Paint Shop Pro :: 3D Printing

There's a great divide between illustrators and engineers which is showing up in the difficulty of programming 3D printers using an illustration source. I would like to produce bas relief images from digital engravings and photographs but I've encountered several problems.

Problem one is finding a program which looks at an illustration and allows the user to determine where to bend and contour the surface and produces a file which a 3D printer can interpret.

Problem two is that all the present 3D devices are designed to make prototype devices. For bas relief, the Z dimension need only be an inch or two but height and width need to be greater than most 3D machines allow at present.

I raise this subject here because I wonder if Corel are alerted to the idea of producing interpretive 3D software. If the software existed, I feel sure that the hardware would quickly follow.