this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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I'm new to the world of 3D Printing. What do you recommend for creating STL files from pictures? What I am hoping to do is generate them and mod them as needed.

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[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It depends a lot on what you have in mind?
Something like a parametric mechanical gizmo will be very different than a sculpture thingy.

Parametric CAD:
I had to create a part that laid flat over decorative moulding. I took one end, traced its cross-section on paper, added an "L" traced with a square as a reference to compensate skew and to have an easy known dimension reference, then took a picture of that.
Opened in inkscape and traced path from bitmap, export to dxf, import into 3d cad software and use as sketch in the rest of the part.

Sculpting CAD:
Or maybe you're talking about something like a mini and looking to do photogrammetry instead.
Haven't tried that, but at least you know what it's called