@TIG: Thank you for submitting another solution. Yesterday I feared there wouldn't be a simple solution to this problem an now I have four.

@Box: The Tig's Super drape plugin really seems to work fine for this. The cleanup is not a problem. Thank you again for helping.
@Pilou: You are correct. The matrix must always have the same size to be readable (although most readers will cope with small glitches in size). As we are using Eurobraille (e.g. Euro850 or HBS-8-Braille), our dot matrix is 2*4. We got good results using a size of 8,5 mm per letter (height) and an extrusion of 0,6 mm.

Thank you Box, vicspa and cotty for your quick replies.

This all sounds very promising. I will try it and post the results.

@cotty: It is necessary that the symbols follow the surface. Writing in braille is usually quite large compared to the relatively small size of objects we can print. If the symbols don't follow the surface they sort of stick out as flat platform whenever the curve is tight.

Thanks again.

Erich

Hi there,

I am working at a school for the blind and our team recently got involved in 3D printing (using an Ultimator (model 1)) for creating tactile models of objects commonly used in Maths lessons. Creating these mostly simple objects was real easy with Sketchup.
However, we ran into the problem of adding tactile labels in braille to the models. On flat surfaces adding these labels was simple. We chose a truetype braille font, extruded it and placed it on the surface. On curved surfaces (e.g. a cylinder), adding labels in braille was possible (though time-consuming) using the plugin ShapeBender.
For objects that bend in more than one dimension (e.g. a cone or a ball), we haven't found a solution yet and kindly ask for help.
If you have any suggestions on how this can be done with Sketchup or know of any plugins that may help in the process we would very much appreciate your advice.

Sincerely

Erich