GregValiant 1,342
Al images are rectangles and so there will be a background that is a rectangle, and it will print.
- Slice the model and note how many layers the bottom consists of.
- Drop the model into the build plate by the thickness of the background rectangle.
The PNG on the right has been dropped to a Z = - 0.4 and so the background is excluded.
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Slashee_the_Cow 409
Have you tried looking at the Preview tab at the top to see what it will actually print? In Prepare view every model shows its bounding box but that doesn't actually get printed:
In Preview mode the bounding box is just represented as a transparent container and won't be printed:
Original picture - PNG with transparency exported from Affinity Designer 2:
BUT (there's always a but): importing from a raster image like this is a really, really bad way of doing things. You'll always be limited by the resolution of the image (so export it MASSIVE and downscale it in Cura if you need to) but it's much better to create a 3D model from your SVG using a CAD program.
I use OpenSCAD - intimidating to most people the first time they open it, but not that difficult once you know what you're doing. I export every layer separately - and here it really doesn't help that Windows Explorer doesn't render empty areas of SVGs as transparent:
Then just add them together:
And now I can export an STL file with much better control over things like height than I ever could by importing the PNG:
Okay, if I changed the colours in the drawing when exporting it as a PNG to try and match the right heights it would look closer but still nowhere near the control of inputting exact height values. And even then it'd be damn near impossible to figure out the colour values to achieve art prints like this:
That has white at 4 different heights and black at 3 different heights IIRC.
You can also use FreeCAD but it's also not exactly intuitive to new users. It can use multiple layers from the same SVG at different heights but (told you there's always one) if you haven't saved your SVG through Inkscape it'll often have trouble reading it (even one layer at a time, it can't load SVGs I export out of Affinity Designer).
If you'd still rather do it your way, then just remember: export your PNGs at MASSIVE resolution. At least as much as the traditional "print" resolution (300 dpi).
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gr5 2,224
As slashee says, that black layer goes away once you slice and look at it in preview mode. Preview mode is trying to show you lots of information about your model. The black layer is just information. Not something that will be printed.
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