NAME

       png23d - PNG to 3D file conversion

SYNOPSIS

       png23d  [-V]  [-v]  [-f  finish] [-o type] [-t transparency] [-l quantisation] [-w width] [-h height] [-d
       depth] [-O optimisation] [-b complexity] [-m filename] input output

DESCRIPTION

       png23d is a tool which converts a PNG  image  into  a  three  dimensional  file  suitable  for  modelling
       applications especially for 3D printers.

OPTIONS

       -V     Display the program version and exit.

       -v     Make the program produce verbose output.

       -t     The  colour  which  is  used  for  transparent  output. Valid range is 0 to 255(default) or 'x' to
              disable.

       -l     The number of levels into which the colour-space is divided. Valid range  is  1(default)  to  256.
              Note  that  as of version 1.0 not all output generators obey this parameter or may use a different
              finish type to that specified if the parameter is not 1.

       -w     The output target width (x dimension). The source PNG width is used by default.

       -h     The output target height (y dimension). Note most outputs will simply ignore  this  parameter  and
              retain the original image aspect ratio based on the width parameter.

       -d     The output target depth (z dimension) The number of levels specified is used as the default.

       -o     Specifies the output type

              pgm     Output  a  PGM  format  bitmap.  This  can  be  used  to verify the level and quantisation
                      parameters are set correctly.
              rscad   Output a scad format file for use with OpenSCAD.  This file will be comprised of  a  union
                      of cubes. The finish cannot be controlled (it is raw blocks) and the resulting scad object
                      may be very complex.
              scad    Output a scad format file for use with OpenSCAD.  This file will be comprised of a  single
                      polyhedron  mesh.   For  larger  images this polygon will be exceptionally complex and may
                      contain many thousands of triangles.
              stl     Output a binary stereolithography format  file.   These  files  are  comprised  of  simple
                      triangles,  the output can be directly used by several 3D printing systems.  The generated
                      meshes are a convex manifold but are not simplified.
              astl    Same as the stl entry but generates a textural file instead of binary.

       -f     Specifies the finish out the output 3D mesh the default is cube which keeps all  the  cube  faces.
              The  smooth option uses a marching square algotithm to gives sloped edges and reduces jaggies. The
              rect finish is for the rscad output type only. The  surface  type  generates  a  simple  heightmap
              surface.

       -O     Specify the mesh optimisation level of 0, 1(the default) or 2.

              0   No  mesh  optimisation  will be performed. This will be fast to execute but the resulting mesh
                  will be exceptionally complex and will  almost  certainly  require  additional  processing  in
                  another tool such as meshlab.
              1   Mesh simplification using edge removal algorithm will be performed. This process is relatively
                  fast and the result maintains the exact blocky geometry from the generation process. Typically
                  this produces reasonable results for non complex extrusions.
              2   Mesh  simplification using quadratic surface removal. This has not yet been implemented! Use a
                  tool such as meshlab if you require this type of simplification.

       -b     The  bloom  filter  complexity  which  controls  the  size   of   the   filter   and   number   of
              iterations(functions)  used  by  vertex indexing as part of the mesh simplification process. Valid
              range is 0 to 16 with a default of 2. Most users will never need to alter this  parameter.  It  is
              useful only if they are experiencing a high filter miss rate on exceptionally large meshes with 10
              million facets or more).

       -m     The filename to save the mesh optimisation debug output to. This is a generated  html  file  which
              graphically  shows  each  stage  of  the  mesh  simplification.  This is useful only for debugging
              purposes and for images above a few hundred  facets  the  output  can  run  to  many  hundreds  of
              megabytes.

       input  Specifies the source PNG file to convert from.

       output Specifies the output file.

EXAMPLES

       To convert from foo.png to foo.scad in scad polyhedron output format:

              png23d -o pscad foo.png foo.scad

       To convert from foo.png to foo.stl in binary STL output format with smooth finish:

              png23d -f smooth -o stl foo.png foo.scad

       To  convert  from  foo.png  to  foo.stl  in ascii STL output format with smooth finish and 50 unit output
       width:

              png23d -f smooth -o astl -w 50 foo.png foo.scad

AUTHOR

       Copyright © 2011 Vincent Sanders

       Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any  person  obtaining  a  copy  of  this  software  and
       associated  documentation  files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
       without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,  and/or  sell
       copies  of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the
       following conditions:

       The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included  in  all  copies  or  substantial
       portions of the Software.

       THE  SOFTWARE  IS  PROVIDED  "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
       LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO
       EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
       IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE  SOFTWARE  OR
       THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

                                                18th October 2011                                      png23d(1)