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Unread 22-04-2004, 13:37
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Re: Black and white image files into AutoCAD?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik
I'm going the exact opposite of M Krass here. I think your best bet here is to import the artsy stuff into Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator, and then use the various utilities to get it into a vector format. From there, you should be able to export it to a DWG and then import it into Inventor. I'd think this route would be much preferable, as I know CNC machines can handle stuff inventor would put out, but I've no clue how a true CNC would work with a simple BMP file.
I agree that this is probably a preferable route to take. I, unfortunately, haven't ever had the need or opportunity to translate my work from CAD drawing to finished product as someone's always taken care of that step for me. I offered my solution since the original poster seemed content with taking the high contrast drawing and letting the CNC machine and software figure things out on its own. It seems that, at the very least, generating tool paths from a precise CAD drawing is preferable and more reliable.

Depending on how "artsy" the designs in question are, it may be difficult to simply convert them into a vector-based format. It may require at least some work in tracing over the art and creating a new, digital copy. It's certainly not impossible, though it'd require a bit of effort.
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