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I have a picture I am trying to 3D print a copy of.

Compilation Image

First I took a picture, then I converted it to an svg and loaded it in tinkercad. Then after some failed fiddling I saved the file as an stl and loaded it in meshmixer. From there I cleaned it up and selected each part of the image and raised the edges up to give them some depth.

After a test print I felt it needed smoother edges, so I downloaded blender to try beveling it. After I figured out how to import and move it, I selected all of the faces on a single section (colors) and hit bevel. I'm not sure what happened but I can't get the edges to round out at all, it seems to just want to focus on a few points at intersections and move them about.

What am I doing wrong? I am VERY new to 3D modeling and learning as I go, so be warned that I don't know much of the terminology.

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Practice on some geometry that isn't this scene first, to get the hang of how bevel works and how to select the right geometry quickly. Bevel doesn't magically know what you want to bevel, you probably want to select the edges to get the right kind of bevel.

enter image description here

This is what you'd get if you bevelled using faces, it's probably not what you want:

enter image description here

But this is the bevel with edges:

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ So I was using the wrong selector setting. Mkay. And I thought selecting all those FACES was tedious, selecting the edges is gonna take all day. lol I'll test it out and post an image if it works. $\endgroup$
    – GoGoCharlie
    May 25, 2015 at 7:42
  • $\begingroup$ In blender for most things, there are faster ways. We are humans and we are lazy, we avoid repetition. Try finding the short-cuts or ask how to 'quickly do x' in a new question, or look around the site, the search facility is quite good. $\endgroup$
    – zeffii
    May 25, 2015 at 7:51
  • $\begingroup$ OK, so I got the edges to bevel, but I'm still having issues getting it to look right. It acts strange near some of the corners. Unfortunately I am still trying to figure out the placement and rotation of the files as soon as I started the beveling I lost the ability to move the camera without screwing everything up. But that's something I can handle myself. How do I keep the tighter corners (convex and concaved?) from folding in on themselves? Also, I forgot to take the picture. It's late so I need to turn in. I'll check back here and try it again tomorrow. $\endgroup$
    – GoGoCharlie
    May 25, 2015 at 8:10
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    $\begingroup$ There are limits to what bevel can achieve, and that won't be unique to blender. Experiment with representative geometry first and you will quickly find geometric features which don't bevel very nicely. You can edit your original question add more detail and more specific edge cases, i encourage you to. $\endgroup$
    – zeffii
    May 25, 2015 at 8:17

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