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John Gale edited this page Oct 6, 2019 · 15 revisions

Welcome to the ToolPath wiki!

We have art projects! We want to use images, fancy fonts, and found art to make:

  • plywood cutouts on the 4'x4' CNC router
  • sheet metal cutouts on the 4'x4' plasma torch
  • stencils and lithophanes on a 3D printer
  • vector graphics for stencils and decals

So... first we need to convert bitmap images into vector format files.

Wikipedia - Image Tracing describes what that means.

There are many ways to do this:

  • The free (and very powerful) vector image program Inkscape has a tool called 'Potrace'

  • Adobe Illustrator

  • Free web-based 'vectorization' converters

Anna has provided 2 bitmap images that we can use to figure out workflows for making the 'toolpath' files that the plywood router and plasma torch machines use, to cut out or print the objects.

First, let's try one of the free web-based vectorization tools: Autotracer.org

That works, but because the original bitmap images have shades of grey, the vector images are more complex than we really want for silhouettes.

We could do some pre-processing of the bitmap images, to convert them so that each pixel is either pure black or pure white. Or, especially since we want to learn to use Inkscape anyway, we can try it in Inkscape.

Following the tutorial at:

how-to-trace-bitmaps-in-inkscape

we can adjust settings in the Path > Trace Bitmap tool to get a good-looking cutout. I used Mode > Single scan > Brightness cutoff Threshold=0.500, Colors=2 to get this:

https://github.com/galejohn/ToolPath/blob/master/IMG_7136inkscape.svg https://github.com/galejohn/ToolPath/blob/master/IMG_7137inkscape.svg

and then, to get just the outline, Object > Fill and Stroke with Fill off (click the X) and Stroke paint set to Flat color https://github.com/galejohn/ToolPath/blob/master/IMG_7136inkscapeoutline.svg https://github.com/galejohn/ToolPath/blob/master/IMG_7137inkscapeoutline.svg

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