How MakerHouse Cut 2 Hours from Every 3D Printing Job with Auto Trace in Linearity Curve

Turning Logo Cleanup from a Chore into a Ten-Minute Step

If you’ve ever had to turn a client’s logo into something printable, you already know the pain. Half the time it’s a blurry screenshot. The other half, it’s a stretched-out PNG with zero chance of being usable.

At MakerHouse, a small business that designs and 3D prints custom items like coasters and signage, this used to be a regular issue. Every project started with a messy file. Before they could even think about printing, they had to trace, clean, fix, and prep every single logo. And it wasn’t quick.

For every custom project, the MakerHouse team needed a clean, editable vector file before they could move into slicing and print prep. Most clients, however, didn’t send usable SVGs. Instead, the team received screenshots, low-resolution JPEGs, or stretched PNGs—formats that aren’t directly compatible with CAD or slicing software.

The Legacy Process: Manual Tracing and Fixes

Before Linearity Curve, this was MakerHouse’s typical process:

1. Receive a client’s logo (often low-res or rasterized).
2. Import it into Inkscape and trace the bitmap.
3. Spend 30 minutes to an hour cleaning up vector artifacts and jagged paths.
4. Export the file, then open it in Fusion 360 to correct geometry, adjust scale, and prep for slicing—another 1–2 hours depending on complexity.
5. Finally, load the corrected model into Bambu Studio for slicing and hope the print came out error-free.

Even with experience, the unpredictability of vector quality from bitmap tracing often led to print issues. Minor imperfections in the vector paths could cause failed prints, wasted material, and lost time.

The Turning Point: Adopting Auto Trace with Linearity Curve

When MakerHouse began using Linearity Curve, the workflow changed instantly. With the built-in Auto Trace feature, the team was able to convert raster images into vector paths in a single click with much higher accuracy and significantly less cleanup.

Now, when a client sends a logo in PNG or JPG format, the team simply uploads it into Curve, runs Auto Trace, and exports a clean SVG. That file can be dropped directly into Bambu Studio or another slicing tool, skipping hours of prep entirely.

Instead of relying on Inkscape and CAD adjustments, the new process looks like this:

1. Import the logo into Linearity Curve.
2. Apply Auto Trace with optimized settings.
3. Export a clean, editable SVG within 10 minutes.
4. Load the file into the slicer for immediate print preparation.

Real Results

Here’s what it looked like in practice: MakerHouse compared two versions of the same client logo. One was traced the old way (green) — uneven, bloated with points, and needed cleanup.

The second (black) was traced with Curve—clean, sharp, and ready to slice right away.

That’s not a small improvement. It’s the difference between spending the afternoon fixing paths or moving on to the next job.

Why This Matters

If you’re using 3D printing to make products based on client designs, you can’t waste hours fixing images that should’ve been vectors in the first place.

Learning how to convert a logo to vector, trace a hand-drawn image, or clean up messy artwork becomes a bottleneck when your tools slow you down. That’s exactly what MakerHouse got rid of.

With Curve, they don’t stress about what format the logo comes in. Raster? Screenshot? Doesn’t matter. The Auto Trace handles the cleanup. They handle the print.

MakerHouse didn’t just speed up their workflow, they removed the most annoying part of it.

If you’re still spending hours tracing logos or fixing messy vectors, it might be time to try a better way. Because getting from file to print shouldn’t take longer than the print itself.