Please help. Software for Designing cookie cutters

[Mama Lama]

I am trying to start a business printing 3d cookie cutters but I have hI neead no luck in finding anyone who will tell me what software would be best for this. I have not purchased any software or even my printer.  That's another question, which is the most user friendly printer.  I had watched every video, that I could find.   I have been to thingiverse and have seen all of their cookie cutters but I need to be able to design my own from a jpg or a scanned drawing. Where do I start?  Where do I go?  Are there tutorials?  Can someone show me how this is done?  Please help.

Thank you!!!

[Jamesarm97]

Only one I know of that kind of works is jetty's OmNomNom but not really made to do just cookie cutters.

[Mama Lama]

 Thank you for your help James.  I looked at this program and unfortunately i will be needing something more detailed.

[Bryon Miller]

Most people make them with a customizer on Thingiverse, or they make their own using a cad program like Solidworks.  I use my printer to sell items like cookie cutters and I make them all in Solidworks. 

[Mama Lama]

WOW!! If this is who I think it is, I just love your NFL logo cutter.  lol  And thank you for responding.

I have tried the customizer but the "cookiers" that I follow want detailed cutters and this is going to take a bit more.  I have requested a quote from Solidworks, so we shall see what their say.

Thank you again!

[Ryan Carlyle]

Solidworks is probably going to break the bank. It's thousands of dollars unless you can get a student discount or veteran's discount.

It's possible to use free software to do this, if you're willing to struggle a little bit. Sketchup Make is free and can easily make cookie-cutters once you get the workflow figured out. There is a plug-in to export STL files for 3d printing.

I've used this process to turn JPEG logos into 3d objects for people. It should work for passable cookie cutters:

1. Import picture into Sketchup as a 2d image. 
2. Use the ruler tool to make a reference length and scale your picture to the desired cookie cutter size. (You can also just do all the dimensions by eyeballing the proportions and then scale everything in your slicer software.)
   
3. Trace the picture with a series of lines, arcs, and/or freeform drawing. (this is time consuming and kind of a pain)
   
4. Once the shape is fully outlined with no breaks or gaps, it will automatically turn into a 2d "face" in the shape you outlined. Delete the original 2d picture.
5. Use the "offset" tool to create a new outline ~1mm outside the original shape
6. Use the offset tool again to create a second outline ~9mm outside the second shape
7. Delete the interior of the original shape -- you should be left with two concentric outlines.
8. Use the "push/pull" tool to turn the inner outline shape into a ~15mm tall solid (this is your cutting edge)
9. Use the push/pull tool again to turn the outer outline shape into a ~3mm tall solid (this is your handle & support)
10. Drag-select the entire shape, right click, "make group" and look at the component information menu box. If it shows a number for "volume", your shape is ready for export as an STL. If not, you may need to clean up some extra lines or fill in some empty spots. This can get fidgety. If you can't figure out what the problem is, go ahead and export it, and use a service like Netfabb's free mesh repair to fix it. That usually works.
11. Open the STL file in your slicer program -- MakerWare if you use a Makerbot printer. Print it!

 This will produce a rough cookie cutter shape. You can use more advanced techniques to bevel the cutting edge, add internal features to the cookie cutter, and so on.

[Bryon Miller]

Yes that is me.  It's no problem, you can use a free program like Blender to make them also.  I don't know how to use that program though, Solidworks is expensive, I'm lucky because my brothers work purchased it for a few projects they needed to get done.  I just use it at their place and the cad guy helps me out every now and then.

[Dan Newman]

If you use a Mac, you can look at OmNomNom Creator on Thingiverse,


http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24639

Dan

[Mama Lama]

Ryan,

I made it all the way to Make Group and then the component information menu box did not appear. Where should I look?

Thanks 
C

[Mama Lama]

Thank Bryon,

I will take a look at Blender.  Yeah, Solidworks has classes but the basic essentials class is $1,500.  But I am not going to give up.

Thank you for your help!

C

[Mama Lama]

Thanks Dan.
C

[Ryan Carlyle]

Under the "Window" menu, check "Entity Info" and it should come up.

[Ryan Carlyle]

Another note with sketchup is that if the face is purple, it's inside out and you need to right click it to "reverse face". This can happen when you first extrude things or do operations that the software doesn't entirely understand. You want all external faces to be white (or white in various shades of shadows.)

[Nick Cecchi]

Anyone making these types of products should be aware that unless you design original content for the cookie shapes, you are committing copyright infringement and can be held legally liable for damages, including projected lost revenue.

Even getting a lawsuit brought against you will result in you going bankrupt in most cases. (Think what would happen if the NFL or Universal Studios sued you 0 not to mention they would have you dead-to-rights on copyright and trademark infringement)

Best of luck.

[Ryan Carlyle]

Good point. The DMCA is a bitch.

[BruceA]

Another program that gets's overlooked is Cubify Design. You can get it in a hobby version that is $199 and does just about anything solid works does, it produces manifold STL files with no problems in printing, something Sketchup struggles with. You can get a trial copy to play with for a month. There is a huge learning curve but once you get the hang of it things become quite easy.

[PrettySmallThings]

While I don't think the Photoshop 3D tools are right for everything - they make easy work of extruding graphics, and might make nice cookie cutters.  There are a few tutorials out there - you could probably develop a pretty good workflow for scanning sharpie drawings and extruding them to 3D, especially if you happen to be comfortable with graphics programs already.

You may be better going the CAD route ultimately.  There's no "make a cookie cutter" program.  But you can design cookie cutters in nearly any CAD program out there.

I haven't done much with Autocad Fusion 360 - but it's a pretty well developed program.  And with an affordable monthly subscription, it's not a bad choice for a budding business.  

[Johnny Corvus]

I'm an engineer by trade so my attempts to cook usually end with an explosion and/or biohazard alerts so take this with a grain of salt, but if I was wanting to do this here's what I would do using the free tools Blender and Inkscape.

1. Create an SVG in Inkscape, or import an image from my favorite graphics program and convert it to a path.
2. Import the SVG to Blender.
3a. If you drew it in Inkscape you probably have a Bezier path.  Turn this into a vertical mesh by converting the path into a mesh, setting up a Skin modifier, ctrl+a while in edit mode to change the size of the skin to be fairly small square-shaped thing, wide enough for your printer to handle.  Then apply the modifier and, in edit mode, select everything stretch along the Z axis to get your cookie cutter shape.
3b. If you drew it in another program and imported the image, you probably have have a solid 2D object (it has filled polygons and not just a bunch of lines).  Scale it as appropriate and then, in edit mode, select everything and extrude it some distance to form your cookie cutter shape.
4. Do some boolean magic to connect any unconnected pieces so you have a solid object that can be printed.
5. Export as STL and print.

[Jamesarm97]

A blog I came across today. May be a bunch of way wah wah to some eyes. 

http://blog.cubehero.com/2013/12/31/creating-cookie-cutters-using-offsets-in-openscad/

[David Clunie]

Not to rain on your parade (and competition is always good! well for the consumer anyways) but there already is someone doing cookie cutters for pop culture items http://warpzoneprints.com/all-products?category=Cookie%20Cutters and they seem to have everything!

-david c.