I know this has been discussed …
Any refreshing news about making 3D Slice or something similar for CO2 Lasers?
Using grayscale is a rough equivalent. It functions differently from 3D slice but provides similar effect.
Grayscale on CO2 lasers is more variable depth than variable darkness which is how this works.
You still need to prepare the raster image with variable depth in mind similar to what would be done for 3D slice.
I normally begin my process with png. When finished with the depth map etc. I save it as a Photoshop PDF - High Quality Print, Do Not Downsample, and No compression.
I can change the size/dpi in PhotoShop without degrading the image.
PhotoShop also has the capability of setting an average Depth of Field. A lot easier than isolating portions of a photo and it is surprisingly accurate.
What you’re doing with the shaded pseudo 3D image won’t directly translate to what’s required for grayscale engraving.
The level of gray for any given pixel represents the power level used to engrave that pixel. The darker the gray, the higher the power for the burn. This is in contrast to the pseudo 3D look where you’re working with a dithered image, all being burned at the same power level.
Take a look at this STL2PNG page that will convert STL files to a PNG with height information.
STL2PNG - javascript edition (fenrus75.github.io)
You could attempt to carefully craft an image by hand to do this but will require some abstract thinking for anything other than simple shapes.
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