[steeler1933]

I am looking for premade file of dinosaurs for an Omax Waterjet. I can draw it up but if I can find a site or something that already has premade file on it that would be great. There isn't anything on the machine in any of the files. Can anyone help me with this?
Thanks

[Black Pearl]

I'm confused by your request. Are you looking for the file of the dinosaur which is preloaded into OMAX Make? I have Make and I think I can extract the file. Or are you looking for any dinosaur to use on an OMAX jet?

[steeler1933]

I know about that one that is on the Omax. I am trying to find if there is a website of premade programs for it that people are sharing with everyone. That way I don't have to spend the time drawing something up if I don't have to. Pretty much I am looking for a site with programs done that I can download from and put on the machine and run it. Know of any?

[Black Pearl]

No, everyhting I know of cost $$$$$$$, I will say however that if you use google and find a black and white image of something you like the OMAX image tracing works decent and you wont have to do much drawing if any. You can use high res color photos also but they don't seem to convert too well for me. I usually add the word "cartoon" or "animation" in the search to eliminate all the pictures that dont convert too well. So in your case I'd search "dinosaur cartoon" and hope something worthwhile popped up and use that for the image trace. Hope it helps if you cand find something for free

[carlolsen]

To elaborate on what Black Pearl has to say:

+ Go to Google Image Search (http://images.google.com/)

+ Type in what you are looking for, followed by "silhouette". For example, "dinosaur silhouette", and click "search"

+ At this point, there will probably be a lot of great options, however, they will likely be fairly low resolution. The low-res ones can work fairly well if the image is clean and black and white. However, for best results, high res black and white will be best.

+ Note that Google Image Search has lots of other options. For example, you can search by "Black and White", and "Clip art" to find good tracable images.

+ Be careful to respect copyrights and such. People do indeed get in trouble for violations.

+ Once you have your images saved, bring it into OMAX Intelli-TRACE. Pay special attention at the stage where you are setting the "Noise Reduction / Smoothing", and "Black/White Threshold", because if you get this step right, then the following results will be much better.

+ On the last page of the tracing dialog, Click on the button in the lower right of the screen for "display settings", and make it so that arcs are displayed in a different color than lines. Also, make sure the white "dots" are turned on. Then, choose the "preset" that gives you the best result, and then click on "Custom Settings" to fine-tune the results.

Hope this helps,

Carl.

[Torchhead]

So the OMAX will not let you import the standard interchange CAD format for vector files, DXF? You can find thousands of DXF images already done or use a score of other CAD/Drawing packages to generate a DXF. One of the secrets the Sign guys know is that there is low cost high quality vector art at www.vectorart.com . It's not in DXF format (AI or EPS) but a lot of drawing illustration packages support importing those type vector formats and you can modify and export as DXF. You don't have to be an "artist" just be able to import, edit and export vector graphics. The auto-tracing approach to get a vector from a picture is more marketing than reality. The simple stuff is easy to draw or hand trace. The more complex stuff or from poor resolution sources ends up being a joke.

Hint: you can often find really good patterns that are easy to trace since they are line art, in the Scroll Saw world. Google Scroll Saw Patterns. You are allowed to use it for free and there are CD's full of bitmaps that are intended to be printed out but will pull right in to most drawing programs. Tracing line art is MUCH easier than most other types of bitmaps.

[carlolsen]

DXF loads fine into the OMAX software. You can also load AI and EPS (The formats used by vectorart.com), and a bunch of other formats (SVG, DWG, IGES, PDF, DWF, CMX, etc.). I just tried a sample from vectorart.com, and both the EPS and AI images loaded perfectly.