jpeg conversion

[med-pac]

Howdy,

We recently upgraded our sever here at the shop. In the process, the cp gods that came out to do the change over managed to somehow change my username/passwords on the programs I use for conversion and drawing. As luck would have it......a customer came through the door with a project he needs by fri/sat. I tried to farm this conversion out, but no luck. So, I'm starting from scratch.......What is the best jpeg conversion program out there?

Thanks,
Mike

[tentonjj]

You need it into a vector file?

[Larry83301]

My personal favorite is Scan2Cad, it works great for me.

Larry

[oldsoulmetal]

try magictrace 2. it a free trail. and once you get the hang of it. it seems to produce good images with a lot of control. you can then fixit in another program like corel draw. hope this helps

[tentonjj]

Inkscape works great for me, otherwise I use Vectormagic for multiple colors

[med-pac]

Thanks for the replys. Is there any program that handles detail better than others? For the most part, the pcs I normally cut are just silloute cut outs on the plasma. I have done some detail stuff with our router, but this is a first for engraving a pic into wood. I'm currently attempting this with the vetric program that came with our router. It's the only conversion program the cp gods didn't get to (the cp for the router is not linked into the server). To be honest, i'm not very impressed. what little detail it manages to pick up on the bmp tracer is extremely broken. I'd be farther ahead tracing it by hand and scanning it in.

Thanks,
Mike

[WSS]

cutting shop from arbor image works good.

WSS

[Mountain Home]

I downloaded the 30 day trial for Corel Draw yesterday and I am impressed with it. I have been trying to use Inkscape and I guess I'm not smart enough for it because I didn't have much success. Within a couple minutes I was able with Corel to trace and export to DXF files that won't take much work to clean up enough to cut.

Hope that helps.
Randy

[Metal Lee]

I use CR8 Tracer and export as .SVG and then I open it in Corel X3 to work with. I find the trace bmp function in X3 realy sucks, have they improved it any with there newer versions? X4 or X5? is it worth the upgrade? I hear the .dxf export is much better in the X5. Any feedback would be appreciated.

[SignTorch Vector Art]

X5 did improve the tracer, but it still sucks, see the defect at far left in the red traced line, and they added back centerline tracing option which was taken out in X3


X5 didn't 'improve' DXF support, they just added back the ability to export earlier non-spline versions of DXF which was taken out in X3, it still produces way too many nodes (902 nodes in the file below)

rudolph.dxf

[SignTorch Vector Art]

I redraw everything in high resolution pure black and white before tracing, and most R2V software still has problems.

I use AutoTrace mostly, but it distorts straight lines and overshoots corners, and is an old command line program, and centerline doesn't work on all files for some reason

I use Vector Magic Desktop if I need accurate straight lines and corners, it doesn't do centerlines

I just got vextractor and it seems to do good, it can produce a lot of nodes though, it can do centerlines, it says it does arcs but that's a joke

Tried corel and vcarve pro, wasn't impressed.

[Metal Lee]

Thanks Gary for the input muchly appreciated. It seems that the upgrade is probably not worth it just to get the ability to save as an earlier version of .dxf .

Thanks again and have a great day.

[SignTorch Vector Art]

Yep, I just kept using X3 for production.

X5 does have some additional customization features, you can even dock toolbars in the status bar area, but the status bar itself took a step backwards, it shows less information than before.

But I did find one thing worth mentioning. X5 has a Join curves dialog with a gap tolerance that will connect disconnected segments such as when importing DXFs from certain CNC programs. It seems to work pretty good. I can see where that would be mighty helpful sometimes. I don't usually have to work with files like that, but I think most of y'all probably run into that problem a lot.

[Metal Lee]

Yeah we do run into that problem alot, take the hunters special rack attached, a great file, but I can't work with it or should I say I don't have the skills to work with it probably. Alot of these files have 500 plus objects due to broken line segments and that is a pain in the ass due to I have not been able to find good software to join these line segment.
Will the X5 join this file? My X3 won't even open it, it comes in as a flat line. I need to open it in my command and cut software and export it as a .plt to work with and still there is way to many line segment's/objects to deal with. Command and cut won't join that many broken line segments.

Any input would be appreciated.

[SignTorch Vector Art]

FYI both those files are the same, just the deer track and connector, not many nodes at all, where is the whole project file, I wouldn't mind testing it on the whole thing.

Anyway, it did work on the small file provided...

matt maize hooks2.zip

Apparently I need to get admin to enable uploading CMX files.

CMX is a corel exchange format that works across all versions of corel and in some other softwares, so I usually publish in CMX rather than CDR format.

[Larry83301]

FYI both those files are the same, just the deer track and connector, not many nodes at all, where is the whole project file, I wouldn't mind testing it on the whole thing.

Orignial file is here http://www.plasmaspider.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2681
It loaded well for me in MasterCam, but had lots of background dots.

Larry

[Metal Lee]

Sorry about that, here is the complete file.

[SignTorch Vector Art]

No prob, I found it. Corel X5 was able to join all the entities into closed curves correctly. I also noticed that Corel X5 displays outer nodes in blue and inner hole nodes in red. That might be handy to.

joined.zip

I also signtorch'd the artwork a little, minus some parts.

gunbowrack=.gif

Remember, not drawn to scale, adjust accordingly...

gunbowrack.zip

[Metal Lee]

Thanks Gary, being able to join line segment is great, it is worth the upgrade price for sure. (I get to buy my own christmas present this year lol). thanks again.

[Metal Lee]

I downloaded the new Corel X5 and the joining line segment function works great.

[SignTorch Vector Art]

SHHH,,, if corel finds out it's useful they might take it out in X6.....