SVG to 3D in Blender: import an SVG, extrude it and turn it into a mesh

Menu names below are checked against the Blender 5.2 manual and source code.

SVG to 3D in Blender, step by step

1. Clean up the SVG: convert text and strokes to paths.
2. Import it with File > Import > SVG as Curves (.svg).
3. Select the curves, join them into one object (Ctrl+J) and center the origin.
4. Scale the logo to its real size, then apply the scale (Ctrl+A > Scale).
5. Set Extrude for depth and Bevel > Depth for rounded edges.
6. Convert to a mesh (Object > Convert > Mesh) and clean it up.
7. Add a material, light it and render, or export it for 3D printing.

As long as the logo stays a curve, depth and bevel remain editable; converting to a mesh locks them in.

Preparing the SVG file

Blender's importer reads paths and basic shapes (rectangles, circles, ellipses, lines, polylines and polygons), including inside groups and reused symbols. Anything else is dropped without a warning:

• Text is not imported. In Inkscape, select it and run Path > Object to Path before saving.
• Stroke width is not read, only the center line of the path. A stroke with no fill comes in as a bare line. To keep its width, turn it into a filled shape with Path > Stroke to Path.
• Gradients, images and filters are ignored, as the manual notes.

Fill colors do come through: each color becomes a material named SVGMat. Overlapping shapes are best merged before export (Path > Union in Inkscape).

SVG as Curves or SVG as Grease Pencil?

Blender 5.2 has two entries under File > Import for an SVG file:

For SVG to 3D, pick the curve importer. It ships with Blender and is enabled by default, and since Blender 5.0 an .svg file dropped onto the 3D Viewport can go through it as well. The Grease Pencil importer has four options: Resolution (10 by default), Scale (10), Scene Unit and Center on Bounds, which is on by default. Since Blender 5.1 it can rebuild the holes of a drawing. If you want to animate the logo in 2D instead, see the Grease Pencil guide.

What the curve importer gives you

• A new collection named after the file, for example "logo.svg".
• One curve object per shape. Subpaths of the same shape, such as the inside of an "O", are splines of that object.
• For each filled shape, a 2D curve with Fill Mode set to Both, which makes a flat surface, plus its SVGMat material. A shape with no fill comes in as a 3D curve with no surface.
• Curves lying in the XY plane, flat on the ground.

The importer does not select the new curves. In the Outliner, right-click the collection and choose Select Objects, then View > Frame Selected (Numpad .) zooms in on a logo that is often too small to spot.

Why the imported SVG is tiny, and how to fix the scale

The importer converts SVG units to meters at 90 pixels per inch, so one pixel of the drawing is 1/90 of an inch, about 0.28 mm. A logo 300 pixels wide arrives 8.5 cm wide, while the default cube is 2 m across. If the document declares its size in millimeters (a height attribute in mm plus a viewBox), the importer keeps those dimensions and also takes the scene's Unit Scale into account.

1. Read the current size in the Sidebar (N), Item tab, Dimensions field.
2. Work out the factor: target width divided by current width. Going from 8.5 cm to 1 m is a factor of about 12.
3. With the curves selected, press S, type the factor and press Enter; the scale applies to all three axes.
4. Apply the scale with Ctrl+A > Scale: Scale goes back to 1 and the geometry keeps its size.

Applying the scale matters because Extrude and Depth are measured in the object's local space. With a scale left at 12, an Extrude value of 0.1 m really means 1.2 m. The logo is lying flat; to stand it up, set Rotation X to 90° in Object Properties > Transform.

Joining the curves and centering the origin

Each shape is its own object, and its origin sits at the scene's zero point, at a corner of the document rather than at the center of the shape. Joining them lets you set the depth once and move the logo as a single piece:

1. Click one shape of the logo in the 3D Viewport so it becomes the active object.
2. In the Outliner, right-click the collection and choose Select Objects: the other shapes are added to the selection and the active object stays the same.
3. Ctrl+J (Object > Join) merges the selection into the active object, materials included.
4. Object > Set Origin > Origin to Geometry moves the origin to the middle of the logo.

The guide to joining and separating objects covers Join and its opposite.

Adding depth: Extrude, Bevel and Resolution

These settings live in Object Data Properties, the curve's data tab. The Geometry panel is collapsed by default.

• Extrude thickens the shape along its local Z axis, in both directions: a value of 0.05 m gives a total depth of 10 cm.
• Bevel, a subpanel of Geometry, rounds the edges. Round gives a quarter-circle profile, Object borrows the cross section of another curve, and Profile lets you draw one in a small curve widget.
• Depth is the bevel radius. Resolution sets the number of segments in each quarter circle: 4 by default, from 0 to 32.

The bevel grows the logo rather than cutting into it: every shape gains Depth all around its outline, every hole shrinks by the same amount, and the total depth becomes 2 × (Extrude + Depth). Two shapes closer than twice the Depth end up touching, so keep Depth under half of the narrowest gap in the design, such as the space between two letters.

In the Shape panel, Resolution Preview U (12 by default) sets how many points are computed between two control points: higher values give smoother curves and a heavier mesh later. Render U at 0 reuses the viewport value. Conversion to mesh uses this resolution, so lower it first if the mesh is going to be too dense. Straight segments are not affected: the importer gives them Vector handles, and Blender adds no points between two handles of that type.

Fill Mode, holes and overlapping shapes

Fill Mode, in the Shape panel, decides which faces of a 2D curve get filled: Both (front and back, what the importer sets), Front, Back, or None, which keeps only the sides. Only closed splines are filled.

