So as a newbie, why wouldn’t I start with the hardest project I can imagine- right? In this case, I will eventually try to cut this logo out on a 12" X 12" stock. This thing has layers/heights to it so will need to work through that detail. The flag is the tallest part, all the gold parts are the next layer, and the silver part is the lowest element. I have seen this with another flat layer below it which makes it kind of nice as a plaque. I have seen the letters in the crest raised in some cases and cut in for other cases.
So my consideration was to drag this into the basic free software products to get the bitmap traced and then work the depths with the Easel software. Does that sound appropriate or am I already off to the wrong start? Does anyone already have a crest example with different depths? Thanks.
Jeremy - If it were me, I would start by breaking this down into layers as you suggested. Cutting this all out of one piece would be extremely time consuming and probably wouldn’t look as good as cutting it out of different pieces and layering them after the fact. Getting it into a vector format is your first step, though. I think most of the tracing software will have a hard time with the shading that the image has, but it won’t be impossible. Try starting with just the center shield/flag portion and see where you can get with that. It is simple enough part that you can get the hang of Inkscape or whatever software you decide to use before you tackle the details of the surrounding border and other details. Best of luck.
Hi @JeremyHill
I did an image search using the image you posted above as a seed and found a link to an already created vector file. This might help when you go to separate out all of the pieces.
If you do want this to end up being a piece that has “roundness” to it, you may want to give MeshCAM or V-Carve Pro a try. These would be able to do the kind of 2.5D cutting that you are talking about.
I thought about the layers. That may actually be an easier way to go. I think i will eventually try one layer. I have until May before I can start working through it, but that is good so I can get used to the software products. Thanks for the feedback.
Great! Thanks for the heads up on the svg file. I appreciate it.
I have been watching ALOT of videos on Blender as it is a free software. I like meshcam but not looking to spend $250 on it yet. With that said, I am trying to work with the stl file noted above by Sketch42 but have not been able to break up the layers that appear to be present in the file- shield, gold/text layer, and wreath layer.
Any recommendations on how to deal with that would be great. I will be doing some traveling for the next couple of weeks so will be away from my machine, but I intend to work one the software learning aspect when I can. Thanks.
You could try going through Inkscape to brake up the pieces in the SVG.
