Scanning

[Carl Vallance]

I need to make a 3D profile from a scanned grayscale image. Is there anyway to do this with Mastercam ( Chook or add on program)? If theirs not a way with Mastercam does anyone know of a program that can do this? I have Mastercam v8.

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Val

[d0gFartz]

You can get the raster to vector c hook and bring it in but then ya gotta play havoc manipulating it to 3d as an mc8,depending on how extensive the 3d modeling needs to be,i always just scan em in and manipulate em with a prog called Tru Space,its incredible for 3d work that starts out as a scanned image,and is more geared for that stlye work than mcam,then i spit it out as a dxf and bring it in to toolpath

[Kenneth Potter]

Huuuuuum ,heard of Tru Space .Can you post a Web url I like to check it out.

Thanks

Kenny

[This message has been edited by Kenneth Potter (edited 11-03-2000).]

[KMaynard]

There is a freeware program called Wintopo that can convert to vector. You can find it at www.download.com the only thing is it will only convert from bmp ..if you want to do gif's jpg you need to buy the full ver. you can alway's get freeware to convert from gif to bmp. I was asked by the company recently to engrave a gif and it worked great.

[Carl Vallance]

I guess I wasn't real clear as to what I need.Raster to Vector conversion is great but I need someway to take a grayscale image and automatically assign a Z depth to it, based on the shade of gray,so that I end up with a 3 dimensional profile that looks like the picture with a total Z depth of about 1/8 inch. As an example pure black would be at 0.0 depth and pure white at -.125 depth with all depths in between to change as the shade of gray changes. It has to output as surfaces or as a solid so that I can generate a tool path with an engraving tool. I've seen this done but I don't know how they did it.

DogFartz does Tru Space do this. If so where can I find out about it.

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Val

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

That's a pretty tall order. I think Tru-Space is most likely your best bet. If that doesn't do it, I can't really think of another product that would do this.

James Meyette

[Kenneth Potter]

OOOOhhhh snap now i remember. There's an artcam ingrave program "10,000$ to 15,0000$" that can do grayscale X,Y,Z vex,s, And another that off the top of my head Realcam i think , thats even btter. I have greyscales in my Alias Wavefront program but it runs on Unix's only. I look around some for more info & send you the url

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

OUCH!

$10-15k!

I would think that it would just be cheaper to draw the thing. Just my $.02

James Meyette

[Kenneth Potter]

Those Programs can do fantastic stuff. I'v seen them in action. Take a quarter greyscale it & machine it out like the real thing. The good ones are not cheap. Great surface Pulling tools.

[Ernie Husted]

Try Rhino it has this tool!

cost: $799

Heightfield

Create a surface by color values of a bitmap.

And it works with other common formats other then bitmap.

 

[Kenneth Potter]

Rhino's Heightfield is good in my opinon but once again the tools for that are weak " poor result's.very poor surface pulling tools for gray scaling but a great nurbs modeler.

[This message has been edited by Kenneth Potter (edited 11-05-2000).]

[Carl Vallance]

Great help so far.

I've found an evaluation copy of Rhino, havn't had a chance to realy look at it yet. I found Artcam, Talked to a dealer and they are sending more info. It looks realy good, but I was quoted $7500. A little to much to pass on to my customer. Can anyone help me find Tru Space or Realcam. Can't seem to find a web site for these.

Anyone else know of a program?

[Karl Oram]

Take a look at Cimmagraphy - (Think thats th name)

It does exactly what you want used alot by Diplicating / Engraving Shops and Rubber Stamping mfg's.

 

Good Luck

 

[plastech]

I am having scanning problems. I can export my file from the scanner to a BMP or a TIF but I cannot import them into V8. Any ideas? If you can convert to BMP can't you import in too?

Thanks in advance

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[cadcam]

sorry but you can not inport a BMP file into mastercam. only export for pictorl.

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jay/ aka cadcam

Precision Programming

cnc programming &

Predator reseller

email: [email protected]

web: www.ppcad.net

[Carl Vallance]

Thanks a lot for all the help. You've given me some good choices. Also some good ideas for topics to use for internet searchs. I have now found over a dozen programs that can do the job. I thank I can find a ggod one within the price range that my customer is willing to fork over for this project. Thanks again for all the help.

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Val

[Kenneth Potter]

If your coustomer is paying for the program do you get ot keep it ? lol

 

Kenny

[Carl Vallance]

Yes I get to keep it. The cost will be spread out over 4 jobs so it doesn't look so high to my customer. He just wants his molds made. He really dosn't care how I do them, or what I have to buy to get them done. It works out real nice for me.

[Kenneth Potter]

Huuuummmm one day I will try that on my customer.Thats really a great deal.Let us know what decide on as a solution.

[Kenneth Potter]

I found a great solution software package for what your looking for & today i purchase it . Its called ( Type III ) This has

a vast array if grey scaling tool sets that give results that are fantastic.

WWW.TYPE3.COM

[This message has been edited by Kenneth Potter (edited 11-08-2000).]