Recover geometry from Preview?

[P_Scott]

Does anyone know if the preview image of an .mc8 can be saved as a bitmap? The issue is if a file's geometry was accidentally overwritten when performing a "Save Some". Could the preview image be saved as a .bmp and then brought into Mcam using the Raster2Vector C-hook? I've tried to locate the image file but it seems to be imbedded within the .mc8 somehow. How does Mcam save the image with the file to begin with? If anyone knows some basic info about this, it would be much appreciated. Not that I NEED to know. Just curious.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

The BMP is stored within the *.mc8 and *.mc9 file. There's no way I know of to extract it. Try a little experement. Get one of the sample files with some surfaces, shade it and save it under a different file name. Now save the file again under a different file name but uncheck the "Save Bitmap Image" checkbox. Then compare the file sizes. They'll be different.

[P_Scott]

Thanks James,

I think the problem is just not overwriting the file to begin with. The image in the Preview doesn't seem to be a bitmap at all. There's no way to retrieve it and convert it to a design file. I even tried to open it in Cimco Edit to try and find out if there was a bitmap included in the .MC8. The funny thing was, it showed me the geometry in an upside down, backwards, text format sort of way when I did that. Sorry it's taken so long to reply to this one.