Need advice on Raster to Vector Software... (Image to 2D CAD)

mmurray70 · Jan 27, 2021

Anybody have any suggestions on what software I might be able to use to get approximate cad files from images? Preferably free since this is not something I do every day.

I remember using something about 15 years ago but cant remember the name of it. Had to do a fair bit of clean up but it was still helpful. Any suggestions?

gregormarwick · Jan 27, 2021

Inkscape

Inkscape tutorial: Tracing bitmaps | Inkscape

EmGo · Jan 27, 2021

Corel Trace. Might be hard to find now tho.

If you like to build stuff, I've had okay results with ras2vec.

Ah. Just checked - the new CorelDraw still has trace functions.

(I've never been able to get Inkscape to run longer than ten minutes without crashing .... always right after I just finished something but before I click Save. GCC. Grrrr. GTK3, tears hair out, beats breast, runs screaming from the room, pukes voluminously while praying to the great white goddess)

15 day free trial here

Free Graphic Design Software by Corel - CorelDRAW Free Trials

but there are ... ummm .... other options as well

may as well try the freeby first, just to see if it works for you.

TwoWheeler · Jan 27, 2021

I've used this: Img2CAD converts jpg to dxf,jpg to dwg,bmp to dxf,jpeg to dxf,jpeg to dwg,tiff to dwg,tif to dwg

I think the deal is you get a few free ones and then they want you to pay up.

The "cleaner" the image - black and white works well - the better. Most of the stuff I've done needed a LOT of cleaning up - removing stray lines, fitting arcs to what was broken into vectors, stuff like that.

LKeithR · Jan 27, 2021

It depends what you're using the CAD file for but from my limited experience trying to do this conversion
you're unlikely to get a clean usable file anyway. What you'll get is a file that probably needs heavy editing
before it can be used in any functional way. Unless the item you're copying is very complicated (in which
case the conversion file is likely to be mostly gibberish anyway) I've found that it's just as easy to start with
correct dimensions and draw the part out from scratch. There's just too much difference between raster
and vector files for real "like for like" conversion...

GENERALDISARRAY · Jan 28, 2021

Mastercam has a C-hook for it.

gregormarwick · Jan 28, 2021

EmanuelGoldstein said:
(I've never been able to get Inkscape to run longer than ten minutes without crashing .... always right after I just finished something but before I click Save. GCC. Grrrr. GTK3, tears hair out, beats breast, runs screaming from the room, pukes voluminously while praying to the great white goddess)

Is that so.

I'm super impressed that you were able to suppress your irrational hatred of open source software long enough to try it. Good for you!

Mike1974 · Jan 28, 2021

GENERALDISARRAY said:
Mastercam has a C-hook for it.

Yes, but IME it's not very good*. It might be ok for "artsy fartsy" stuff, but actual geometry for making something functional...? I did however recently use it for a 3d print project. After cleaning up the more straightforward arcs and lines it was passable.

* Full disclosure, I am stuck on X6 so I don't know if it's better than it was. (oh and it's not free either)

mmurray70 · Jan 28, 2021

Thanks for the help guys. Managed to get through this job, will check into these options for next time around.

CORONA VIRUS · Jan 29, 2021

Mike1974 said:
Yes, but IME it's not very good*. It might be ok for "artsy fartsy" stuff, but actual geometry for making something functional...? I did however recently use it for a 3d print project. After cleaning up the more straightforward arcs and lines it was passable.

* Full disclosure, I am stuck on X6 so I don't know if it's better than it was. (oh and it's not free either)

No, it's not better. A typical MC product.

EmGo · Jan 29, 2021

gregormarwick said:
Is that so.

Yes, it is. I even downloaded the latest release for Mac and tried, it either failed to start or crashed or locked up at about the same speed as the version I built for Irix, quite a while back. Or maybe it wouldn't even install, I forget. It was flocked up totally. Corel actually works. ras2vec worked okay too.

I wish Inkscape worked, really. Illustrator 5.5 is not exactly a joy to use.

I'm super impressed that you were able to suppress your irrational hatred of open source software long enough to try it.

