Creating 3d mesh from greyscale images

[Adamt]

Did you try opening the DEM in Cinema? It supports certain types of DEMs natively.

Regarding the grayscale image, you can use a Relief Object (Primitives>Relief Object). You can make this editable if you want a standard mesh.

[Soho3d]

Many thanks for the quick response… Cinema opened the DEM file perfectly. As regards the greyscale image I can’t figure out what you mean by ‘Relief Object (Primitives>Relief Object)’. I’m looking to somehow create an editable 3D mesh from a pre-defined greyscale image, ideally with the option to specify the complexity. If you could expand on your explanation it would be greatly appreciated. I remember back in the days of OS9 I had a Photoshop plugin that output a DXF file from a greyscale image, something as simple as that would be perfect.

Thanks again.

[Adamt]

[soho3d] “Many thanks for the quick response… Cinema opened the DEM file perfectly. As regards the greyscale image I can’t figure out what you mean by ‘Relief Object (Primitives>Relief Object)’. I’m looking to somehow create an editable 3D mesh from a pre-defined greyscale image, ideally with the option to specify the complexity. If you could expand on your explanation it would be greatly appreciated. I remember back in the days of OS9 I had a Photoshop plugin that output a DXF file from a greyscale image, something as simple as that would be perfect.”

It is about that simple. 🙂 Add a relief object by going to Objects>Primitive>Relief, or you can find it in the primitives flyout with the cube, sphere, etc. It should be the bottom-right icon.

When you click on the relief object in the object manager you’ll see it’s properties in the attributes manager. There’s a texture slot there where you can load your greyscale image. You can also adjust the height, segments, and other properties.

If you want to convert it into a regular mesh, just right-click on the object in the object manager and choose “make editable” from the context menu.

[Soho3d]

Many thanks AdamT. Just returned from hols to find your post…your right it is as easy to create a terrain from an image as my old plug-in in PS used to be…if not easier.

Thanks again