What kind of file extension for image to be engraved into wood?

I want to CNC images onto 12x12 & 12x24 wooden panels

What kind of images do I need to provide to have this done? Are jpegs alright? What about the resolution? I imagine I want the best I can, but are there any specs?

Or do these images need to be created in CAD?

anyone?

I want to engrave both sides of the wood, so I'm guessing if I'm using 3/4" I don't want more than 1/4" engraved each side. Is this deep enough relief to give me the right detail?

Usually a CNC mill or router will require a .dxf file that will be converted to G-Code by a program such as SheetCam etc.
This will be used by another program, Mach3 etc. that controls the actual cutting and operation of the machine.
Larry

Your probably looking for a program like PhotoVCarve or something along those lines.

Adam,

Hmm ok I don't think the photocarv is what I"m looking for.

If I have certain images/symbols in .jpeg or .png - can someone then convert it to the correct file to run on a CNC, or would they have to create the image/symbol from scratch?

Do you have an example of what you're trying to carve? The appropriate file format and CAM to convert that to G-code depend very much upon that.

Get the CamBam trial and see if it works for you.
CamBam 1.0.0 documentation - Bitmaps

The normal process is to convert a raster image (jpg, png, bmp, etc.) to a vector format (dxf, or others) There are a number of free online converters up to professional software for doing this. Depending of the quality of the starting image the conversion may or may not require additional work to be useful for engraving. Once a vector format is generated, then it can be used to generate the G code needed to do the actual work on the CNC machine.

A simple black & white line drawing converts well, converting an image that contains a lot of small detail is much more difficult. If you are going to hire someone to do the engraving, then I would send them sample images and get their opinion on the usefulness of the image.

As mentioned there are lots of free tools for conversion. The output really depends on the input. I've found You can usually get good results if you leave the image the same size or smaller, but as soon as you try to increase the size it looks horrible.

But once you do have a vector file (I try to make the svg files) I use a free online converter to g-code MakerCam

Thanks for the responses, I apologize for the delay.

So most of what I want are images that I have as jpeg that are either 1600x1600 or 3500x3500 pixels

They range from basic, to a bit more detailed on a few.

What do you guys think?

The last one titled Christen lamen is the most detailed, but on average it's the basic line drawings

I'm looking to have them engraved on wood panels 20x20 inches

Will I get high quality engraving from these images once converted for CNC?

Also, are the vector images I'm used to associating with photoshop the same kind that are used for CNC? If so I could have someone convert them for me and then just need to find someone to convert them to the proper CNC file

This would probably work better with a laser cutter than with a router. You won't have problems like grain lifting on the edges, and rounding of sharp interior corners. And lasers usually come with software that can read your JPG files and engrave them directly. If you don't own a laser cutter there are services which will do all this for you, on your wood panels. Here's one: https://www.ponoko.com/laser-engraving there are probably others that are local for you.

As I mentioned before, if you increase the size of a jpg, it will get grainy and you won't be happy with the output.

If you google "Convert .jpg to G-Code" you will find tons of step by steps with free software.

If you want to enlarge them you should redraw them in a vector based software package such as illustrator. If you plan to sell these, I would be worth it to hire a graphic designer to redraw these as vecotr based programs. You could probably find someone to do it on fiver.com for pretty cheap.

Thanks for the images posted as this makes a huge difference in commenting. Considering those images I really don’t think you want to be using any sort of bit mapped software for “originals”.

What you want here is vector based art work at the minimum. A 3D solid molded might have some advantages but a 2D CAD file would also work.

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Originally Posted by JohnnyScience

Thanks for the responses, I apologize for the delay.

So most of what I want are images that I have as jpeg that are either 1600x1600 or 3500x3500 pixels

They range from basic, to a bit more detailed on a few.

What do you guys think?

The last one titled Christen lamen is the most detailed, but on average it's the basic line drawings

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Yes it is the fact they are basic line drawings that suggest moving to a vector based image would be a good idea. It would be a bad idea to try to stretch or compress any bit map and expect good results. Scaling algorithms have gotten much better but there is a real limit and exceeding those limits can lead to artifacts in your image.

Some of your images might be suitable for parametric modeling where one file defines the shap and allows scaling to fit the various board sizes you want to engrave. On the other hand a good CAD program or a vector based drawing program will let you reproduce these rather fast. There are a number of free 2D CAD capable apps online, I’d look at one of these to generate your drawings in.

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I'm looking to have them engraved on wood panels 20x20 inches

Will I get high quality engraving from these images once converted for CNC?

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That depends on many factors, in general you will be far better off generating CAD (vector) drawings for this artwork. This especially if we are talking any sort of production

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Also, are the vector images I'm used to associating with photoshop the same kind that are used for CNC? If so I could have someone convert them for me and then just need to find someone to convert them to the proper CNC file

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Photo shop does bitmaps, at least to the best of my knowledge as I’ve never used Photoshop. There are better online descriptions of the differences between vector based images and bitmaps than I can reproduce here. In simple terms though vector based images are formed from a set of instructions that are used to draw an image. Vector based drawings can be precise.

