Can a Cube Be Turned into a Tube?
Fauvist
Posts: 2,290
In either DAZ Studio or Poser - can a cube, or a shape that has sharp edges of 90', like a shoebox shape, have it's edges rounded somehow? I want to bake neon tube sign letters in 3D out of 2D letters. I'm figuring I can take a 2D font and extrude it into 3D, then I need to be able to make the edges round.
Thanks!
14-4.jpg
300 x 200 - 4K
Post edited by Fauvist on

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Try adding subD to it.
I"m new with DAZ Studio - I guess subD is in Studio?
What program are you using to extrude the letters, that may have an option for rounding them?
It is, look under Create->New Primitive. Ensure the primitives have a fair number of polygons before you add sub-d, otherwise the edges will be rounded too far out.
In the attached example the Cubes have been created with 10 divisions (1 metre cubed) and the one on the right was sub-divided.
4 sided Tube is better than tring to turn a cube into a tube
oops, not tube I meant sphere make a 4 sided sphere then use z,y,x scales to size it
corner pull down menu in the scene tab -> edit -> geometry -> convert to sub-d, then adjust levels in the parameters tab under general.
I was thinking of buying Font to Mesh Express Converter
http://www.daz3d.com/font-to-mesh-express-converter
Buy hexagon, you get the full modeller and text to mesh function built in
I have Hexagon 2 - I've never used it.
If you are on a Mac, though, there are problems with the text to mesh functions. If you are running on Windows, it works well.
I'm on a Mac. I opened Hexagon and it isn't straightforward.
I opened Cararra Pro and was able to quickly make 3D letters from a TrueType font. This seems to be the most promising way.
Before you export, take a moment to think about the surfaces you want for your sign. Carrara by default creates a single back and front surface for text, with separate side surfaces for each character. You may want to consolidate or otherwise change these, depending on how you plan on using the text.
Yeah...Carrara's text to mesh works on a Mac.
There are a couple of 'Neon' fonts available that make sign work a lot easier.
These being two of my favorites (both allow commercial use)
http://www.1001fonts.com/neon-font.html
http://www.1001fonts.com/drive-thru-font.html
Thank you everybody for the input!
In the same vein - what about drawings to 3D mesh? There seems to be a few apps where you can draw, and turn it into an obj object.
Most often the drawn item needs to be a vector drawing...SVG format. Blender can do it...
Hex can import illustrator files
Thank you for tell me! This opens up a whole new world of possibilites. https://convertio.co/gif-svg/
so can Carrara's spline modeler, the ai files I played with that the other day,