What it is
I made a 3d model of my logo and printed it.
What I did
I took my logo and made a 3d model out of it. I gave it a little base, so that it can stand on its own. I also connected the floating parts (like the dot on the "i") to the rest of the model.
How I did it
First I took the png version of my logo and converted it to svg. Svg is a vector format which means that it actually describes the form of the image (like "there is a line from point A to point B) whereas png is a pixel format which only contains the content of the image ("first pixel at has the color black, second pixel has the color red, ..."). Only Vector formats can be easily imported into Fusion 360 (and as far as I know other 3d software). If you have a png and you want to convert it to svg, make sure it's just a black and white version of your logo (colors with little contrast do not work). Then you can use a website to do the conversion (I used convertio.co, there are other sites which rank higher on google but try to charge you before letting you download the svg file). If you're a linux user you can also do this yourself with the commands convert (from imagemagick) and potrace (convert file.png file.pnm & potrace file.pnm -s -o file.svg). And of course there are a lot of desktop programs like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape that will do this, but if you have those you probably have an svg-version of your logo already.
In Fusion 360 I created a new sketch and clicked on the Insert menu. There I selected "Insert SVG".
I selected the shapes from the resulting form (leaving the holes in "d", "b" and "e" of course) and extruded them about 5mm.
Because it was already late and I wanted to save some time, I exported an stl-file and continued in Tinkercad to add the base and the connecting bars for the parts like the i-dot. You can of course also do this in Fusion 360.
In the image above you see the added base and connectors in red. I wanted the logo to stand upright, but if you want to glue it to the wall or something like that you can of course skip the base.
I printed the logo laying down, so that I didn't had to worry about the overhangs in the letters and I didn't need any support.
I painted the front of the logo black with sharpie (remember to use masking tape, or your base will be black too).
What I learned
- It's easy to convert a png file to svg and you can do it online. But the png has to be black and white, low contrast colors do not work.
- Tiny parts of the logo that are not connected to the rest (like the "crumbs" on the 3d-bites box) have to be connected with little "bars" if you want your logo to stand.
- The box part of my logo didn't have enough overlap with the base, so I had to glue it back on later. If you want a good connection make sure your letters and other logo elements are actually "sunk" into the base by about 0,2mm.
- A sharpie isn't the perfect tool to color a print, but it will do in a pinch.