Vector-Magic

[Dawgonhawg]

Hello, I would like to know from those who use Vector-Magic if you are pleased with the software. I am thinking about purchasing the desktop version. I want something easy to use as I here this may be it. Also how does it compare to Corel Draw for converting photos do dxf. Please send the pros and cons of the software.Your help will be appreciated

Thanks, Jim

[Patrick Waite]

I would like to know my self. I here its some good software to have. I would like some input on before I deside to buy it.

[SignTorch Vector Art]

If you like the free online vector magic, then you'll like the desktop version. I use vector magic whenever I need to preserve straight lines, otherwise I use autotrace, I rarely fiddle with corel trace, but it's not bad. I also like vextractor, but it tends to put small scale zig-zags around every pixel.

I don't see any huge difference in vector magic and corel tracing results, but it depends a lot on the source image, sometimes one works better than the other.

Photos are never too easy to trace, you usually need to use a paint program to enhance contrast as much as possible first.

For reference I traced 2 versions of this picture in vm and corel x5, for the filenames ending with -2, I used photoshop to convert to black and white before tracing, which came out a lot better.

In any case, there's still a lot of cleanup to be done, and when you start looking at the nodes there is a big difference between the two programs, yet they both have the same problem of too many nodes in some places and neither produces arcs. And for some reason, corel placed some duplicate shapes on top of each other, vm is known to do that to though, they both have lots of settings to control those sorts of things.

One big difference with line drawings is that corel will do a centerline trace while vector magic will not.

The zip file contains the dxf results from both programs.

smart-car.jpg (21.17 KiB) Viewed 1638 times

smart-car.jpg (21.17 KiB) Viewed 1638 times

smart-car-2.jpg (45.98 KiB) Viewed 1638 times

smart-car-2.jpg (45.98 KiB) Viewed 1638 times

[BrianMick]

If you like the free online vector magic, then you'll like the desktop version. I use vector magic whenever I need to preserve straight lines, otherwise I use autotrace, I rarely fiddle with corel trace, but it's not bad. I also like vextractor, but it tends to put small scale zig-zags around every pixel.

I don't see any huge difference in vector magic and corel tracing results, but it depends a lot on the source image, sometimes one works better than the other.

Photos are never too easy to trace, you usually need to use a paint program to enhance contrast as much as possible first.

For reference I traced 2 versions of this picture in vm and corel x5, for the filenames ending with -2, I used photoshop to convert to black and white before tracing, which came out a lot better.

In any case, there's still a lot of cleanup to be done, and when you start looking at the nodes there is a big difference between the two programs, yet they both have the same problem of too many nodes in some places and neither produces arcs. And for some reason, corel placed some duplicate shapes on top of each other, vm is known to do that to though, they both have lots of settings to control those sorts of things.

One big difference with line drawings is that corel will do a centerline trace while vector magic will not.

The zip file contains the dxf results from both programs.

I can tell you that I figured out that vector magic places those double lines where two colors meet. It creates a line for each color, there is a simple way to solve this with the desktop version, you should use the remove background feature and remove all colors you dont need and you wont have all of the double lines.....
Brian

[Patrick Waite]

thank you for your input.