I want to be able to engrave a 3D relief object in acrylic and need some advice regarding making the 2d artwork to generate the toolpaths.

I'm after something like this:



Hopefully the image will speak 1000 words. The black parts need to be machined to a depth of approx 2 or 3 mm with the white parts standing out (i.e. the surface of the plastic without any material removed.

I also have a physical object I'd like to make a copy of.

The parts will be very small - approx 25mm square and I'd need to use a small a tool as possible to get any of the small detail, could some kind of vee point carving tool be used for this and the passes taken very close.

The second question regarding making a copy of an actual physical part. I think it could be scanned using a touch probe, but I have no clue what i'd do with the resultant information.

Ideally I'd like to try to work with an existing design and see what settings would work for my own machine.

Does anyone have a greyscale file for a relief carving - something like the image above that would work as a test.