Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Davek0974 on March 04, 2016, 07:37:00 AM
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Looking for the best way to get a picture into code for engraving?
I have no idea but is that what LazyCam does?
I did try it last night but not very intuitive I think?
:)
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What kind of machine?
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It really depends on what you want to do.
Do you want to convert the picture to vectors (lines) and engrave along the vectors?
You'd need a raster to vector converter to do this.
Or, do you want to use the picture to create a 3D like relief?
MeshCAM and others can do this. Results woth this method are usually not very good, but the contents of the picture can make a big diffrence.
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LazyCam is probably not the best tool to use (but it is possible to create the Gcode for an image with this).
As said, it depends on the type of image you require to engrave and how you wish to engrave it (rotary, impact, laser, etc.).
Just sticking with Arsoft products...
Excellent 3D (2.5D) reliefs and lithophanes can be produced with Mach1Filter.exe ( a long forgotten tool - even Art forgot he wrote it :) )
Excellent Line Art, Shades of Grey and impact engraving can be produced with the Impact engraving / Laser plugin (my favorite).
A forum search should provide more details and reproduced images etc. from both of the above processes ( and, of course, they are both free ;) ).
Tweakie.
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I am thinking of doing something similar, basically have a picture, convert to Gcode and make a 3D relief using router/mill and small ball nose end mill.
I did read that having the subject in black and white gives better results? But what to use, I did have a mess around with CamBam, but couldn't fathom how to get it right.
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I am thinking of doing something similar, basically have a picture, convert to Gcode and make a 3D relief using router/mill and small ball nose end mill.
I did read that having the subject in black and white gives better results? But what to use, I did have a mess around with CamBam, but couldn't fathom how to get it right.
If it's any help http://openbuilds.com/threads/producing-3d-reliefs-for-free.380/
Tweakie.
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As always Tweakie, you come up trumps, that looks exactly what I am after, thank you very much.
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Good fortune my friend :)
Tweakie.
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As always Tweakie, you come up trumps, that looks exactly what I am after, thank you very much.
You're not going to get those results by starting with a picture. Relief images like that are often created from 3D models.
Pictured don't contain any height information, so they'll never quite look like you'd expect them to.
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I am not totally sure exactly what i want to do yet ;)
i presumed i could take a picture, convert to B/W and somehow convert to code for engraving with a v tool or ball-end mill??
I guess the depth would be related to the scale from white (little depth) to black (max depth) but as i said, no idea really yet.
Just educatin' meself ;)
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I am thinking of doing something similar, basically have a picture, convert to Gcode and make a 3D relief using router/mill and small ball nose end mill.
I did read that having the subject in black and white gives better results? But what to use, I did have a mess around with CamBam, but couldn't fathom how to get it right.
If it's any help http://openbuilds.com/threads/producing-3d-reliefs-for-free.380/
Tweakie.
I downloaded Mach1Filter but when i try it i just get "No File loaded, error in file" tried a few different jpeg files, all the same????
Sorted - I use a Mac laptop with Windows as a virtual machine and the jpegs were saved in Mac format, a quick conversion fixed it.
:)
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Bitmap to Heightmap in CamBam may be an option?
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You can use BMP2CNC free.. It shows your Gcode at the end. You cant copy or paste but just download WinScraper or get window text and you can jack it from the window lol
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that looks useful, say its limited to 150 lines though, cheap to buy though if it works.
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Just tried the BMP2CNC and it does look pretty good, fast,easy and spits out readable code.
Might be worth putting on the purchase list, thanks
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I have photo V carve and it works well, just don't use it much as my spindle is slow.
I will see if I can find some pics of ones I have done and post them.
Hood
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Can only find two here and the pics are not great but have attached them anyway.
Hood
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Nice work Hood.
Another couple of free software’s you guy's may find worth trying are…
Dxf2gcode (the post processor for this is easy to modify, if necessary)
https://code.google.com/hosting/moved?project=dxf2gcode
DotG (my good friend Zoltan & I translated the manuals for this into English)
http://dotg.weebly.com/download.html
Tweakie.
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Tweakie, I found PhotoVCarve very easy to use but as said my spindle is slow so it takes a while to do a decent sized image and I have not done any for a long time.
Here is another I did of the wifes old car.
Hood
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Again, nice work Hood (nice car as well).
PhotoVCarve is one of the softwares that I have never actually tried. Perhaps one day :)
If it's of any interest, this was produced with DotG.
Tweakie.
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Yes, she loved that car and still misses it. It was crap in the snow however so she wanted a 4 wheel drive. We got a Subaru Outback, 3 Litre, goes like hell and handles surprisingly well, almost as good as my car which is basically the same but a Legacy Spec B which is lower, anyway I digress.
Nice pic, sure I saw it before on one of your posts.
How easy do you find that kind of software to work? I tried a couple of the free ones years ago and found it took a lot of messing to get things right and the only real way was to do a part to see. With parts taking upwards of 2 or 3 hours it could be a waste of time.
Maybe the free ones have advanced since then or likely once you have done a few you get your eye in for the adjustments so that they come out right first time.
Hood
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Yes indeed sir, that pic. has been posted before ( perhaps in the impact engraving thread ).
I agree. In general, you get what you pay for with software and there are varying degrees of difficulty (especially with the free stuff) but there will always be new ideas or new processes which just have to be tried (I think I have produced a lot of scrap over the years but I hope that I will never loose enthusiasm). Once you have practiced with any software I am sure you can more of less guarantee that it comes out right first time but first time you use it well, who knows...
DotG, for example, is extremely slow but at the time it produced something which I don’t believe had ever been done before and perhaps it’s the same with Jason Dorie’s Halftoner and Reactor http://jasondorie.com/page_cnc.html - they all have their own merits and disadvantages.
It’s all a wonderful world of learning and experience out there and who knows what is just around the corner waiting to pounce.
Tweakie.