[july_favre]

IM looking for a program that can take a picture and turn it into a drawing of plotted dots(I forgot the name the type of drawing) and save it as a format that I can put into a cam program, or maybe make the g-code in the same program.
Im sure theres something simple out there for this.
Thanks

[Splint]

Do a search for raster to vector.

[Aksess]

Are you referring to stimpling? If so DrMetza is what you need

[Evodyne]

Not really sure what you want. I took Paint Shp Pro and a stock picture and did a greyscale half-tone conversion. Finally I reduced that to 2-bit color depth. Is this what you were thinking?

Evodyne

[july_favre]

Evodyne- Pretty much like that, but with all the dots a consistant diameter. I was messing with some programs and did and came out with the same sort of thing, but its not exactly what I wanted.

aksess- i will check out that program

[july_favre]

aksess do you have a link?

[Geof]

I think what you are looking for is something that can take a picture and turn it into a mesotint. I think that is the correct term; it is a black and white version of pointilism where the grey scale in an image is obtained from the density of blacks dots all the same size. I do not know of anything comercially available to do this.

[cbass]

I think what you are looking for is something that can take a picture and turn it into a mesotint. I think that is the correct term; it is a black and white version of pointilism where the grey scale in an image is obtained from the density of blacks dots all the same size. I do not know of anything comercially available to do this.

Hey Geof,

I think he's looking for a halftone, or at least that's what its called in screen printing. The following are examples...

http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~mirtc...r/halftone.gif

http://www.ccsn.nevada.edu/cg/kanet/...one_screen.htm


You can do it in Photoshop (I use 6.0). Image->Mode->Bitmap. Then choose halftone from the drop down. Just make sure you first convert your image to grayscale. You can then specify size shape and frequency of your "dots". Then it will need to be converted to vector, unless your CAM can read raster.

Good luck!

Carlo

[mrservo]

If you just want to reduce a picure to fine dots, just use a standard program
like PhotoShop. There are Mezzotint filters one can use or play around
with diffusion dithering in the program. all the best.

[july_favre]

Ok, I got some ok results with the halftone, so how would I get the points compatable with a cam?

[cbass]

Ok, I got some ok results with the halftone, so how would I get the points compatable with a cam?

You can save your work as a TIF, JPG, GIF or other raster file. You'll then need to convert this to a Vector file (DWG, DXF etc). You will need a raster to vector converter to do this. Try searching for a demo or shareware.

Realize that in doing so, you will essentially be creating outlines of your half tone dots. These outlines will then become the tool paths in your CAM file.


Carlo

[oldjohn]

G'day
See my avatar. I Got a photo from the net and processed it in PotoShop and saved it as AutoCad 14, opened in ACad and saved it as DXF, then opened it in Mastercam 8, got the toolpath and nc file from it. It took me many months and many software programs as well as hours and long nights to get there. What I can tell you. If you want to do some venturing into this mater you will need the tools. There is not a magic wand.
Good luck
John

[oldjohn]

l

[mikie]

Hi Old John,

I see you are from Aus. Have you been on the Aus forum and contacted us guys. Where do you live?

Question on your post.
Does phoptoshop save the format as a vector file for autocad, or do you use autocad to complete the vectoring?
Is mastercam the better CAD/CAM software that you found would process the DXF file, what about Mach3??

/Michael

[oldjohn]

Hi Old John,

I see you are from Aus. Have you been on the Aus forum and contacted us guys. Where do you live?

Question on your post.
Does phoptoshop save the format as a vector file for autocad, or do you use autocad to complete the vectoring?
Is mastercam the better CAD/CAM software that you found would process the DXF file, what about Mach3??

/Michael

G'day
Q1 No. Ihave not. I'll visit the forum. I live in Sydney.
I must apologize to everyone for misleading you about PhotoShop. The program i used to create the file from a photo was "Corel 10". My apologies to all.
In Corel 10 you can create contour vector. To do the hatching-like file I cannot find my notes and I have the program uninstalled, so I cannot check.
Once you have the file in Corell10 save it as DWG ACad R 14, open It in ACad 14 and convert it to DXF. Then it can be opened in MCam and generate a toolpath.
I m attaching two files produced that way.
I'm sorry for the mistake.
John

[ViperTX]

Looks like a pic of Che Guerra (I think that is how you spell the last name...).

[Kookaburra]

You can import a photo and create the toolpath, all in the one package by using DeskCNC, you have an option of either 3-D depth carving based on greyscale tones or a 2-D raster to vector, you can download it and try it for 30 Days, it is well priced too.

you can download it from www.deskcnc.com

Hope this helps

[oldjohn]

Looks like a pic of Che Guerra (I think that is how you spell the last name...).

His name was "Ernesto Che Guevara" and the "u" is silent in Guevara.
John

[dcarr]

VS3D produces the highest-quality relief surfaces from digital images, and it will output the G-Code for various cutting strategies as well.

As previously mentioned, converting gray-scale values into a continous relief surface for smooth carving is one possibility. Here is a tutorial showing how to do that in VS3D: http://www.designscomputed.com/vs3d/...mg_emboss.html

Another technique is to take a coated material - like black anodized aluminum, for example. Using a V-bit, run a "peck" tool path such that the depth of each individual peck is determined by the brightness of the image at that point (brighter "pixels" are pecked deeper). Since the V-bit reveals more bright aluminum the deeper it goes, the end result is that the final piece looks like a half-tone image. VS3D can apply this technique as well.

If anyone would like to give it a try, VS3D is available for free 30-day full-functioning trials. I can also supply additional specific help/instructions, if needed.

The VS3D home page is located here:
http://www.designscomputed.com/vs3d/

[WeCheat]

Have you checked out this program http://www.imagecarve.com/index.html