creating surface for 3d printing

[Anonymous]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone can help me. I have an object and need to assign a surface to it. The trouble is, assigning a bump map is only superficial and will not convert to an stl file for 3d printing. I have include the image which I am trying to create as well as where I am in 3ds Max. Also I would like to add that other than the letters, this is one complete object and I don't want the surface to be on the edges.

Thanks for any help.

[ekahennequet]

You will need to create a Displacement Map, a grey scale texture with that includes the bumpy texture, your logo, and border areas. See attached example. Make sure that the areas you want to mask out outlines beyond the surface you want to protect - text logo, border. The dark areas should completely cover beyond the logo and border. Otherwise, the bumpy texture will bite into your logo and border. You will also need a high-density map. A quick-and-dirty way to create one, if you're not comfortable with modeling, is to use Tessellate a few times also apply Turbosmooth if necessary. The example shown used Tessellate twice and Turbosmooth iteration at 3. Use the Tessllate modifier instead if you don't want to affect the mesh permanently. In order to use Tessellate and Turbosmooth, it's recommended that you have a relatively clean mesh made up of uniform quads and triangles. Avoid polys with more than 4 sides and no skinny triangles.

See similar thread for Displacing mesh physically:

"Create polygons from bump map?"

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/modeling/create-polygons-from-bump-map/m-p/5316149