relief carving software

[theGoatHerd]

Hi everyone,

I am a newbie and the proud owner of a CNC Shark(from Rockler) cnc machine, which came with VCarve Pro, cut2d and cut3d.

I want to do bas relief carvings based on pictures of people's faces. This means I need to import the picture(bitmap), create vectors that trace various facial features and then use 3D modeling to assign a depth to each vector. The software then needs to generate toolpaths.

Some questions:
Is it possible to accomplish my goal using the above software? My understanding is that it isn't possible. The sticking point seems to the 3D modeling that converts 2 dimensional vectors into 3 dimensional surfaces.

Is there a free or relatively cheap product that would be sufficient? Commercial products on the market, such as Bobcam and ArtCam, cost thousands of dollars!

If I am forced to buy an expensive 3D modeling tool, do you have any recommendations?

Could Vetric Aspire accomplish the necessary steps?

Any direction you can provide would be appreciated.

I am also going to post this thread on other forums.

Thank you,

TheGoatHerd

[ger21]

Is it possible to accomplish my goal using the above software?

Probably not.

If I am forced to buy an expensive 3D modeling tool, do you have any recommendations?

Could Vetric Aspire accomplish the necessary steps?

My recommendation is to download the Aspire demo and start practicing. There is no automatic method to do what you want. It'll probably take a lot of time and practice to get the results you're looking for. Aspire or ArtCAm are probably your best bets, with Aspire being both cheaper and easier to learn.

[BOATDUDEGUY]

i have vectric aspire and it will
vectorize a bitmap image
and those vectors can be made into 3d surfaces

[Greeko]

There is Type3 Software you can have a look at as it is used for portraits by greyscale conversion and addition of profiles to lift up areas you wish to puff.
Vision numeric | Type3 Artistic CAD/CAM Software Solutions