Trying to get my carbide create to trace a picture of a person but it just don’t work. Anyone have any intel that might help me.
Post the picture, and describe the results you want/expect.
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Carbide Create’s tracing algorithm is intended for high-contrast (b/w, i.e., monochrome) images as discussed at:
I’ve been playing alot with this tool between cnc and laser. Carbide and light-burn use a very similar trace tool which relies heavily on contrast. My suggestion depends on the goal.
If you’re looking to do a 3d relief I suggest to use a paint software to mute certain colors that are too noisy. Pretty simple to just brush the areas you want to clean. White is one extreme and black is the other. Krita has a decent cut tool. The pixel pen is great for precise lines. To smooth an area there is the color sample tool. Microsoft paint will also get the job done.
If you just want to create vectors, use the Carbide trace along with a background image to trace/modify vectors and delete the “noise”. In carbide I prefer to use the straight line vectors, and then add curves to the nodes. Tip; less is more. You can achieve great results with fewer nodes by stretching your curves.
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I had an idea with carving a picture of my parents. I wanted to test both the ability of the machine and my own ability to create the carving. I had my parents take a picture with a white background for the test. The results were good because I was able to remove all background noise when I traced the picture into CCP.
I first tried a standard V-carve on the design and everything was looking good until it got to my mother’s hair. There the program had washed out her hair and was very confused by what it was cutting. So, I stopped the machine and scratched that carving.
Carbide Create Pro had the 3D import part of the program, so I tried my hand in it. Actually seemed to do a really good job on the design of that picture. I decided though that because it was going to take so long to cut this 3D carving of my parents, I foregone the design and figured it would be better to use a good pic of them to recreate for them.
I guess what I am saying is, if you have a true life pic you want to recreate, work to reduce all the background noise and watch for big areas of black/dark. Also, think about what style of carving you intend to use. I do not much know anything about these other programs that deal with drawing, and maybe they will help tremendously. Good luck and hope it pays off for you.
I follow use the following with success most of the time. Pictures of people can be very tough due to the lack of edges that can be interpreted for carving.
If edges do not emerge, then a 3D relief maybe your only option.
Note: The higher the number of pixels, the better the results. Close up pictures provide more pixels on the subject matter. Trying to process a persons face that covers less than 50% of the image is tricky unless the overall image is quite large ( number of pixels )
Paint.Net
Change the picture to Black and White ( grey scale ).
Remove any background around the subject matter.
Try adjusting the Contrast and Brightness to bring out edges. No rule of thumb other than you want the smallest detail required to show an edge.
Try the Inking effect to redraw the edges on the image. The Pencil effect will do the same but generates more edges, which may muddle the results, but handles grey scale changes better.
This will show you a reasonable representation of how a carving will go.
Inkscape
EDIT: Change the document size and units and display unit to be the same as your CC model.
Import the image into Inkscape and Trace the image.
I have found the Center line option produces less vectors because it follows the pixel path instead of drawing around it.
Create separate layers for vectors that are “fill in” and those that produce edges that can be highlighted.
EDIT: Use the Stroke style line width to somewhat simulate the cutting width
Export a separate SVG for each Layer
CC
Import the SVGs and apply you cut path of choice.
On acrylic I use a McEtcher for thin line weights ( the fill in vectors ) and overlay a Engraving pass for selective edges.
On other materials you will have to develop another combination of cutting methods.
You will probably have to cycle through the process a few times unless you stumbled onto the combination the works for you. Sometimes it just never works as you want.
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