Making a picture part of a sketch

[jamie_1930]

I'm wondering is there a way in which you can import a picture into inventor and then take that picture and make it part of the sketch, so you can cut it out of piece. My end goals is to be able to cut out our teams cougar logo onto a piece of sheet metal, I've seen this on some robots this year like 48, had on their wheel brackets, and 1902 had on their chassis.

[RMS11]

I found one way is to import a picture, scale it to proper size, then trace it with the spline feature. If there is a better way to do this, I would love to know.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by RMS11

I found one way is to import a picture, scale it to proper size, then trace it with the spline feature. If there is a better way to do this, I would love to know.

This is the method I've used in inventor and solidworks.

[roystur44]

Jaime,

Take a look at a program called Inkscape.


Roy

[A_Reed]

Originally Posted by RMS11

I found one way is to import a picture, scale it to proper size, then trace it with the spline feature. If there is a better way to do this, I would love to know.

That is the exact method I used to make the 48 cut outs in our wheel plates this year. The spline feature isn't that hard to use and lock down to get your desired graphics. It also helps to have access to a water-jet as you can draw the exact image without having to worry about machine standards and standard shapes.

[RMS11]

Originally Posted by A_Reed

That is the exact method I used to make the 48 cut outs in our wheel plates this year. The spline feature isn't that hard to use and lock down to get your desired graphics. It also helps to have access to a water-jet as you can draw the exact image without having to worry about machine standards and standard shapes.

Did you make this image first in photoshop or something similar?

[A_Reed]

Nope, I just did a Google image search for Jimmie Johnson's 48 logo and used one of the results. You can scale and rotate your image inside the sketch to get it sized to fit where you need it.

Example

[jamie_1930]

Wanted to give everyone a little update on how this worked and thank you for the help. First off this is the design I wanted to cut into a piece of sheet metal.



So I was really hoping there would be an easier way to do this than tracing the picture with spline, but I finally sat down and did it, and I got to say it wasn't as grueling as I thought it would be and I think it turned out great.



This is actually the assembly where I have two sheets the black one has the design cut out, and the yellow is just a back plate. I got that idea from 1902 so again thank you guys for the inspiration.

[vivek16]

if you're gluing the sheets together, how are you going to keep the random "floater" pieces attached to the rest of the cutout?

[jamie_1930]

Originally Posted by vivek16

if you're gluing the sheets together, how are you going to keep the random "floater" pieces attached to the rest of the cutout?

Sorry about that I wanted to show you guy's this picture



which does have supports added in.

P.S. I don't plan on ever gluing 1/8" sheet metal together ;D