A spline inside another one, in the same object and with the same material, becomes a hole; that is how the center of an "O" stays empty. Holes are worked out one material at a time. If the hole was drawn as a separate shape, say a white disc on top of a black one, Blender imports it as a filled object of a different color. To cut it out:

1. Join the two shapes with Ctrl+J.
2. Enter Edit Mode (Tab), select everything (A), pick the black disc's material in Material Properties and click Assign.

Since Blender 5.1, Fill Solver offers Sweep Line, fast and the default, which does not handle outlines that cross themselves, and Delaunay, more robust, which does. With Delaunay, Fill Rule picks the rule: Even-Odd alternates between filled and empty at each outline you cross, while Non-Zero merges shapes that wind the same way and cuts holes where they wind the opposite way.

Logos made of strokes

A shape with no fill comes in as a 3D curve. To make it a tube, neon-sign style, just set Bevel > Depth: the manual notes that an open curve with a bevel becomes a tube, and Fill Caps seals its ends. To fill a closed shape that arrived without a surface, switch Shape to 2D and Fill Mode to Both.

Blender SVG to mesh: converting and cleaning up

Rendering works fine with the curve itself; converting pays off for further modeling, mesh modifiers or 3D printing. Keep a copy of the curve first: once converted, Extrude and Bevel can no longer be adjusted.

1. In Object Mode, select the logo and choose Object > Convert > Mesh. The faces of closed, extruded curves are kept.
2. In Edit Mode, select everything and run Mesh > Merge > By Distance. The front and back faces come with their own vertices, sitting on top of the side vertices without being welded to them; this command joins them. The default distance is 0.0001 m.
3. Mesh > Delete > Limited Dissolve merges the fill triangles into large faces wherever the surface is flat (Max Angle 5° by default).
4. Mesh > Normals > Recalculate Outside (Shift+N) turns every face outward. The Face Orientation overlay shows the result at a glance.

Beveling or thickening the mesh: Bevel and Solidify

On the converted mesh, two modifiers do most of the work. Both live under Modifier Properties > Add Modifier > Generate.

• Bevel chamfers edges. By default it cuts 0.1 m from each edge with 1 segment and Limit Method set to Angle (30°), so only sharp edges are touched. On a logo a few centimeters across, bring Width down to a few millimeters and raise Segments to 2 or 3 for a rounded look. Unlike the curve bevel, it cuts into the edge and does not widen the silhouette; Clamp Overlap stops neighboring bevels from overlapping.
• Solidify thickens a flat surface, if you converted the logo without Extrude. Thickness is 0.01 m by default, Offset (-1 to 1) puts it on one side or the other depending on the normals, and it is computed in local coordinates, so apply the scale first.

To push one part of the logo out by hand, such as a symbol next to the lettering, the E key in Edit Mode is enough; the guide on extruding in Blender covers its variants.

The Geometry Nodes route: keeping the logo editable

Geometry Nodes can build the same relief without locking the curve. Leave Extrude and Depth at 0 so the curve reaches the modifier as a curve, then use Add Modifier > Geometry Nodes, at the bottom of the menu, and click New.

1. Fill Curve (Curve > Operations) fills the curves with a constrained Delaunay triangulation and outputs a flat surface at local Z 0. Mode N-gons gives large faces instead of triangles, and since Blender 5.1 a Fill Rule socket picks the fill rule.
2. Extrude Mesh (Mesh > Operations), in Faces mode, pushes that surface out; Offset Scale sets the height. The manual notes that the node always removes the back faces of the extrusion, which leaves the underside of the logo open.
3. To close it, run the Fill Curve output through a Flip Faces node, combine it with the extruded result in Join Geometry, and weld everything with Merge by Distance before the output.

For a logo made of strokes, Curve to Mesh sweeps a profile along every spline: plug a Curve Circle node (Curve > Primitives) into its Profile Curve input, lowering its Radius from the default 1 m, and Fill Caps closes the ends.

Material and a first render

The SVGMat material created on import is a plain Diffuse BSDF node set to the fill color. Swap it for a Principled BSDF: Base Color for the hue, Metallic at 1 for a metal logo, Roughness to go from mirror polish to brushed. Once the logo is a mesh, the front faces, sides and bevel can each get their own material: select them in Edit Mode and use the same Assign button. The guide to materials in Blender goes deeper into the Principled BSDF.

A raised logo reads through the light catching its bevel; see the guide to lighting in Blender. Point a camera at the logo and use Render > Render Image (F12); the guide on how to render in Blender explains how to pick an engine and save the image.

Getting the logo ready for 3D printing

For a keychain or a sign, scale matters twice over. In a scene set to millimeters (Unit Scale 0.001), a pixel-based SVG arrives a thousand times smaller on screen: 8.5 cm becomes 0.085 mm. A millimeter-based document keeps its size. Check Dimensions, then convert, run Merge by Distance (without it the volume is not closed) and recalculate the normals.

Units, closed meshes, wall thickness, the 3D Print Toolbox extension and STL export are all covered in the guide to 3D printing with Blender.

Common problems

The holes are filled

The hole is a separate shape or uses another material. Join the shapes and give them one material, or switch Fill Solver to Delaunay and try the other Fill Rule.

Letters merge after beveling

Depth widens every shape by its value on each side. Lower it, or leave it at 0 and bevel after converting with the Bevel modifier, which stays inside the outline.