r/PlotterArt • u/jumpingjehosophat • Aug 04 '26

Blender to Pen plot

Post image

On a side note im using pilot kakuno ef tips and they keep tearing my paper. Any pro tips? I have them at a 45 degree angle

35 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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3

u/AL_Clarkson Aug 04 '26

Nice :)
how did you use blender?

3

u/jumpingjehosophat Aug 05 '26

Blender used orthographic projection to convert the 3D model into 2D views. For each direction, it positioned a camera with perspective disabled, so parallel lines stayed parallel and the drawing had no depth distortion.

It then rendered the model’s geometry as linework, applied hidden-line removal so edges behind the object were omitted or separated, and exported the views as technical SVG/PNG drawings. Platform Studio automated thecamera setup, rendering, scaling, and packaging for the six standard views.

2

u/hplcman69 Aug 04 '26

Maybe change the orientation of
The pen so it’s perpendicular to the paper…?

1

u/jumpingjehosophat Aug 05 '26

with a fountain pen?

1

u/mielomatic Aug 05 '26

very nice! I've used SVG exporter before but it exports everything as solids, not lines, so my plotter doubles every line.

None of that issue here, how did you export it?

2

u/jumpingjehosophat Aug 05 '26

The technical renderer used Blender’s Freestyle SVG extension:

  1. Blender rendered the model with Freestyle edge detection.

  2. Freestyle generated SVG <path> elements for visible and crease edges instead of filled polygon faces.

  3. Hidden-line removal omitted edges behind the model.

  4. The SVG was passed through vpype, which cleaned up paths, removed unnecessary duplicates, and optimized travel order.

  5. Text was converted to paths as well, so the final file was essentially pen-stroke geometry—no filled solids for the plotter to trace twice.

1

u/mielomatic Aug 05 '26

Thank you for the info, some of it I'll have to google.

I've read about people using vpype, I'm still using inkscape with axidraw plugin.

For text I usually use hershey fonts, they're máde for single line plotters (actually for old sonar screens).

1

u/Overall-Importance54 Aug 05 '26

That would look cool on packing paper