Lake Contour

[mwpfeifer]

My first attempt at a contour map, sure was a lot of work! Material is American Cherry with a Brazialian Cherry frame. Used a gel stain on the lake and letters after multiple coats of shellac then a couple final coats ove theat. The frame is finished with Danish oil.
2252

[sailfl]

Michael,

I would like to learn more about your process if how you used the contour information to create the model, if you are willing to share.

Thanks

[city_graphics]

Very Nice. Your attention to a quality finish really shows.

[city_graphics]

Can you share how you got the contour file and how it became a DXF or EPS?

[mwpfeifer]

Nils, Rodney;
I used Aspire to create it even though PartWorks 2D would probably work just as well. I downloaded the .tif contour map from (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html) and then imported this file into Aspire and used the trace routine to turn it into vectors. That’s when the fun started as the trace routine apparently works on edges and each line in the tif file resulted in double lines when I ran trace. I then manually removed the lines I didn’t want and cleaned up the remaining vector lines using the node edit feature of Aspire. There is probably a better way to accomplish this procedure but, I haven’t stumbled on it yet. I did research the Vectric and ShopBot forums on this topic but the explainations and links I found there were extremely confusing. I know there are other folks out there doing this. Maybe they could provide a more detailed explaination of how they acquire vector files of the lake contours which makes the process much more straight forward. The method I described is labor intensive but does work.
Mike

[khaos]

I like it. It just looks natural. If the sign was cut on a solid piece vice butcher block I am sure I would think the lake bed was just a naturally occurring imperfection in the grain.

Great job!

[wardsa]

They are alot of work, but fun and challenging. When the cabinet business got slow I started doing these for Art Fair/ Trade Shows. People love them but you have to make more then one of the same lake to make any money. I figure I break even on the first one. You have the right idea of how to do them. I've researched many different options and that was the best way. It can take up to a couple hours to convert one to vectors. My first took alot longer then that. Here is a link to my site.

http://www.tsccabinets.com/carving.htm

Terry

[mikeacg]

Terry,

They look great and what a good way to stay busy and make a few dollars during the slow times.
I come right past you on 23 North when I visit my parents in Newberry. I'd love to see your shop sometime if you wouldn't mind showing off a bit. Your cabinet work is impressive!

Mike

[wardsa]

Mike,
Wow, Newberry. That's along way up. We love the UP, spend as much time as we can up there. Sure, stop by. Not much to show off, but always good to talk SB. I'm about 10 miles off of 23. Not too far out of the way.
Terry

[jseiler]

There are free programs that will do single line drawings instead of what vectric's does.

One is rasvector.

http://dan59314.myweb.hinet.net/IndexEn.htm

Here's a thread where single line conversion was discussed.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/312/24086.html?1191385315

John

[mwpfeifer]

Terry,
Great website! You're right the first one took the longest after that it gets easier but it's still tedious, good way to spend a quiet winter day.
Mike

[joe]

Mike,

I really like your concept and the techniques you used. What is the most tedious part of the job?

Joe
www.normansignco.com (http://www.normansignco.com)

[mwpfeifer]

Joe,
The tedious part is cleaning up the vector lines after using the Trace routine in PartWorks or Aspire. Because the process converts a bitmap to a vector it appears to create a separate vector line for each edge of a line. As I remember my CAD courses from college, a vector line is one pixel wide between the x and y locations that define the endpoints where as a raster line is made up of multiple pixels determined by the resolution of the image and is generally many more that one pixel in width. If I have this wrong I hope one of our fourm members with a better memory than mine will provide a clearer explaination