As for the conversion it would really pay to learn to do this yourself. A couple of reasons here, one is that the images are simple and a good place to learn CAD. Another reason is that you may need to tweak the files to get the results you want in wood. The big problem is the sharp angles that may be hard to reproduce with the tooling you may be using. This is likely why the laxer suggestion was made above. In any event the tooling you use wil likely impact how some of those corners will look. Sometimes you can tweak the drawings to improve the the result in hard materials other times you will need different tooling. In other words it may be a bit difficult to reproduce some of those very sharp angles in a way that you like on a router. Depth of cut and cutter design all impact how the images will be reproduced in wood.

Ok roger all of that, I will have my required images converted to vector as my next step.

My only issue with lasers is that it leaves a burned look and it engraves the image itself, where I want to mill/carve out the area AROUND the image so the image itself becomes a 3D image.

I don't have any of the tools to do this myself, so I would working with a professional shop that would have whatever tools would be required to get me the highest quality results in the end.

I'm looking for the images to be milled/carved out of the wood like they do in this video:

https://youtu.be/dcKq08oLQBw

So you think this technique won't be able to do the sharp images that are found in my examples? Everything I've seen carved out this way seems to come out amazing.

Btw, this is for a 1 off project for myself, I don't have any plans to go into production. (at least not at the moment)

But either way I want the end result to be the highest quality possible.

I found scan2cad.com and was going to give a try myself to convert into vectors. The website says the software is super easy to use and free for 14 days, which is plenty of time for me to convert all of the images I want.

They say once you convert to a vector you then have the option to save it in G-code format and Scan2CAD supports .NC, .CNC and .TAP

Which file extension would be best for me to save the G-code vector?

I think I understand what your trying to do. One thing to realize if you show this video to most people they will assume you need a 3d model. You can still take your vector image and reverse it (so on the screen it will look like a white drawing on a black background, the black will be your vector drawing).

The other thing to realize is that if you are going to hire someone to do this, its going to take a long time. The level of detail in the video was quite high, and it looks like it was about 1 foot square. He also sped up the video quite a bit. My machine is pretty fast and I would guess it would take about 4 hours to do that on my machine, at that level of detail. The numbers I hear most often are around $200 per hour in my area (upstate NY). So that Pegasus would run about $800. You should check around a bit and talk to a shop, they most likely have all of the skills, or can direct you to the people who have the skills to do what you want. But remember your asking for a professional product from professionals so expect to pay accordingly. If you know an amateur who can do it, you'll have to be flexible on what you expect.

Scan2CAD is just going to cut on the lines. And I suspect that the vector conversion will not be very good. For high quality cuts, you really need to properly redraw those in a CAD program.
The extension is just referring to the file name extension. The files will all be exactly the same. Different control programs may require a specific extension, but most can read any extension. You can always rename the file to change the extension at any time.

If you want to convert them into 3D carvings, it's a fair bit more complicated. There's no magic "Make 3D" button. You can either actually create a 3D model, or use other techniques to remove the material between the vectors, like pocketing or V Carving.

I personally would draw it up as others have said in a program that uses vectors. My personal preference is AI just because I've been using it going back to cs3. Once you get the vector art, you need to talk to whomever you are using for the CNC work and ask them what format they want. Depending on the cad and cam software they use it will vary. For example you could send me a AI file a dxf file or if you didn't want to deal with it the jpeg would be fine and I would just redraw it. I would suggest calling around to different shops and talking to the guys who are quoting the job for you. Asking on a forum isn't going to do much for you except waist your time and energy. I say this because you aren't the one cutting the parts and different shops capabilities vary.

Dan

Have a look at "bmp2cnc" from MR-Soft Nc Software Tools

This generates a G-code file using images to create a 3-d carving.

Hi Johnny - If its a one off then you just need to take the design to a router company and they will sort it for you. They will have everything needed to do the carving. Peter

Since its a function I haven't explored,I tried something similar at the weekend.Rather than a scenic image I used the badge of the Ferrari racing team and let LinuxCNC determine the toolpath.I did begin by converting the image to greyscale for simplicity.I may experiment a bit further at some stage when I have time and inclination;it does take time because the finer the desired resolution happens to be,the longer the job takes.I feel sure that there are other programs that will work but for free control software I can't complain.A full 3D CAD model and a CAM program that permits the use of machining boundaries to constrain the travel of small tools for detail finishing would be much better and a lot more costly.

I did take a look at virtualsfm a few months ago for creating a 3D mesh from photographs.It didn't work for me unfortunately but there are some youtube videos that look quite positive.