You should know some of their limitations before you start with them. So, they are widely used for that purpose. Those free programs areīoth of them can easily be used to produce even quite complex STLs for 3D printing. If some parts need different treatment in 3D program than the others, keep them separate, because trying to separate them in 3D program easily gives totally unexpected results.ĪDDENDUM: There are a couple of poular free 3D prorams that are reduced versions of their commercial counterparts. Even the smooth curves are replaced by polylines in some export formats. that make Ai THE tool of 2D vector artist. In the 3D program you cannot adjust gradients, meshes, masks, multiple appearances, brushes etc. In the export the original structure of your Ai creation is very much lost. There are plenty of export formats for that. Your best bet is to export your image into a proper 3D program.

The user gets only the rendered 2D image into his current drawing. A top notch software hacker might find a way, but for ordinary users it's 'no way'. Illustrator has rudimentary tools to add depth (Effects > 3D) but the user interface gives no way to output the internally generated 3D model. If you go below that size, the printer will just create a blob over there.Īs user287001 mentioned, when 3d printing, you will lose everything but shape (so color, raster textures, etc). Depending on the printer used, there will be minimal size the detail can print.

Depending on where your print, you might be able to change the scale just before printing, but better safe than sorry.īe careful of tiny details. This is the size the object will be printed. When importing, tinkercad will ask you how big you want your shape (in millimeters). You can adjust the depth by dragging different handles.įor best results, make your graphic into a single shape (I am not sure how tinkercad handles multiple shapes in one extrusion, but if they are not a single solid, you might run into problems when printing).īear the size in mind. svg to tinkercad, it will automatically add depth to your 2d graphic. I managed to make a quick extrusion of my logo in less than a minute. If you never used any, try something like the free and newbie-friendly tinkercad. stl capable 3D software you are familiar with. Personally, I use Rhino3D, but it has a bit of a steep learning curve and is pretty pricey.

Export your graphic from Illustrator as.

Not in Illustrator alone, but any 3D program worth its salt can do that.

How to create stl files for 3d printing