CONVERTING A PICTURE TO DFX IN COREL DRAW X 5 OR INKSCAPE

[james.davis]

Everything up to this point I've been hand drawing because I can't figure out how to use Corel draw x5 or Inkscape. I've down loaded an image I'm trying to make ,this image I traced at 3' and shrunk down to scan size ,the other image is my attempt at converting to dfx ( the whole drawing looks like that). After seeing everything people on
this forum are doing it would sure be nice to do my own . I'm 62 and retired after 38 years union welder and fabricator so computers weren't my forte'. If someone can show me how to convert pictures to dfx I'd be forever thankful.Jim

[james.davis]

PICTURE DID NOT GO FIRST TIME AROUND

[james.davis]

This is the way it turns out when converting to dfx

[beefy]

Hi James,

you remind me of when I first got Coreldraw and tried the same. Unfortunately it isn't as simple as we'd like it to be. Powertrace is SOMETIMES ok for tracing an image which has quite distinct separations between colours or quite clear lines in the drawing in which case you can choose a centre line trace and it will put a line through the middle.

Also a plasma cut is like a stencil - everything must stay together in one peice. Coreldraw has no idea how to do that even with a good quality original image. All it does is "guess" where it thinks a line should go based on what it considers an area of change between two colours or shades, or what it considers a line if you are doing a centreline trace.

By the way join the Coreldraw forum too.

Many many users prefer manual tracing in Coreldraw instead of using Powertrace. If you don't have just the right original bitmap image your Powertrace will come out "weird". Learning Corel Photopaint too can help indirectly by being able to modify the original so it auto traces more accurately.

It's took me a while to learn Coreldraw but it's been worth it. Sources of teaching materials are: Coreldraw X5 Unleashed, DVD course from Advanced Artist, lots of Youtube videos, Coreldraw forum, book - Coreldraw X5 The Official Guide, Google searching and more Google searching.

If you're willing to fork out $300 you could buy Vector Magic, a dedicated auto tracing program which several graphic designers use in preference to Corel Powertrace. Looks a lot easier to use.

Keith

[beefy]

Another thing very worthy of mention is DXF Tool for Coreldraw. The dxf output from Coreldraw can be horrible with lots and lots of nodes. The DXF Tool dramatically reduced nodes and curves giving a much improved dxf output.

I looked at Inkscape in the beginning but bought Coreldraw simply because I found there to be much more teaching material available, plus the DXF Tool was available to make its dxf output much better.

A plasma table is just the beginning. After that it's the world of cad software, manual tracing, auto-tracing, importing and exporting different files and pulling your hair out when it goes wonky. The rewards from learning to use Coreldraw are huge. To me the plasma table is the left arm and Coreldraw is the right arm, I'd be severely restricted without both.

Check out all the teaching materials I mentioned and get started. It comes gradually but at some point you get to a stage where you'll be happy did it.

Keith.

[JJsCustomDesigns]

When i first started plasma cutting. I swore there was an easy button to convert these kind of pics. I was wrong. That pic is definitly a hand draw picture. I would spend some time on above mentioned forums and youtube learning how to make your program do what you want it to do. I use Corel14. I have hours and hours watching videos and reading posts on forums. Im too the point now i can draw almost anything i need in corel (if it doesnt freeze up on me). Search this forum. Or Gamelords posts. Hes very informative on how to use the tools and features of CorelDraw to gain the results your looking for.

[Gamelord]

Here's bout the best trace I can get. As mentioned, this one with all the gradients and fades, you may be best off just hand drawing it. I haven't found any programs out there that will take a noisy jpg image and cleanly convert it to DFX.

This may get you going, it would take many hours cleanup - or just an hour or two to hand draw.

To get it to this point, I first adjusted the brightness and contrast to get it as close to black & white as possible, then converted it to grayscale, then converted it to 1 bit black and white, then used the trace feature, then deleted the outside shadowing in the corners and dis some quick cleanup around the edges to delete the rest of the shadowing....then chuckled as I realized this was going to take a very long time.

hope that helps.

[james.davis]

thank you for all your info.Jim