Can I scan a drawing to artcam

[brian]

I've been scanning drawings to my computer with a HP scanner in JPG,then I move them to artcam.
Up till now the drawings have been fairly simple to trace.Now the drawings are getting more involved so I'm wondering can I transfer these drawings to Artcam pro without having to trace them out.

Brian

[jseiler]

try agrolab r2v. i use several different programs for converting raster to vector. some are better for artist or stencil forms, some are better at accurately getting line drawings. argolab r2v is pretty good overall and will do outside and centerline tracing.

[henrik_o]

Sorry to be a speeelling Messerschmitt (as we call it in Sweden) John, but the application in question is Algolab's R2V (Raster to Vector) and its homepage is at

http://www.algolab.com/r2v.htm

Looks interesting, will definetly try trial version. Thanks for the find.

[jseiler]

I just completed a project made possible with this software. I'll post a pic if I can figure out how to get it uploaded here. I was approached by some of my coworkers to make a clock for a gentleman's retirement...they had some ideas, but they think like engineers and novice woodworkers, not like computer programmers, cad geeks and cnc operators.


My wife and I brainstormed some ideas...she's got the eye for art. I just shoot down the ideas that are too hard to do. ;)

(after making a test piece to make sure the idea would work...)

I had everyone that was in his work group sign a 3x5 notecard with a good luck wish and a signature. Using the R2v toolkit, I scanned all the cards into line vectors (using the "map" presets). I imported each of these and scaled them in vcarve 4.0. Overall the finished piece looked like a tombstone (12" x 22" tall, with a rounded top). (It was nice to be able to use the preview from vcarve to show the group before I made any sawdust...the more I use vcarve, the more I like it).

For cutting the grooves, I used a 1/32" endmill, .06 deep, 2 passes, centerline cutting all the signatures, clock tics (just triangles), and a title across the top. I cut this into 18mm baltic. For the clock mechanism, I 'botted a .25" shaft hole where it needed to be from the front.

I used a .25" endmill to cut the thing out, leaving the outside waste piece in place on the shopbot table.

I lightly sanded, rubbed walnut wood filler over the whole thing, making sure to press the filler into all the grooves. This made the signatures look dark brown with a light baltic background. (Before I started cutting the grooves, I prepped the ply with light wood filler and a some bullseye shellac, just to make sure I wouldn't get dark in the background pores...in retrospect, probably unnecessary).

After I got the whole front done, I put down a piece of waxed paper on the bot table, put the piece down in the waste "frame" and secured it in place with .25 dowels to keep it locked in place. I rezeroed on the clock shaft hole I had drilled from the front, and created a pocket for the clock mechanism (remember to set the material to center zero...I almost forgot). I chose a mechanism meant for .25" thickness dials so the hands wouldn't stick out too far.

I made a quick stand for it so it could be hung (that's why I recessed the clock mechanism) or stood on the frame (think decorative plate holder).

I was impressed by how nice it looked when it was all done. The rustoleum gloss clear I chose soaked right into the wood filler and made it look like fine line inlay. I spent about 20 hours on it, idea to completion, but now, I think I could get one done in about 3-4 hours.

I think the thing that everyone was suprised by is how much the vectorized handwriting looked like the note cards they started with. Forgery by bot.
I did do a little touching up the vectors, some people have really awful writing. I'm just a perfectionist, if I had taken the vectors as is, it would have been just fine.

Now, some might say, why not use the vcarve 4.0 raster to vector. Won't work...it traces around dark areas. I won't do centerline tracing like the map digitizing settings in r2v and I couldn't get wintopo, inkscape or anything else to do a good job.

John

[myxpykalix]

If what you want to do is change raster to vector than the best app i have found for that is inkscape www.inkscape.org (http://www.inkscape.org) It is very easy to use and actually does a very good job.

[jseiler]

I have found that no program does everything nicely everytime. Inkscape is pretty good many times and its free. I've been playing with coyote stencil trial version, in that it seems to vectorize around color gradient rather than sharp color transition, and that makes it pretty good if this is the effect you are looking for. There's a new version coming out soon (coyote stencil pro), so I'm waiting on it. This new version of coyote will supposedly create halftones somehow, which I'm very curious about. There's impressionX, which is interesting for more artistic stuff (converts to pen/ink and impressionist type raster formats that can be converted with another program). I find also that running some pix through gimp filters like the photocopy filter leads to some interesting useful effects. The trace function in vcarve is pretty nice too, but it traces only outside dark areas and won't do a centerline trace. For black and white images, I really like R2V toolkit. For cleaning up bad pictures, there's programs like photozoom, which will oversample a picture and do an edge cleanup. This often will make a bad lo-res, blurry, or heavily compressed jpg useable.

I'm currently playing with impressionx's simple art conversion, using it to create rasters with a small number of colors. Using R2V or vcarve trace, it should be possible to make several vector files, one for each color or shade. Using different color stains (or different lengths of "soak" time with a dark stain), create carvings with multiple levels of darkness/lightness. I've not had much luck yet, but feel like I'm on the verge of a breakthrough on this one.

Maybe I just need more practice with inkscape getting the scan parameters right. It just seems like R2V toolkit has parameters adjustments that make sense to me.

I've also been working with one image (woman holding a baby) which I've converted to gray scale. I'm running both the color and grayscale versions through various programs, filters and vectorizers. That's been really enlightening. You can get a huge number of effects, for accurate to very artistic and abstract.

One of my friends uses photoartmaster gold. It will take a picture, quickly clean it up, and run it through about 15 different filters with thumbnails. Its not as useful for us bot'ers, but it will show what a picture will look like with highlighted edges, embossed, color separation on gradient or transition, etc and very, very quickly.

John

[myxpykalix]

John,
I failed to mention that it is great on line drawings but sucks for trying to convert any type of photos. Although i have had some decent results on a few i thought wouldn't work.
You mention a few that i've not heard of that might be interesting to check out...thanks!

[jseiler]

here is a pic of the clock. its about 12"x22" in baltic with walnut wood filler, sprayed with rustoleum clear. the lines were cut with a 1/32" bit, 2 passes, total .06" deep. The clock is recessed into the back.


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