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I would like to create two-dimensional projections of three-dimensional geometrical objects. The drawings should be in a vector format, SVG or PDF, which can be imported by Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator. On Wikipedia, I found the following examples (original SVG, CC-SA):

3D SVG

Those are isometric projections. A wireframe version thereof (black lines only) can be constructed with Inkscape's Axonometric Grid feature. However, this method does not help with shading. The sphere would look flat if the gradient was missing. Is there a program similar to Inkscape, which let's you choose the position of a light source and produces a planar projection with gradients?

An other shortcoming of 2D vector applications such as Illustrator or Inkscape is the difficulty to draw an object that is not aligned with the grid axis. Suppose, you'd like to rotate the cube in the figure by 20° without changing the perspective. How would you do this?

Note: With help from the answers found here, I found the following tools promising:

  1. Vector Rendering Method for Blender (free)
  2. Maya Vector Renderer (commerical)
  3. Swift 3D (commerical)
  4. VectorStyle 2 for Carrara (commerical)
  5. Google SketchUp Pro (commerical)
  6. GeoGabra (free)
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4 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

I'm thinking Google SketchUp might be perfect for that.

[PRO] Export PDF and EPS: 2D vector images

With the Pro version of Google SketchUp, you can export views of your models in PDF and EPS format, allowing you to continue to work on them in vector editing programs like Illustrator and Freehand. For 2D images that need to be resolution-independent, nothing beats exporting to these formats.

Source >>

Sadly this feature is in the Pro version only which is not exactly cheap.

( I've never properly used sketchUp, so I don't really know how well it exports anyhow. )

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Do you happen to have a simple scence showing a sphere and a box, which was exported using this feature? – Jan Jan 30 '12 at 20:20
@Jan I had hard time finding anything before, but since you asked I tried again and I found this video youtube.com/… That's the only proper example that I found, but it may be that I just used all the wrong search words. Dunno what version of sketchup he was using though.. There might be some improvements in the newest version, who knows.. – Joonas Jan 30 '12 at 22:15
Then theres another video from the same guy youtu.be/334BI29mnyo – Joonas Jan 31 '12 at 7:28
up vote 2 down vote

Swift3D is a vector-based 3d application that seems to offer gradient shading.

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Could you possibly post a simple SVG image, showing a sphere and a box, rendered with Swift 3D? – Jan Jan 30 '12 at 20:18
up vote 2 down vote

I have a suspicion that you can do it with GeoGebra. It's a free app for geometry constructions. They mostly focus on planimetry, but the current beta also has stereometry.

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Looks interesting. Thank You. – Jan Feb 6 '12 at 12:35
up vote 1 down vote

all the major renderers should support this. the google term you are look for is " vector line rendering"

for eg: "3ds max vector line rendering"

update: seems my answer was too ambiguous. the "Illustrate!" plugin (3ds max) supports vector line output; this is for flash export

http://www.davidgould.com/ "One amazing feature of Illustrate! is its ability to render these styles out to vector artwork. It currently supports Shockwave Flash, Adobe Illustrator, and Autocad DXF output. This allows you render your 3D scenes for displaying on the Internet or for inclusion with other vector graphics."

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Without confirming it, my guess is that they will be talking about wireframe rendering, which is still in a bitmap format. Some renderers such as Mental Ray can render to EPS, but even that is just the bitmap preview image. – jontyc Jan 27 '12 at 1:14
Think it's vector output, but the result is somewhat like tracing the bitmap output. – e100 Jan 27 '12 at 18:17
please see updates above; i understood the question perfectly as i've actually faced this situation before. my answer was too general though, i guess "ask google!" is not really helpful. – Doug Lee Jul 25 '12 at 23:59

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