DOG PHOTO TO DXF

[jocon57]

SO IVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS PHOTO FOR A COUPLE HOURS JUST TRYNG TO LEARN THE SOFTWARE. I USED INKSCAPE TO CHANGE IT. MY PLAN IS TO PLASMA CUT IT. IM NOT REALLY SURE WHAT TO DO NOW OTHER THAN GET RID OF THE SMALL THINGS. DO I NEED TO MAKE A BORDER AROUND IT?

[plasmanewbie]

WHY ARE YOU YELLING????

Seriously though...I downloaded your dxf and what I saw is what I always get from an auto trace on a full color image. It needs a little more than a border around it unfortunately.

In my opinion I wouldn't even waste my time trying to work with that result. You will likely spend more time trying to make that work than if you just manually traced it.

[Larry83301]

Perhaps this will give you a better place to start a trace.

EMMAFINAL.jpg

Larry

[jocon57]

plasmanewbie. i did manually trace it on inkscape. I am 1 week new to this and just trying to learn.
Larry 83301. Thank you for doing that but im not quite sure what to do with it. I tried to save it as a dxf and couldn't see it. I wish i could
trade someone my welding for a good tutorial.

[jocon57]

oh shoot. So I Traced bitmap and I think I got it. Larry 83301 Thank you. Im curious how you did that. Id love to pick your brain some time.

[Larry83301]

I used photo2sketch and then adjust the line width and the object to draw with, pen, pencil, pastel, brush and "convert". When you like what you see just save it. I have found that pencil at #3 width works best in Inkscape or with my CAD program. Takes about a minute to convert a picture to a gray scale line drawing.


Larry

[james.davis]

Nice job Larry!
Jim

[jocon57]

Thank you Larry

[RobinHillMachine]

Manual trace is the best way to make files from photos. It's done by placing each node where you want it. Once you learn how, it's much faster than trying to clean up an autotrace.

[james.davis]

Nice job Robin.
Thanks
Jim

[Overcaffinatedintrovert]

RHM,

You are an ARTIST!

Thanks for showing me (complete nube) what can be done.

Ryan

[jocon57]

Wow robin thank you for this. That looks great. How were you able to do the interior of the dog? Just tracing certain things?
Thank you
Justin

[jocon57]

Im sorry thank you Julie

[cstroke]

Julie, your art work is great. What do you use for your art work programming?
I use cutshop by arbor image and draftsight, I like arbor image but i normally trace my stuff too. I use draftsight for drawing parts and trimming items/ I am always open to something different.
I've used imaengine as well, just not much yet.

[adbuch]

Manual trace is the best way to make files from photos. It's done by placing each node where you want it. Once you learn how, it's much faster than trying to clean up an autotrace.

I would be very interested to learn how this was created. What program, what techniques. But I do understand that many "artists" don't want to give away their "trade secrets", particularly without monetary compensation. I would be willing to pay for a tutorial.
David

[cstroke]

Another thing that would be interesting is how long does it take you to draw this?
Its not difficult to spend hours on artwork.
The one thing we don't consider is our times value.
I've spent hours on files to get them to be cut ready to realize I could have had it drawn for a few bucks. Whats your time worth?
It is part of the process to get better though.
Files that used to take me hours I can now do in minutes. With that being said I'm up for new ways to improve.
Thanks

[robertspark]

...cutshop by arbor image ...

Never heard of it, thanks for the tip
Gulp!
http://www.arborimage.com/prices.htm
I don't think their pricing has kept pace with economies of scale and time.... Where once you could price at that range there are now a load of free softwares that could do similar I expect... Maybe I'm too hobby orientated...

Trying to do an inkscape tutorial a day and learn it a bit better (I am use to using masks in GIMP) ... But in inkscape it seems to be about merging shapes instead

[cstroke]

I cant say its the easiest to use or how it compares with others. I got it as a package on my first machine and since I knew the software a little bit I got it again with my next machine.
I would be interested in what others use and why.

[acourtjester]

Here is a tutorial for hand tracing in Inkscape and other videos by the same guy from his channel. He seems to do many art type tutorials too.


https://www.youtube.com/user/tjopen1/videos

[RobinHillMachine]

I use Corel draw x7. I manually trace the image. It takes a bit of patience to learn and some artistic skill.

For that file I would have charged $15-20 for the custom file.

You can email me at DXF@robinhillmachine.com if you ever need file help. Include the image and cut size along with any other details about the project so I can make it cut ready for you.

[adbuch]

I use Corel draw x7. I manually trace the image. It takes a bit of patience to learn and some artistic skill.

For that file I would have charged $15-20 for the custom file.

You can email me at DXF@robinhillmachine.com if you ever need file help. Include the image and cut size along with any other details about the project so I can make it cut ready for you.

Thanks Julie,
I am going to try out Corel draw X7. I have downloaded the free trial to see if I can learn a little about using it.
David

[beefy]

David,

one of the advantages to Coreldraw is that you can also buy add-in macros. The disadvantage is the price and crap support. I got the last of the perpetual licenses with Corel Graphics suite 2019. I think now it's only available by subscription, unless they've changed back. So I think this version will have to do me for a long time unless there's a very good reason to pay over $500 every year for the latest version.
EDIT: just checked and the adverting within my software also offers perpetual for $1k.

As a company I've come to detest them. I bought Coreldraw X5 quite a few years ago, registered it multiple times as I upgraded PCs, then suddenly one day heaps of users are told they've got pirate licenses. Some even said they'd bought their software directly from Corel and still got the pirate message popping up. Coreldraw offered an "amnesty upgrade" at the same time, so I thought I'd go ahead and bite the bullet for the new features.
After upgrading from Coreldraw X5 I found the DXF Export layer disabling was broken, so I contacted support and emails bounced back and forth between us. Their final words were, "This will not be fixed anytime soon". I was both shocked and furious. I mean I pay to upgrade then find something important is broken and they are not going to fix it
The version I upgraded to was 2017 but I've since upgraded to version 2019 and THE BUG STILL EXISTS. If you create more than one layer and you want to disable some of those layers, the export disabling does not work, and all layers are exported. That's a pretty serious bug for this type of software but obviously Corel don't care.

The Coreldraw forum was quite good for support last time I was there (a while ago now).

There used to be a lot of activity here in the Coreldraw section, but seems only once in a blue moon now. I think the free Inkscape has become quite popular, but I've become very acquainted to Coreldraw.

Keith

[cstroke]

Wow, nice!! $20 buck would be a deal.. if you charge 60 bucks an hour shop rate thats only 20 minutes. Many times I'd be better off paying someone than doing the work myself. Thanks for the information... The nice thing about corel is how many people use it and the tutorials that you can find.