Raster to Vector image advice.

[Dave Lock]

Hi guys and gals,

I would appreciate if anyone could advise me on converting an .bmp image like the one of a Digger attached, into a single line vector image. The original is around 16" wide.

http://lincs-hft-club.co.uk/forum/uploads/IMG2-1237662190.jpg

The problem I have with engraving the image is firstly, the time it takes to do and secondly the solid black areas don't look very nice one pine. I would like to use a cut setting to give me just the outline.


Here's a link of a small video I took of the job. It's being engraved on to a 3ft Pine bed headboard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbRfLz1Rn40


I have tried using Corel Trace I couldn't reproduce a good result and I've also tried tracing over it in Corel Draw. Is there an easier way?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Dave.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbRfLz1Rn40

[Zvi Grinberg]

Send me the best image you have, and also the result of your trace effort.
I may be able to fix the geometry with another tool.

zvi@caliber.co.il

Regards

Zvi

[Dave Lock]

Send me the best image you have, and also the result of your trace effort.
I may be able to fix the geometry with another tool.

zvi@caliber.co.il

Regards

Zvi


Hello Zvi,

email sent and thank you very much.

If you have some success with it could you let me know how so that I could replicate the result on similar images.

Thanks again.

Dave.

[Mike Null]

Dave

That's a fairly easy drawing to do. Take a look at a couple of Alex Galvez" tutorials on Utube. You should be able to do that in 30 minutes.

[Dave Lock]

Dave

That's a fairly easy drawing to do. Take a look at a couple of Alex Galvez" tutorials on Utube. You should be able to do that in 30 minutes.


Hi Mike,

Many thanks for the heads up. I'll go take a look right now.


Cheers

Dave.

[Mike Null]

Here's your tire.

[Joe Pelonio]

As Mike said that's a pretty easy image to do compared to many you could get in the future. People here are very generous with there time to help out, but tracing is something you really need to learn. Besides Corel Trace, which will do a good job with all the parameters set correctly, on simple ones it's often faster to use the "smart draw" tool and hand trace it. Just set the pen to a different color than black so you can see it better along the edge of the bitmap.

[Dave Lock]

As Mike said that's a pretty easy image to do compared to many you could get in the future. People here are very generous with there time to help out, but tracing is something you really need to learn. Besides Corel Trace, which will do a good job with all the parameters set correctly, on simple ones it's often faster to use the "smart draw" tool and hand trace it. Just set the pen to a different color than black so you can see it better along the edge of the bitmap.


Hi Joe,

Thanks for the response. I agree people are very generous with their time to help out. Indeed it is certainly something I need to learn, which I am doing.
I wasn't asking for someone to do it for me but merely asking for advice on doing it. Thanks for your input as well. I have made notes on all these tips.

Having got some helpful feedback I have just gone back to Corel Trace and had another go, and got a result.

Mike, many thanks for the tire image, and your time. After looking at it I soon realised that I was possibly after something that I didn't actually need. I was worried that the solid black areas would be rastered when what I needed was just the outline.

As said, I went back to Corel Trace and had another go. I sent it over to the laser to see what the output would be like. I hit 'go' and hey presto. Got a result. Having seen the cut line being very fine I lowered the table to take the lens out of focus to give me a wider line.

Here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPrHvWyFTAg

You can see in the top right in the video the first attemp.

So thats been a great learning for me tonight. Many thanks to all.

Regards

Dave.

[Frank Corker]

Dave, is it so important that you need to use that poor tractor image? If not I posted a shed load of these in previous posts (use the search facility at the top of the page) there are far superior looking images than the one above (which appears to have been drawn by a child :D). Try this one and see if it tickles your fancy.

[Scott Shepherd]

As Mike said, you could redraw it fairly easily. Certainly the 30 minutes Mike mentioned would work.

One trick that would help a lot is to use your pen tool and just draw point to point. Make the outline the thickness it needs to be to cover what you are tracing. Once you have done that, click on the lines, select "Convert Outlines to objects" and it'll make them all fat objects instead of thick outlines that won't engrave.

You could step through it and convert outlines to objects in no time.

[Dave Lock]

Dave, is it so important that you need to use that poor tractor image? If not I posted a shed load of these in previous posts (use the search facility at the top of the page) there are far superior looking images than the one above (which appears to have been drawn by a child :D). Try this one and see if it tickles your fancy.

Hi Frank,

Now thats a great looking image, thanks. No, it wasn't so important, it was the nearest fit that I could find to the picture the lad had on a jigsaw that he was crazy about.
I'll have a look through your posts for those images, many thanks.

Hey Scott,
Many thanks for the tips. I just had a couple of hours practising on various images to get a handle on it. I must say I'm getting better but have some ways to go yet.


Thanks again guys,

Regards

Dave.

[Frank Corker]

Here they are at these locations. I know that I posted a few images in zipped files

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=96579&highlight=backhoe
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=56821&highlight=backhoe

[Dave Lock]

Here they are at these locations. I know that I posted a few images in zipped files

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=96579&highlight=backhoe
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=56821&highlight=backhoe


Many thanks Frank,

You wouldn't believe how long I was looking for those last night. Very handy thank you.

Regards

Dave