It's not irrational. I've built a lot of open sores software. It's usually an exercise in agony. A few programs have knowledgeable, intelligent developers but most are fubar. (Graphics Magick builds out of the box, straight up, no problems ever and if you have a question the head guy answers pretty fast and really knows his stuff. This is the exception.) Built my way most of the way up the gtk2 ladder, if it wasn't fucked up in 11, it would be by 13. Or if they fixed one thing in 9, they'd screw it up again by 12. Want to talk a miserable experience ?

I must have wasted dozens of hours on Fontforge ... it was okay originally but the newer people have messed that up beyond belief too. Imbeciles.

And then there was gtk3 ..... we better not even go there.

Open sores is great. It's just too bad so many of the people doing it are buffoons.

[I've even got the Gimp version .9 or something, the last good one, that I use occasionally - on the shelf is a future project to backport the current version to Motif, should be fun

]

gregormarwick · Jan 29, 2021

EmanuelGoldstein said:
Yes, it is

And yet, somehow, a million other people use it and don't crash.

Inkscape is great, besides tracing it's one of very few pieces of software I've tried that can successfully import a vector PDF and export it as a DXF.

richard newman · Jan 29, 2021

I've never found automatic tracing software that didn't require significant cleanup afterwards for the vector image. I've found it much easier to just do a trace it manually over the raster drawing with the pen tool. This is for line art with lots of complex curves. I used to use Adobe Illustrator, got fed up with their subscription fees, now using Affinity Designer, just one inexpensive purchase, and easily as good for my purposes.

EmGo · Jan 29, 2021

gregormarwick said:
And yet, somehow, a million other people use it and don't crash.

A million people don't use it, it hasn't seen any real activity in years. It works on certain varieties of Loonix, and that's it. Try to build it on Solaris or Irix or HPUX or OS/2 and you can kiss your sweet ass bye-bye.

It builds with a certain version of gcc and no other compiler. It may even insist on cmake (haven't looked in a while.)

This was not the point of open source. The whole foss world has become a giant disappointment.

@richard - is that the one by Serif ? They had a photoshop workalike that was pretty neat a while back ... they've been around a long time, had a program called Page Plus that worked pretty neat for layout.

gregormarwick · Jan 29, 2021

EmanuelGoldstein said:
A million people don't use it, it hasn't seen any real activity in years. It works on certain varieties of Loonix, and that's it. Try to build it on Solaris or Irix or HPUX or OS/2 and you can kiss your sweet ass bye-bye.

It builds with a certain version of gcc and no other compiler. It may even insist on cmake (haven't looked in a while.)

This was not the point of open source. The whole foss world has become a giant disappointment.

@richard - is that the one by Serif ? They had a photoshop workalike that was pretty neat a while back ... they've been around a long time, had a program called Page Plus that worked pretty neat for layout.

You're baiting me again...

Everything you've written here is either wrong, stupid, irrelevant, or a combination of the three.

EmGo · Jan 29, 2021

gregormarwick said:
Everything you've written here is either wrong, stupid, irrelevant, or a combination of the three.

Fire up MIPSPro or Studio 12 and build it.

I dare you

gregormarwick · Jan 29, 2021

EmanuelGoldstein said:
Fire up MIPSPro or Studio 12 and build it.

I dare you

OK, but I'll have to start scouting the local antique shops for the requisite hardware first

richard newman · Jan 29, 2021

EmanuelGoldstein said:
@richard - is that the one by Serif ? They had a photoshop workalike that was pretty neat a while back ... they've been around a long time, had a program called Page Plus that worked pretty neat for layout.

Yes it is. I'm only an occasional cnc user, but for me it works every bit as well as Adobe. I think a lot of users are fed up with the exorbitant cost of Adobe software.

gregormarwick · Jan 29, 2021

richard newman said:
I think a lot of users are fed up with the exorbitant cost of Adobe software.

That and 20 year old versions of photoshop and illustrator can do 99% of what the current versions do...

EmGo · Jan 29, 2021

gregormarwick said:
OK, but I'll have to start scouting the local antique shops for the requisite hardware first

Solaris is still current. Have to pay for it, though. No good for cheapskates

Need advice on Raster to Vector Software... (Image to 2D CAD)

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