Found something REALLY cool!!

[Michael Reynolds]

Hi All! I've been playing around designing a candy box that has a 3 jaw chuck embedded in the bottom of the box. So, I started to create the lid, and wanted to have a raised micrometer, vernier, or something on it. I was lamenting over how to get a bitmap into mcam (WITHOUT using the "raster to vector" c hook, and came up with a really good way. Here it is:

Find an image that you want to engrave (or whatever), copy it (right click, ya know), and paste it into MS powerpoint. Then SAVE AS a "windows metafile". Then it can be opened up in acad, saved as a dxf. Then you know the rest, "file, converters, dxf".

My world has been forever changed.....

(is this a "Tech Tip"?

Thanks fer listnen'

Mike R.

[Zero]

over here at the model shop we happen to still have adobe streamline(photoshop 4.0)in the computer which will convert files to ,dxf.It's great for scanning in part drawings and then converting them to .dxf so you can open them in mastercam.The only negative is that .dxf files make all geometry lines so the drawings come out a little rough looking and I like to "trace" over the lines with 3 point arcs to smooth every thing out.This is a little bit time consuming but it works pretty well and takes much less time then it would take to start from scratch(espescialy with the part drawings I get sometimes).As far as .bmp files go I would have to open them in photoshop 5(which we also convieniantly happen to have in the computer)save them as .psd file then open them in streamline.

[Allan Brown]

Not a "tech tip" in my books. Purchasing MS PowerPoint and AutoCAD as a third party products to bring bitmaps into Mastercam would be a bit of a stretch.

[Trevor Bailey]

Micheal,

Have you tried the "engrave" c-hook. It works great. There are alot of options that come with it. Give it a shot.

[Michael Reynolds]

Thanks Trevor! But I was trying to accomplish this without having to purchase additional software. Actually, I was just playing....

Thanks for the replies!

Mike R.

[ak762]

Zero,

How did you save as *.dxf in photoshop5.0

I try save as copy or export but can't find dxf option

[Zero]

That's the catch.You need adobe streamline (I think it's photoshop version 4) to convert it to a .dxf.I wouldn't even have it in the computer if it didn't have that option(really is nice to have) because Photoshop 5 blows it out of the water.