Here's how I did it:
Tape a piece of paper to the build platform. Try to keep it as flat as possible, otherwise the pen could snag the paper as it goes over it.
Put the hot end in the X and Y home position
Find a way to attach a pen close to your hot end. I used a zip tie to secure a point close to the bottom of the pen and then some blue tape at the top to stabilize it. Ideally you want little wobble to keep it accurate. If you can, I suggest trying to attach the pen while it's close to the bed so you can manually lower it (by moving the z rod) after attaching so the pen touches the paper.
In the FFF Settings:
Make sure Retraction is checked, enter 2 for Retraction Vertical Lift
Skirts is optional, I usually keep it off.
In the Temperature Tab:
- Extruder Temperature: 20, uncheck "wait for temperature controller to stabilize before beginning build
- Bed Temperature: 20, uncheck "wait for temperature controller to stabilize before beginning build
Starting Script:
If you manually position the Z so the pen touches the paper at the start (I usually do):
G28 X0 Y0
G92 Z0
If you attached the pen so that it touches the paper at Z-Home:
G28
Ending Script:
G1 Z10 F3600
G28 X0 Y0; home the X-axis
M104 S0 ; turn off heaters
M140 S0 ; turn off bed
M84 ; disable motors
Advanced Tab:
-Stop printing at Height: 0.1
Here's my process of trying to get an image to STL:
I usually try to find stencil images, if you want to try to do it on a non stencil image, use an image to stencil converter such as this one:
http://online.rapidresizer.com/photogra ... attern.php
I use this site to convert an image to SVG file format:
http://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-svg
Download and install inkscape, inkscape can be found here:
https://inkscape.org/en/download/
For Mac you will need to also install Quartz
When you open it the first time on Mac it will take a couple minutes to open with X11. This is normal.
Download this:
http://www.thingiverse.com/download:270026
It's an SVG to openscad add on for inkscape. Created by dnewman here (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25036)
When you unzip the downloaded file, you will have a paths2openscad.inx and paths2openscad.py, copy and paste these into inkscape's extensions folder. In Windows, I believe you can find the folder somewhere in the inkscape's folder inside of program files. In Mac, go to Applications, right click on inkscape, and select show package contents. Then navigate to Contents>Resources>extensions, this is where you should put the svg2openscad files.
Open up inkscape. With inkscape, open the SVG file, and then go to Extensions > Generate from Path > Paths to OpenSCAD
I use the default setting and change the output file to a path where i want, for example in mac for my Desktop, I'll enter:
/Users/myUserName/Desktop/filename.scad
Then hit apply. If done correctly you should have a .scad file generated where you told it to.
Download and install OpenSCAD:
http://www.openscad.org/downloads.html
Open the .scad file with OpenSCAD then hit F6, or Design > Compile and Render. Depending on the complexity of the model it may take a a few seconds to a few minutes. Once finished, you can go to File> Export >STL.
Now you will have a 2D Extruded STL file that you can import into s3d. Use the profile settings I listed at the beginning, and play around with it to get whatever settings you want. I've found that using a fine tip gel pen get's a more sketch look, where as using a sharpie with a felt tip will get a more filled in look. Also be careful my friend got nauseous because the sharpie was drawing for so long and our small area smelled like sharpie! The drawing of the car was done with a fine tip gel pen as well, but I lowered the extrusion width really low which really filled in the picture.
Interesting stuff! I wonder if you could even move the z-axis .1 mm up and down to change the pressure on the paper if you wanted to get really technical.