Tracing

[Reverend Turk]

I have a part that I want to make but I don't have a print for it and don't have a CMM readily available for me to use. I am going to scan the part on a flat bed scanner and try to trace the part with X but I wasn't sure if that was possible. I have done it with other CAM software but being as I am a new Mastercam user I thought I would come here and ask you guys first. I am not sure if I can load an image into X and then try to spline ober top of the image or if I will have to use AutoCad first and then transfer to X.

[Lumpnut]

quote:

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try to spline ober top of the image

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I tried to do that yesterday and it was a real pain in the A$$ . I would suggest getting as many measurements as you can with mics' , calipers , gauge pins , radius gauges , etc.... to keep the spline sketching to a minimum.

 

BTW , Welcome to da Forum

[Reverend Turk]

were you able to load the scanned image into X?

[Lumpnut]

No , not in X. I inserted a bitmap into Solidworks and tried to "trace" it with crappy results. I ended up just starting from scratch with a new drawing.

 

Sorry I can't be more helpfull. Maybe somebody here with the Raster-Vector option can hook you up.

 

Try asking for a FREE 5 axis , tweak free post. There will be more people here than you can count to ask for help then.

(just kidding)

[Reverend Turk]

Thanks anyway for the taking the time to help me out.

[Slepydremr]

Here, check this thread

 

after you scan it you can convert it into a dxf with wintopo then import it into mastercam.

[mcpgmr]

Here's something I did a long time ago and wouldn't recommend it but thought I would share. It was a challenge to say the least.

 

I was engraving a memorial picture frame I made from brass for a family member that died. I found images in a kid’s magazine called Highlights that I wanted to engrave. I had my wife trace these images individually onto plastic wrap with a charcoal pencil then put another pc of plastic wrap over the tracing to keep it from smudging. Then I just stuck the plastic wrapped image to the glass on my monitor and with the mouse I traced the image by creating lines, arcs and splines. The software I had available to me at the time was EZ-CAM 6.0 and Auto Cad 12. For the inscription text I used Auto Cad and exported out as dxf since EZ-CAM didn't have the capability of creating text. Once I had everything in digital form I applied the proper scale factor then merged everything together in to one file and tool pathed it. I think it took be a good 40 hrs not including the wife’s time tracing the images for me. With today’s software it would be more like 2 or 3 hours if not less. I made 12 of these picture frames for my family members. My Brother who owns a machine shop donated the material and machine time and I ran them at night after work on my time. Very rewarding project when it was all said and done.

[Reverend Turk]

Thanks to everyone for the help on this. I am going to work on this tonight at home and I will let everyone know how it turns out.

[Greg VN]

Coral has a trace feature that I used one time on a project and imported that into Mastercam and was able to go over the tracing to creat a toolpath. It was a lot of work and the quality was not very good. I frequently have used scanned images of moldings and have found that its usually easier to create the part in Mastercam from scratch just measuring and printing out the part and tweaking it untill it is a pefect match.

Good Luck

[Reverend Turk]

Thanks Greg but the problem is I don't have an acurate way to measure this part..as I said before..no CMM or optical comparator.

Did you try to clean up your traced lines once you brought the drawing into Mastercam or did you just use the traced lines and then create a toolpath off of those without trying to (here comes my favorite technical term) "tweak" them by using the spline command?

[Lumpnut]

quote:

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I don't have an acurate way to measure this part

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Just curious what type of part this is ? Could you put it in a vise and use and indicator or edge finder to get at least reference dimmensions ? How accurate do you need to be ?

[Reverend Turk]

That was what my last resort was going to be... The part is the rear axle adjusting plates for a rigid motorcycle frame.

[J Coulston]

I have done this in the past with pretty good results. Take a pependicular picture of the part with a circle of know diameter next to or on top of the part. Open the part in Autocad draw a circle on top of the diameter in the picture then scale the and circle geometry until you reach teh proper size. Line and three point arcs work the best for creating geomety use a layer color with the most contrast and make sure you snap all your end points. Double check your cad to a measured part feature to see how close you are.

[BernieT]

Great idea, John

 

 

Also, check Charles Davis's suggestion in this thread. It works good.

[cadcam]

can you share your scanned images as I can do a raster to vector.

You want this in X or 9?