Pictures

[scott@designmoulding.com]

Hi, my husband and I have a shopbot and we
use vector software. I have scanned the image
into vector it is a black and white picture. I need to know how to edit the picture to make the lines that go around the picture and create a shopbot part file for shopbot to cut. Can anyone help me? I want to transfer this picture into wood. Thanks in advance for your support, I am new at this and need advice.

[Ted Hall, ShopBot]

Hi Judy,

We got your message at our support address as well and delayed responding until we could try and scan something into VectorCAD/CAM in the manner you describe. If you could send the Vector file as an attachment, it would help us take a quick look and get back to you ...

However, my guess is that the image you have inserted into your Vector drawing is a bitmap rather than vector graphics. Vector will display the bitmap but it does not generate a path ... if your scanning software has turned this into a 'vector' file (e.g. raster to vector conversion) then you should be able to do something with it ... and my guess is wrong.

If the picture you have is a gray scale picture where what you want is to cut depth according to darkness, then you may want to try saving the file in TIF format from your scanner (anther bitmap format) and then use the ShopBot TIF converter to create a 3d cutting file.

If the picture is black and white and you are just wanting an line type conversion at a single depth, then you need to use a raster to vector converter ... e.g. TurboCAD has one built in, and so does CorelDraw.

[birdsofplay]

Corel Draw Graphics Utilities has a fairly good
Raster to Vector converter.

WinTopo is another but not sure how I discovered it.

Mostly I leave the picture in the CAD background
and then "interpret" the picture with lines and arcs all placed OVER the picture in a color and weight to be easily distinguished frorm the pic itself. you can chang ethe colors and weights if you want anytime later.

Now this is work but it'll be better than just straight raster to vector IMHO.

[dan@burningimpressions.ca]

I am making my first venture into creating my own
web pages, and find it hard to get good quality
images from certain pieces I want to use.
The question is, Digital cameras are they any good
for taking good close ups of smaller objects such
as boxes, glasses, and things of that nature?
and which, 1-megpix. 2-megapix or 3-megapix.
any experience out there?
Danhamm.

[ssanda@pctrader.com]

My experience has been that good lighting and good backgrounds to make the subject stand out yield the best results. Web photos are pretty low resolution so a 1 megapixel camera or less would be fine. Just get one that has the close focusing capability you need and a convenient computer connection. My Kodak is great. My website has some good and not so good examples at www.engrave.pctrader.com

[Gerald D]

Agree with ALL of Rick's comments. Even less than 1 megapixel is okay.

[billp]

You'll also find out for web pages you are going to have to reduce the size of the images anyway, or they'll take forever to load. File sizes under 50 k usually load fine, but above that you have to hope visitors to your site REALLY want to see what you are offering. Image editors like Adobe photoshop have sub programs ( i.e. "Image Ready") which easily let you do that by offering you up to 4 different views of the same picture at different file sizes and resolutions. Then you have to balance the quality of the image versus loading time...I would agree with everyone that closeup capability is probably as important as having the ability to squueze lots of pixels onto an image, because even though my Toshiba M-4 can DO large prints, I rarely shoot at it's optimum settings. File sizes are huge, and I am not trying to do archival prints. Convenience, and editing programs are the answer for web stuff..

[visionm@swbell.net]

Hi, I am looking to possible purchase a Shopbot but not sure if it can do what I need it to do. I am currently having my products that are in wood done with a laser. I am having the lasering done by someone else, so you can see why I am looking to find a machine to purchase for myself. Can the shopbot do 1/2 " letters and images? Would it help if I sent someone a sample of what we do and than you can tell me if the Shopbot can do the engraving? Can someone help me? Thanks James Burnell

[rgengrave@aol.com]

Hi James, send me what you got and I will take a peek.

I might have something already cut to show you what it will look like

you can send it to

rgengrave@aol.com (mailto:rgengrave@aol.com)

Ron