Tuesday, 14 March 2017

16v Zetec badge 3d printing

Not sure this is finalised yet.. more a work in progress.

I like the cam cover logo & have never found a Zetec badge in the same style,

Worked out how to convert the photo into a 3d model for a proof of concept: raise contrast, magic select multiple times, cage transform to straighten, blur filter to remove jaggies then sharpen filter to clean up. Into 123D Design to add joiners for the Z to the etec and then Repetier host to print.

A thinner 3mm version,

A little sanding, matt paint and lacquer produces a reasonable finish.

...and then a flatter 1.2mm version which is on the car for now.

The badge position, shape and size are fine, I'm going to live with it a little and think about it...

3 comments :

  1. That looks great. Any chance you can explain how you did that because I want to do something very similar (but saying GBS Zero) for the back?

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  2. 123D Design will let you create 3d objects from fonts directly, then export as an STL file for 3d printing.

    If you are working from an image the easiest way I found, using GIMP was to use magic select - adjust its threshold to get most of your image, then shift and keep re-selecting to get areas which don't take the first time.
    Create an alpha layer so everything but the logo is transparent.

    Then use a blur tool to get rid of jaggly edges and then a sharpen tool to cleanup.

    The resulting image can be imported into 123D Design to create a solid from, then you can tweak height down to about 1.5mm before exporting as STL again.

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  3. One other thought - check Brumster's build thread on RhoCar, he made a 3d printed Zero badge and may be willing to share the STL/Model.

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