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I am 3d printing a ds9 model from thingiverse, but I would like to add all the holes for the fibre optic threads to my mesh surface.

This Commercial kit has over 1000 holes to drill for fibre optics. I've found a company who has Drill hole plans that I can use as a texture map. I would like to shortcut the drilling hole step, and am looking for a method to create lots of holes from the texture map.

Note: I already have a method to create the shell/hollow model, as well as a method to cut the model in half.

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    $\begingroup$ If these drill hole plans are vector, there may be a chance of importing an SVG into blender, making the curve into a mesh, extruding, then using that to subtractively boolean out those holes... but I doubt it. This is a super-specific task and there is probably no way to cut corners on the modeling work if you want to get it right. But considering the symmetry of the DS9's design you can probably use a mirror modifier with an empty or maybe linked duplicates to speed up the work. $\endgroup$
    – Mentalist
    Commented Jul 5, 2015 at 9:49

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If the drill hole plans are in vector already convert the file to .svg.

If the hole plans are not vector.
Convert the holes to vector using Inkscape, Illustrator, etc...
Once everything is traced/converted save this file as .svg.

When you have a usable .svg file.
Open Blender and choose File/Import/Paths
Choose your .svg
With the newly created path selected in blender.
Go to the curve options and raise the extrude value up.
If the alignment is good, use the boolean modifier to "cut" the holes. Example

If not already vector & automated methods fail. Instead of manually tracing the holes. You may be best off duplicating a cylinder, of the correct size, & placing the duplicates where need be. Using the mirror modifier if and/or where possible. Then use the boolean modifier as mentioned previously.

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