Any tips or tricks for the Trace Image function?

[MillCityLutherie (Adam Meyer)]

Lets say I download a blueprint of a simple 2D object that is made of circles and rectangles. The Trace Image function creates vectors on the inside an outside of the lines rather than just copy the original image (no offset). Circles will have an inner and outer line and they won’t be perfectly circular anymore. I’ve been having to use the Create vectors functions and draw on top of the traced image.

Is there a better method to get an image into Carbide Create without me having to do so much clean up? Maybe there is something I need to do to prep the image to be traced?

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

The Image Tracing software is intended for re-creating the outlines of b/w filled images.

A blueprint would want a tracing function which uses the centerlines of line drawings.

Probably it could be re-drawn pretty quickly as shown at:

Oar holder project

have been asked to help with an oar holder project. Here is the part that I would like to use CC to design and then cutout. Using this to learn…much more complex than what i have previously done. Not totally sure how to start. Maybe start with Create Curve and then the note editor??? Just looking for basic direction. tx. [oar holder layout]

or

Designing a Closet Shoe Rack with manual Tiling

as requested on support… … some cabinet side pieces that I’d like to use for a shoe rack. Would like some help on how to draw and cut the angled dadoes in the sides of the cabinet. Would also like some guidance on tiling these pieces as they are 8’ long. Everything is 3/4" Baltic Birch and I believe the depth will be 15". This is pretty straight-forward. Set the stock: [image] [image] Draw in geometry for the side cuts — this can either be done as continuous (if one is using Carbide Cr…

or

Making a dial or clock face in Carbide Create

as requested on support… Carbide Create has gained a number of features which make this far simpler than it was in the past, so recreating a dial face such as: [image] Is now quite straight-forward, rather than using the rather rough auto-tracing.

If you’ll upload the image we will gladly walk through it with you.

[MillCityLutherie (Adam Meyer)]

Ok. I actually have 2 projects so I may follow up with more on this.

For simplicity’s sake here is a screen grab for a some guitar pickup dimensions. I’m planning on making some holding jigs, and also cut out pieces like this for my own use. It’s not hard to just draw this out in CC, but it just seems like there is probably a faster way to just get it into the program. One picture is a screen grab, the

next is zoomed in on what CC does when I trace. You can see how the circles are all messed up. I understand the concept of it being a tracing, inside and outside lines of the original drawing, I’m wondering if there is a way for the tracing function to do this cleaner?

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

In order for that to work, you need a Centerline tracing functionality, which Carbide Create doesn’t have.

Using a tool which does have that feature one gets something like:

which will probably take longer to clean up, than it will to just re-draw.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Launch Carbide Create:

Set Background

Load Image

Scale down until everything can be seen:

Draw a rectangle of the largest dimensions:

Scale the image until it matches that size:

Draw.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

adding features as necessary:

Duplicating similar elements where appropriate:

Where one needs a tangent from a rounded feature, draw a circle:

attach a straight line:

select the twain and group:

Drag into alignment:

and rotate:

Done

If necessary, re-align:

Then duplicate:

and shift-click on the larger element to add it to the selection:

and Mirror Horizontal:

Draw a rectangle of the desired size:

and align it:

Then draw in geometry to define the tangents:

Done

Select all the elements which will make up the bottom, or define its intersections:

and use Trim Vectors to define what is wanted:

OK

Deselect what one wishes to keep:

and what will need to be used again:

by shift-clicking, then delete:

If need be select and ungroup:

and repeat:

Select the drawn in trimming geometry:

and the original:

and remove the bottom section:

OK

OK

again, shift-click on what is to be kept:

and delete:

Select all the open elements:

and Join Vectors:

Yes

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Presumably, there is some standard spacing/sizing for the hole dimensions since it is not documented here — draw in half of them:

using the end nodes as origin points

then position by jogging with the arrow keys (note that shift will reduce the movement by 1/10th)

copy-pasting as desired until one has a full complement — the three along the central axis:

should be centered against a larger element:

OK

Then, once one has drawn in one-half of the holes:

duplicate them and shift-click on a larger/surrounding element (which is symmetrical) to add it to the selection:

and Mirror Horizontal:

Adjust as need be.

Attached as a v8 file:

guitar_pickup_v8.c2d (100 KB)

[Randy (Randy Gordon-Gilmore)]

For tracing clean images to DXF I use an old Windows program called WinTopo. It is still on the web, and the free version is pretty useful. I’m an ancient paid user, but my license is locked to a PC that I haven’t had for 8 years and I haven’t gotten around to trying to get it updated. The paid version has more pre-trace raster editing, and also more configurability for the tracing itself.

[Redlander (Tim Jones)]

@WillAdams

Always refreshing to follow thru your illustrated examples!

[Randy (Randy Gordon-Gilmore)]

on that. It would actually be but I’m typing with one hand… @WillAdams, from the sheer volume of your prolific output I suspect that you are actually Igor Amizov…