Blender

• Extrude & Scale

  In Edit mode, select Face Select on the toolbar, then select one face (right click) [Fig 1] and hit E.

  This creates a new face over the existing face (along with the new vertices and edges required to support it), which can then be moved up/down the normal by moving the mouse [Fig 2].

  A selected face (whether it was created with E or not) can be scaled by hitting S and moving the mouse [Fig 3 & Fig 4].

  By extruding a face, immediately shrinking it [Fig 4], then extruding in down into the object [Fig 5], recesses and ridges can easily be created.

  Fig 1 - One face selected	Fig 2 - E + Mouse extrudes face	Fig 3 - S + Mouse scales face
  Fig 4 - Scaling without extruding creates new faces	Fig 5 - Faces can be extruded outwards...	Fig 6 - ... or inwards

• Tips
  • To create a new face at the existing face's height (typically as a prelude to a scaling operation), press E then right click.
  • To lock an operation to a particular axis, press X,Y, or Z.

• Basics
  • Switch to "UV Editing" layout via the Screen layout dropdown on the main menu bar:
    
  • Select all faces (hit A), then select Unwrap button from the UV Mapping section in the middle of the screen, select "Smart UV Project" from the menu, and OK.
    If the UV Mapping option is not present, make sure the Mode dropdown on the bottom right menu reads "Edit Mode"
    
  • To save the UV PNG, select "UV" from the bottom menu bar and then "Export IV Layout".
    
  • To reimport the UV PNG, select "image" from the bottom menu bar and then "Open Image".
  • To apply the the UV PNG in Blender, select "Texture Pain" from the Mode drop down on bottom menu bar, and that the "Mesh Tools" section in the middle column is expanded.
    
• Tips
  • When shift-clicking to selecting face, try to click near the dot at the center of the face to avoid strange selection behavior

• "Unwrap" -> "Smart UV Project" seems to remove the need to manually assign seams
• The problem seams solve can be show by creating a cylinder, selecting all the faces except the caps, and selecting "Unwrap" -> "Unwrap" (rather than "Unwrap" -> "Smart UV Project"):
• To create a seam, switch to Edge Select, right click on an edge, then click Mark Seam under Mesh Tools in the middle column. Unwrap again, and the results are better:

• Faces can share areas of the UV map (or even overlap). For example, a stone cube could map all 6 faces to the same area of the UV
• If a face will never be seen (e.g. the bottom of an chest), it can be omitted from the UV
• The area allocated on the UV does not have to take the same proportion of the UV that the area takes on the model. For example, the UV for a book might allocate relatively more space to the written page area.

• Remove duplication
  1. Set "UV Selecton and Edit Mode" radio button on the bottom left toolbar to "Face"
  2. Set "Sticky Selection Mode" on the bottom left toolbar to "Disabled"
  3. This mouse UX here is a bit odd: For each duplicate face, right click to select then (with right click still held down) drag the face over the top of the face it is duplicating, release the right click, and then left click to drop. Note that the stack does not have to be particularly neatly aligned.
  4. Select all the objects in the pile (though B+lasso for example), press W, then select "Remove Duplicate UVs" from the displayed menu.
  5. Selected UV faces can be scaled (S key) or rotated (R key) as needed.

• IDE
  • Camera
    • Rotate camera: Middle mouse button & drag
    • Pan camera: Left Shift + Middle mouse button & drag
    • Zoom in/out: Mouse wheel
  • Object Mode
    • Select: Right click
    • Delete selected object: Del key
  • Cursor (looks a bit like a life ring)
    • Right click to set position
    • Reset to center of 3d world: Space -> Snap Cursor to center
    • Delete selected object: Del key
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
    • Tab - Toggle between Object & Edit mode
    • A - Toggle select all / nothing
    • B - Border (select by lassoing) selection
    • C - Circle (select by painting) selectcion
    • CtrL+I - Invert selection (need to hit ESC or right-bclick first if actively in C mode)
    • E - Extrude
• Basic Shapes
  • Menu bar -> Add -> Mesh -> [basic shape]
  • Post add, shape can be geometrically edited through Object Tools panel (for example, the cylinder mesh defaults to 32 vertices. Drop this to 6 to make it hexagon shaped). When the add operation is complete, the option to geometrically edit the shape is gone.

Inkscape

1. Load bitmap image into Inkscape (File -> Import...)/li>
2. With bitmap selected on page:
   1. From the menu bar: Path -> Trace a bitmap
   2. Click Update (may not show anything (or just a white box) but usually works)
      
   3. Click OK (note: doesn't appear to do anything, but it actaully creates a second object on the page over the bitmap)
   4. Close window
3. Move the created object & delete the original bitmap from under it
   
4. Delete inner nodes as desired/needed
   
5. Save as Plain SVG (not Inkscape SVG)

Blender

1. From Menu: File -> Import -> SVG...
   This imports the SVG as a curve
2. Select All (A)
3. From left toolbar: Object Tools -> Transform -> Geometry to Origin
   This centers the middle of the SVG on all axises
4. Make sure you are in Object mode, then from the bottom toolbar select the Object menu -> Convert to -> Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text
5. Extrude
6. The created 3d objecthas way too many faces & vertices. See the section on Reduction.
   

UV Map as usual

Results

1. Select the whole object
   
2. From the right toolbar, select the Object Modified button, then Add Modifer, then decimate
3. Select ratio (0 - 1 where 0 = remove 100%) and click Apply
   

• Offical Blender Webstite
Offical Inkscape Webstite