importing a bitmap picture

[david]

I am needing to do an engraving job and the drawing I have to work with is in bitmap format. Is there anything in Mastercam that I can convert the drawing into something I can make toolpaths from?

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you

[Mark H]

You can try the Raster to Vector chook. It is an add-on and cost US$275.00. I've used it and am happy with the results. Here is the link to it.

http://www.emastercam.com/tools/chooks/rast2vec/index.html

[beav700]

Just get your self one of those cheap CAD programs that come with rester to vector. I use TurboCad v5 and works great on BMP images. It takes five clicks to convert BMP file to DRW file which you can open in MasterCam. You can get it for under $30 on ebay.Beats spending $275 for plug in. Don't get me wrong, Turbocad 5/6 is powerfull cad program and blows AutoCad 2000 any day. It just costs alot less. I use it all the time to do all the 2D profiles and import them to MasterCam.

[Charles Davis]

For more artistic work, I've done the following:

1. Create a large surface (100 x 100)

2. Go to screen, surface display, studio

3. Under Settings, special effects, textures, load your .bmp file as a texture, and select your 100 x 100 surface

4. your bmp will be displayed on the screen.

5. Here's the tricky part, you have to access drawing tools without exiting the Studio shading. Do that by clicking on the Spline icon (usually) and just trace over your bitmap! Remember when you used tracing paper as a kid? Same concept.

It sounds kludgy, but this is very efficient for artistic work (in fact, it yields better results for this type of work than any other thing I've tried).

It requires no cleanup (which you'll have to do if you import at .bmp file), and it's free!

[This message has been edited by Charles Davis (edited 03-09-2001).]

[Carl Vallance]

There are a lot of good programs that will convert raster images to vector images.

Adobe Streamliner

Trac Tric 2000

R2V

Corel Draw

Scan 2 Cad

Wintopo Pro

Just to name a few. All of these programs can import the vector image to Mastercam.As to what is the best it depends on what you want. If you want really good detail you will have to clean up the final results no mater which program you use. In my opinion the Raster to vector c-hook is the best. I think all of these programs have a demo version. Try them all and see what you like the best. Good Luck!

------------------

Val

[Kenneth Potter]

Try out Mastercams bolt on Chook first. Its Free to use for 30 days.IMHO dont let the 275.00 scare you.Theres are a lot of raster conversion issues that you may not be aware of when it come to performance & quality. Some programs are real Junk "IMHO" when it comes to getting clean smooth flowing geometry & detailing.

Kenneth Potter

 

 

[david]

Thank you, everbody, for your responses. I used Charles method to get the job done. Very tricky, but effective, Charles. How in the world did you come upon that one? Now I have a version of Corel Draw and I am getting ready to try to figure out how to use it.

Best regards,

David

[Frank]

Use Corel Trace.....and change your bitmat to vectors. Then use your Dxf converter to bring the image into Mastercam. Some files come in real clean and others need a lot of work.

Good Luck,

Frank

[Charles Davis]

How did I come up with that one? Necessity is the Mother of Invention!

[Matt Niadna]

You could also use the bitmap image as wallpaper in Mastercam and trace over it.

[Charles Davis]

Matt,

How do you mean setting as wallpaper in Mastercam? What keystrokes are you using?

 

 

[Mark H]

Didn't Mastercam drop the wallpaper option in Version 7?

[Matt Niadna]

Here the thread. I asked how to do this a couple of months ago.

http://www.emastercam.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000444.html