • Now go to Edit -> Reduce
  • Set selection to Reduce Target, and enter a value = 9500 and click Accept and then Clear Selection
  • Export file as STL

Enter F360 (basically the same as my video posted earlier is showing) :

  • Choose Insert->Mesh
  • Right-click Mesh icon down to the left on time line, choose Edit. This will make the Mesh enviroment available
  • Go back to Model enviroment, right-click the “Uassigned…” top left and disable time line/design history
  • Under Bodies, right-click the Mesh item and choose Mesh-Brep.
  • Scale the new body to desired size
  • Enter CAM enviroment for tool path generation
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thank you all so much im going to try and work on this today.

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@EricLavoie

Here is an STL-file I tested with earlier today, works great.
It is high-poly and need a round of tweaking in Meshmixer. It is also exaggerated in elevation so a rescale along the Z-axis may be something to consider. It would depend on the effect you may aim for.

Harold where did you get your STL file from?