Vector Magic

[snowman70]

Is anyone using the Vector Magic program to convert images? I am brand new at this and have no CAD background so I need the simplest program possible to do conversions. Thanks for the help.

[abmagrum]

I don't know if its easiest but its free inkscape.

a lot of the people here use corel draw

draft site is another free one

[tony506]

I have it and use it.
I am new to this as well, but I find Vector Magic pretty easy to do a basic conversion as it is a matter of dragging in the picture file and click the auto buttons and then saving in whatever format you choose.
Tony

[snowman70]

That is what they advertise, I just didn't know if it actually worked. You don't always get what was advertised. I do have Inkscape installed and it works for some files but others won't even open and the trace is very sketchy. I've been told that Inkscape is a good free program but won't work for everything. I've been debating between, Vector Magic, Xara and CorelDraw. Having no bacground in this, I didn't want to spend money on one and then find out it wasn't what I needed.

[BrianMick]

I use it also, I think for the most part it works well....With that being said there is no perfect program. Sometimes I use vector magic and cant get a good result and inkskape works better. I usually can get just about anything converted between the plasmacam designedge software and inkscape and vector magic.
Brian

[SignTorch Vector Art]

a raster to vector program like magic won't be very useful without a vector editing program like corel to fix the result

you need the most useful program, not the simplest

that'd probably be corel draw .... depending on what other software you have...

[JEd]

I have it and use it quite a bit. If I can find a good coloring book style image so that it has defined lines it does an excellent job. Even then it still requires some clean up in my CAD software.

[abmagrum]

you can try corel draw free no catches and you can also try dxfpro tool for free

then if you don't like them you are not out anything .

[beefy]

Download the demo version of VM. You just can't save the results.

I've got Coreldraw X5 and couldn't do without it. I've found its' autotracing sometimes gives strange results, especially when you export the autotraced file as a dxf. It's pretty good overall though.

When I can afford it I want to buy VM. My experience is it just works when Coreldraw has problems with a trace. I talked to some graphic designers and despite having Adobe Illustrator and Coreldraw, they use VM most of the time for their auto tracing. They did say that on occasion the other programs may work better but VM comes out top most of the time.

VM has a cheaper (but less functional I believe) online version, and a more powerful stand alone application that you download.

As others often state though, autotracing is not a magic wand. It only works with suitable bitmaps and with others it's a case of just manual trace and you'll save time.

Keith.