bmp bender! is amazing and free

[poorfarmer25]

I have recently found the bender program and have been enjoying it alot, However some of models I have created need touch up and I cannot figure out how.

The only option for export is as an stl, I have tried meshlab, netfabb,stl to obj converter and a few others and cannot do what I need to. Am I going at this from the wrong angle? I have tried editing my source file with gimp before the conversion but it is not very effective.

Also if anyone else has any tips on getting the most out the program I would be happy to hear them.

P.S if anyone needs the download link it can be found on this forum.

[jm82792]

Have you tried Blender importation?
That would work I"m thinking unless the STL is messed up.

[txcncman]

I tried this software and was very dissatisfied with the results. It does not "blend" very well while also recognizing edges. They really need to work on the alogarithm some more and add some more adjustable variables to it.

[jm82792]

I have hit the conclusion that GIMP with Blender for touchups is probably best, although it takes more time....

[poorfarmer25]

I have tried the gimp method and have had some success especially when using the lasso tool. I have found a free program for game editing called cafu that is supposed to be very good with height maps but I have not tried it yet.

I have downloaded blender but the screen scared me away, there is so many buttons.

[jm82792]

2.5 is what you want, never use 2.49 as it's terrible UI wise. Basically it's great for seeing what your displacement maps will look like, it's extremely easy to use to export them to STL, OBJ and such. All you do is add a plane, subdivide it, then go into edit mode, unwrap the plane, then add an image to displace it with.
I know it sounds a tad complex but in reality it's 45 seconds of button pressing.

[txcncman]

Care to upload some screen shots of your steps?

[jm82792]

I'm working on a video for it right now.
If I had amic I'd say what I'm doing but a text file will have to suffice.

[jm82792]

Okay I've never done a tutorial so bear with me
(I'll improve it tomorrow since it's really late here.)
Also I here is an example .blend (uploading tomorrow sorry!)

You open up blender 2.5 or 2.6.

First you select the default cube and delete it.

Then press Space and type in plane then hit enter.

Then you select Object Mode and select Edit mode out of the drop box.

Next you select the button to the left(top of screen) of default and select UV Editing.

While in Edit Mode (which you should already be in) press the A key twice or just make sure all 4 vertices of the plane are selected.

Press U, select Unwrap.

Now noting the left window you see a box ontop of the image, this is where the image is projected on the plane.

If the box doesn't fully encompass the whole image, or the part of the image you want then select a corner(or select then hold shift to move an edge at once) of the box, press g and move to the corner of the image. Repeat as needed,

Now press a button the shading button on the right side of Edit Mode button, then select Texture. Now you can see how your image is on the plane. If it's distorted you need to scale it so it looks proper.

___________________________________
Option 1 for scaling is to use the scaling tool.

On the same toolbar as the Edit Mode button and the shading button is the scaling tool button.
Press that button and instead of seeing arrows you see 3 boxes. Drag them around to scale the plane.

Option 2 is a bit easier but not shown on the video. Press N, click edit mode and change it back to object mode.
Now you see this nice box where you can change the planes dimensions..
_____________________

Okay we have a plane scaled and it shows your image it is time to displace it. First select the button your previously pressed to bring up your mesh shading options, then select Solid. Click the button to the left of UV editing(top of the screen) and select Default.
Now if your not in Object Model select editing mode then click Object mode.

On the far right hand of the window you see various buttons, select the wrench.

Click add modifier then select Subdivision Surface,
In the new window change view and render to 3 or so. Then click add modifier and select Displace.

In this window select the checkered box below Texture and select "tex".

Change the direction to Z, Texture coordinates to UV, select the UV map button and click UV Map,

Now you should see a displacement.
(Change the displacement depth as you see fit.)

If you want more resolution you need more vertices so we subdivide the plane in edit mode.
Instead of cranking up the Subdivision Surfaces slider since it doesn't go high enough.

Go into Edit mode, press A until your verts are selected then press w, and finally select subdivide.
Go out of Edit Mode mode to Object Mode and see what you have repeat as needed...

If you mesh is too rough and has enough vertices you can add a smooth modifier(better of doing this in GIMP to take off most of it) and if it's too high for your taste but you want detail then you can use the decimate modifier.

Finally apply all of your modifiers from the first(Top) one to the last one, then export to your desired format.

[txcncman]

Thanks. Looks good so far. I am looking forward to the finish with screen shots/video.

[poorfarmer25]

You guys are awesome I will try the blender method again tomorrow.

[jm82792]

Grr insert annoyance.
I tried a few times, I should eventually redo the screencast(seems a bit buggy) for the 4th time
But here is a 10 FPS one that shows what I'm doing really fast. I'll redo it tomorrow afternoon along with proper annotations/text bubbles to help, if you want to save a bit of time wait for me to get a usable one uploaded

Plus I'll upload a demo .blend.
Also you can sculpt it to clean it up or totally rework it as Blender has some decent sculpting tools.