Circle of Fifths SVG?

[James Jayko]

This is a weirdly specific question so...I apologize if it doesn't land.

I'm making a nightstand for a musician, and I want to use the Shaper Origin to inlay the Circle of Fifths (musical key signatures). Its pretty busy and detailed, so I'm not sure if I'm just forcing an idea that I got for no good reason, or if anyone has done this before, or if anyone has a different CoF design that works well on the CNC? Any input or ideas? This seems like a cool idea to me but I'm also concerned that I'm definitely forcing something...

Any input appreciated.CoF1.jpg

[Carl Beckett]

Not sure the interface to Shaper Origin, but the VCarve software makes it pretty easy to import an image that it will automatically convert to a vector file. If you know someone with VCarve and if the S.O. can take a vector file.

[Connor Strader]

I would do this as a vcarve and then inlay with epoxy or similar due to how "busy" the design is, personally. If you can find a better resolution circle you like, it would be easy to convert to a usable vector, but the one you listed from classic FM is quite low res and the resulting svg is not a very good output. With the image you gave, the sharps end up... not so sharp.

That said the design is pretty simple- it wouldn't be hard to reconstruct. At the same time, I think a rougher image or vector that was lasered on could have a weathered paper and parchment look that could be quite cool.

[Michael Burnside]

Adobe Express can convert a JPG to an SVG file for use by shaper very easily (so can v-carve but it's not free). Then you can just carve as you want using a couple different v-bits.

[Wes Grass]

A 'circle of 5th's' ... .mine usually come in a rectangle... 3x4 ...

[David Buchhauser]

The trick here is to achieve an acceptable auto trace. I used your image and tried Aspire and Inkscape. Inkscape provided a better result - but would still need some manual editing to clean it up.
David


1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg

5.jpg

[David Buchhauser]

If I were doing this, I would probably find a font that is close to your image, then type in the text and position the letters and symbols over your image. Then convert the text to vector format. This is easy to do using Inkscape.
David

6.jpg

7.jpg

8.jpg

[Jim Becker]

David's advice is sound. Quite often, I just "re-draw" on top of the bitmap (Vectric for me) rather than do a bitmap to vector conversion because the time required to node edit a conversion can be substantial for many kinds of images. That includes text. If I can replace with an existing font, great. If it's something unique, I'll redraw on top using the line tool and then node edit to get it right. I find this to be a lot faster than "cleaning up" so many of the straight bitmap to vector conversions by the software.

[richard newman]

I agree with Jim's advice above. I do precise pearl inlay work on banjos, and I've ever had any luck with any of the conversion/trace tools. Much easier to just learn how to work with the pen tool and manually trace your jpegs. I think if you're going to do this sort of stuff on a CNC machine, mastering the pen tool and vector editing is well worth the effort, as daunting as it may initially seem. I use Affinity Designer, a much more affordable alternative to Adobe Illustrator, and NOT a subscription. Hate Adobe's business model, blood suckers!

[David Buchhauser]

I would use Inkscape (free) to draw this using the original jpeg image as a guide. This is actually a pretty simple task - the main thing being how narrow a router bit you can actually use for some of the smaller details. This will be dictated in part by the overall size of your finished table.

What is the overall size, and how narrow a router bit can you use? By that, I mean the smallest diameter for your router bit.


David

CoF1 questions.jpg