Tip: Affinity Designer SVG export 1:1 to Cheetah 3D (Work in pixels in A.D)

M

moooztar

0
Hi guys,

If you want to work in A.D. in 300DPI (as an example) you can export to .SVG using the standard A.D. "SVG (digital - small size)" (in Affinity)

Calculation seems to be: WantedDPI / 72 (ScreenDPI) / 10 (so C3D do not scale up) = 0.416666666666667 so paste this answer into C3D > Settings > Files > SVG > Scale factor and C3D will round the number to: 0.416667.

Now you can work in 300 DPI in A.D. and get the exact same size ratio in C3D.

I tested with a a square 100 pix x 100 pix in A.D (think millimeters) and that means 10x10 cm in C3D.

I also tested 200 DPI = 2.777778 (C3D) and it works.

The reason for me posting is that some software only allows to export to 75 DPI etc which then means I constantly had to go and convert it to 72 dpi. And working with a low pix number in Affinity Designer would mean that I would have to have a document of only 150x150 pix to match my 3D printer = 15x15x15 cm print bed.

Now you can work in pix, cm, inches etc in A.D. and only do a final size adjustment there to pix before exporting. You could of course calculate the same for inches if you want to but I use mm / cm.

Hope this saves someone some time.

:) Moo.
 
Thanks Moo

I've been playing around with your recommendation. I find at an import ratio of 0.4166666666, the imported SVG is gigantic; so big that the camera struggles to see it when zooming out.

If the pattern unit is 2 inches x 2 inches, this equates to 600 px x 600 px at 300 dpi, so I can work in 300 dpi in Affinity Designer which is preferable.

The face of a Cheetah polygon > box is 1 cheetah unit by 1 cheetah unit.

If I set Cheetah's import setting for SVG to 0.01, then 1 inch will equal 3 cheetah units and my 2 inch by 2 inch pattern unit (600px by 600px) from Affinity Designer will be 6 cheetah units by 6 cheetah units when imported into Cheetah. So if I want to render this, I can set the Cheetah Render to 600 x 600 with camera zoom set to 1 and with the camera set to orthographic, this gives me my 2 inch by 2 inch render at 300 dpi. This sort of stuff does my head in, so hopefully I have got it right.

Are there any issues that you can see with this. It looks like it will work. Tomorrow I'll set it all up and test it.

Cheers
Chris
 
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Mmmh:
From my experience 100x100px in Affinity no matter what dpi setting you use will come in as 100x100 C3D units when C3D´s SVG import scale factor is at 1.0. This is huge of course.
1"x1"/72dpi will come in as 72x72 C3D units
A4 will come in as 29,7002x21,0001 C3D units at a SVG import scale factor of 0,03527777
Here are 2 links to old threads about SVG import scale factor discussions:

Scaling/Precisely Sizing an Imported Spline

Scaling/Precisely Sizing an Imported Spline What is the best way to scale an imported spline to match a scene's scale? Or, how do you precisely adjust the width and height of an imported spline? Here's a simple example of the issue I'm faced with: - Start with a Cheetah3D v6.2.1 scene where...
www.cheetah3d.com www.cheetah3d.com

FreeHand MX & Illustrator SVG Scale Factor

FreeHand MX & Illustrator SVG Scale Factor I've been confused about why when I import a pdf from FreeHand with Cheetah3D's preference set to 1.0 that the sizes imported were wrong. I set a 1 inch x 1 inch square and then imported it. Doing the math using the ruler tool, the unit of measure is...
www.cheetah3d.com www.cheetah3d.com
Maybe I´m missing the point above.
 
This is what I'm going with for now as a baseline. It's easy to increase the render dimensions if I want a greater resolution.
I have to spell this out for myself because most of my time learning C3D is over the new year, then I tend to forget the details as the year goes by.

Workflow 01.jpg


I have found an annoying problem with Affinity Designer when exporting to SVG. On exporting the shapes, their locations can move. This can be corrected easily enough in C3D for this simple pattern, but this would be problematic for more complex patterns.

SVGs from Affinity Designer.png

Given that I always draw these patterns in CAD (AD is not precise enough; nor does it have an arc tool ), I'm going to see what happens if I export from CAD to *dxf, and import the *.dxf file into Cheetah 3D. Bypassing Affinity Designer altogether for patterns like this will improve my workflow if *.dxf files work out.
 
frank beckmann said:
I doubt „dxf“ will work. I‘ve tried countless times with no luck. But fingers crossed.
Click to expand...
Thanks Frank. I'll give it a go. I have vague recollections of trying to use dxf years ago and this may be why I went with vector PDFs and exporting from CAD to Affinity Designer, then to Cheetah.

UPDATE: Importing 2D DXF files doesn't work. Nothing is imported. I tried DXF R12 and DXF 2018 files. I haven't tried all the versions in between.

I did export from High Design (CAD) to PDF and this imported into Cheetah 3D okay. However, it did not separate out the paths. I don't have a CAD to SVG export option.
 
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Hi guys, just make sure you export with the 72dpi profile and my suggestion works fine here for all dpi´s in the actual document (in A.D.). To work in a low pix in Affinity Designer defeats the purpose of it for me. Make sure you resize before exporting. The formula is right 100px in A.D = 10 in C3D (for me that is 10 cm for 3D printing). So I always export by the standard profile SVG Digital Small size (its the dpi that counts). Now if I set 300dpi in the document and export with the 72dpi you have to set the import scaling as suggested earlier. :)
 
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This is the approach I ended up taking. I wanted greater simplicity between whatever units I was using in Affinity Designer, and Cheetah's Units. I think this makes it easier to deal with more complex patterns and irrational rectangles when it comes to orthographic renders.

For Spoonflower (print on Demand), the entire workflow stays in inches. For everything else I work in millimetres.

In Affinity Designer I have set up SVG Export presets so I don't have to fiddle with the Cheetah Import settings each time I change from inches to mm and back again. The C3D import SVG setting stays at 0.01

I have set things up for now so all AD documents are 300DPI.

When exported at 254 DPI, 10 mm in AD = 1 C3D Unit

When exported at 100 DPI, 1 Inch in AD = 1 C3D Unit, and

When exported at 300 DPI, 1 Inch in AD = 3 C3D Units, and so on

This makes it easier to modify the settings for patterns that vary in complexity and scale. (Well that's the theory anyway)

Converting Units of Measure to C3D.jpg
 
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