I am new to Blender and making a 3D-printed master for a silicone mold used to cast plaster. The finished plaster piece needs a visibly rounded outside top edge, while the shallow recessed artwork on the top must remain intact.
My dog-and-pumpkin model was made from SVG artwork in Tinkercad and exported to Blender as a single mesh. It is approximately 35.8 × 50.8 × 19 mm. The top surface is densely triangulated, with recessed facial and pumpkin details.
I have tried a Bevel modifier set to Edges, 1.25 mm Amount, 3 Segments, and Limit Method: Vertex Group. A script created a group named Top Edge, and I selected that group in the modifier. However, toggling the modifier’s viewport visibility produces no visible change to the outside top edge.
I do not want to round the recessed artwork or change the overall silhouette. I also need a method I can repeat for other designs.
Could someone inspect the .blend file and advise:
Why is this bevel producing no visible rounding? Is the vertex group incorrect, or is the imported mesh topology preventing the intended result?
Can this existing mesh be fixed reliably, or should I round the simpler outline before adding the recessed details?
What is the most straightforward workflow for a beginner to produce a clean, printable master with a consistently rounded exterior top rim?
I can provide the .blend file, screenshots of the modifier and mesh, and the original outline and detail SVGs. I would appreciate specific steps rather than general bevel tutorials.
My account is brand new, so the forum allows me to upload screenshots but not my .blend file yet. If someone is willing to inspect the file, please let me know how I can share it.
Have you checked are there any vertices assigned to the Top Edge group? And with which weight? You can go to edit mode and in vertex group list select the Top Edge and click select to see which vertices belong to that group. Or if you go to weight paint mode and select the group from the list you can see the weights in colors, where red is full weight and blue is zero weight. If they are assigned to the group with zero weight then the effect of the modifier is also zero. You can select the edge in edit mode and click assign and make sure the weight value is at 1 (full).
You can upload the blend file into a cloud storage and send the link here.
In short:
Because this is simple some geomtry not suitable for beveling.
Longer:
The produced geo from the SVG has for example loose geometry which you can select ( Select → Select All by Traits → Loose Geometry).. and delete. There are also interioir faces.. same “shapes” are also overlapping.. and when extruding this part by part to actually “see” something (because it si all flat) and additonally using smooth shading..
..one can see the parts are also have some “kinks”.. It might be easier to convert parts of the SVG separatly.. still they have to be “connected”..
But again: the object has no good edges so that you can bevel them.. they should have some think like an “inner” line… more like so (Belly of th eDog/Frog ):
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