Importing a file or a backgound image

[NewToThis (Peter)]

I’ve searched, honestly, but I still can’t find out if the importing of images is fixed, or I’m just doing it wrong.

Essentially, I drew around a spanner (wrench) with the intention of scanning it, editing the image in Affinity Photo, and then importing it as a background, to draw a vector over it, or as a vector.

Except, it’s either the size of the Eiffel Tower:

or the CN Tower in Toronto:

Oh, and the stock size is 150x300mm, to give you an idea how big the imported image is, in comparison!

I don’t know if this is an issue with Affinity Photo (or even if I should be using it), but I’m not in the market for new software just yet!

I’m importing a *.jpg into the background and an *.svg as a vector.

Thanks

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

Unfortunately, Serif’s Affinity Designer doesn’t have auto-tracing — not sure if Affinity Photo has a path option or no (it should, but I suspect like Photoshop it would be a matter of exporting and then importing into Affinity Designer (in lieu of Adobe Illustrator).

I did a tutorial on this sort of thing at:

https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Carbide_Create_Photo_Tracing

c.f.,

Carbide Create re-drawing

If one only has a pixel image: [image003] then one has three options: auto-tracing — EDIT: Carbide Create has since gained this feature: Carbide Create - Image Tracing using the pixel image using a tool such as MeshCAM or Carbide Create Pro’s texture feature re-drawing — this is a tutorial on this: Begin by going to Job Setup and setting the Stock Size and importing the image onto the background: [image]

or

Carbide Create drawing/tracing tutorial

@Bonch has a project which requires this very charming image: [WoodlandKidsLogo_BW] which is only available as a pixel image. Re-drawing it should be straight-forward: First, launch Carbide Create, create a stock area of the correct proportion, and import the pixel image and size it appropriately: [image] EDIT: Alternately, one could use the new Image Tracing feature:

[NewToThis (Peter)]

I think I’m being a bit stupid here, because I have no idea what I’m doing wrong (sorry )

To me, this should be simple. Draw around an object, scan the image, import the *.jpg into CC. What’s difficult about that?

I downloaded Inkscape and had a play around, and it is very easy to play with, but simple things I can do. but not this.

However I do it, the image is giant-sized. Essentially, I’ve followed the first step in the tutorial you did for photo tracing, using a scanned drawing rather than a photo, but the second step where you say to resize the image in an editor? Why would that be necessary? Surely it’s been scanned at the actual size?

Sorry if I sound grumpy; I’m a bit tired and finding this a bit irritating.

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

For any pixel image you need to establish the DPI — yes, it’s scanned at actual size, but other software may not properly use the DPI as set in the file — this is why I recommend including a ruler or an object of known dimension.

Once you have things scaled you should be able to auto-trace:

https://inkscape.org/en/doc/tutorials/tracing/tutorial-tracing.html/

and then import the vectors at the proper size (but I’d still recommend putting a rectangle of known dimension around things to check against).

If you’ll post an image which includes a ruler or largish object of known size we’ll gladly work up a step-by-step tutorial.

[NewToThis (Peter)]

@WillAdams

If you’ll post an image which includes a ruler or largish object of known size we’ll gladly work up a step-by-step tutorial.

Here you go…

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

Okay, launch Carbide Create (I’ll be using the new v5 beta: Carbide Create Beta Downloads but the techniques should be the same in any version):

Click on “Set Background”:

Load Image, select Scanned%20Image.jpg, Okay

Reduce the scale until you can see everything:

Note that if need be, the image may be dragged around to adjust its position.

Draw some 1cm squares:

Zoom in and compare the size of the squares to the ruler:

Adjust the scaling until things line up:

(only 3 digits of precision here, so may not be possible to get things perfect)

Select the curve tool and click at points of inflection and extrema to get a beginning to the geometry around the first wrench:

(I would suggest making the grid a bit finer)

Turn off snap to grid.

Go into Node Edit mode:

and drag the nodes around to position them as desired:

Zoom in on a section, go back into Node Edit and right-click on a node and choose “Toggle Smooth”:

drag the off-curve nodes to reshape the curve as desired:

and repeat:

If the smooth default of equally spaced off-curve nodes for a given on-curve point interfere with shaping the curve hold down the alt (or option) key and drag to convert it into a sharp node which is not so constrained (but which is still smooth):

Repeat, working all the way around.

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

If you miss a point of inflection right-click and choose “Insert Node”:

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

Until one arrives at:

Repeat for the other wrench.

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

When you are done drawing the wrenches, draw in lines for the ruler and check the scale of the drawing:

Doing the math we get:

140/140.496 == 0.99646965

So select everything and scale thus:

and the size is pretty much as desired:

Attached. wrenches_redrawn.c2d (15.2 KB)

and the SVG: wrenches_redrawn.zip (953 Bytes)

[MindlessCorpse]

@WillAdams

Until one arrives at:

My hat is off to you on this Will.
I know the members of this community do go above and beyond to be helpful, but, Damn…
mc

[NewToThis (Peter)]

@WillAdams, I really do appreciate the time and effort you’ve put in to help me with this. Thank you

I’ll work through the instructions over the next couple of days (work’s getting in the way!), but once again: Thank you

(I won’t cheat and use the finished files, as I need to learn by doing!)

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

Anytime!

Please let us know if there’s anything else which you might need!