Hello, here's a noob question for you gurus. When I save a file that I've just "traced" or created from scratch into a .dxf file, the image gets distorted when I re-open it on Inkscape. I saw a post back in May 2012 but some of the lingo is over my head. -->http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12063&p=44618&hilit=dxf+distorted#p44618

I'm basically trying to create an image that my cameo can cut cleanly on vinyl. But when I preview the dxf file, it's just....messed up.

I can post a couple of examples if anyone is interested.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hello:
That old post seems that be solved. But are you sure your problem is the same?. I mean:
- Do you traced, with the "Trace Bitmap" tool an image and then exported the svg file into dxf?
- What process followed to expot the svg to dxf?
- It's there an error message in the dxf file?
Can you provide an example?

Here is an example of an image I'm trying to cut:

And this is a screenshot of what I'm getting when I save it as a dxf file.


My process:
I take a bmp or a jpg image and use Trace Bitmap. I then use "brightness cutoff" to remove the pixels. Then save it as a dxf file. When I open this dxf file, it looks distorted. Another test that I did was to create a circle from inkscape and use the same process as above. Then when I open the dxf file, the circle has 2 little "bumps" from each end. I also noticed that it seems to break up my image into several images because when I click on it, several boxes appear. Hope this makes sense.

Not sure If I messed up any of the settings while I was playing around with the program. I'm almost ready to re-install and start from scratch.

Well, Trace Bitmap is not intended to accurately reproduce images. It does the best it can, but most of the time, the resulting image either needs to be tweaked, or it can't be used at all. I can't, but maybe someone else can help you find the best settings for the best result possible?

If it were possible to somehow remove the shadowy areas from the original, you might get a better trace. I'm not sure how to do that, but others who are familiar with raster graphics might be able to make suggestions.

Reinstalling and starting from scratch would be a waste of time, imo

Hi

This is a relatively simple image that's easy to "hand-trace"
Tracing this will give you some "hands-on" experience working with nodes.
( I compare this to woodworking - no matter how many "power-tools" you got in your tool collection
- if you can't use the "basic" hand-tools you will never be a good wood-worker - but you might be an excellent "tool-collector"! )

Here are the steps I took to create the SVG below:

Import the image to Inkscape.
Create a layer called Background.
Move image to the background layer.
Draw two circles that matches the image.
Convert the circles to paths.
Insert nodes at the corner of each "swirl spokes".
When done - select all nodes on the inner circle and break path at selected nodes.
Perform path - break apart.
Delete all line segments that covers a "spoke".
Draw straight lines from remaining segments to end of spokes. (Near center of circle.)
Drag the curves to match the background image. (Some places you have to insert a node or two to get the path to match.)
Join the drawn curves with the circle segments as you go along.
When you have worked your way all around the inner circle and spokes will be one path ( Minus the two S shaped curves which has to be done separately.)
Make sure the path is a closed path - if it's open at any point the next steps will fail.
Select the outer circle path and the "spokes" path.
Do a path difference.
Set fill to black.
Draw the remaining two paths and fill with black as well.

When finished you will (hopefully ) end up with something like this;


( Right click image to download & open in Inkscape. )
The image might need some "node-tweaking" to be "perfect" - was done in a "hurry"!

Good Luck
RGDS
Ragnar

brynn and Ragnar, thank you for the replies. I did notice that Trace Bitmap was not perfect and I had to tweak the image a little bit more after doing so. Ragnar, wow, I'm totally amazed at your "hurried scratch" work, lol!

Here's a bit more info that I should've put down on my first post. I use Silhouette Studio to send images to cut with my Cameo. Unfortunately, the program does not recognize SVG files unless you purchase the Designer Edition of S. Studio. I saw a Youtube video of a way to go around this, which is to save your images (BMP, SVG, PNG etc...) to DXF and let Silhouette Studio cut it. I read somewhere that Inkscape can cut to my Cameo but could not get it to work.

So, I was not sure why all my DXF files were distorted, even with what looked like a perfect image that I Trace Bitmapped. So I created a simple circle with (no trace bitmap) and the saved it as a DXF(Use ROBO-master type of Spline output). When I opened it, it had 2 little "bumps" from each end. Is this normal?

Sorry about the long reply. I used to hand-cut my vinyl and am excited about my Cameo. I just want to cut something I've tweaked to get my feet wet but am not having much luck with it.

Hi.

Sorry for not "understanding" what you wanted. (It was fun to trace the figure anyway - it will look good using Eggbot http://egg-bot.com/)

It is possible to output directly to your Cameo cutter from inkscape. No need to use Silhouette Studio unless you want to.

Have a look at this post; http://enchantart.com/blog/?p=827

Good Luck.
RGDS
Ragnar

That was completely my fault for not posting completely. Thanks for link! I will still go through your steps once I am able to use my Cameo correctly. I definitely want to learn more about inkscape after seeing what you did and all the cool images I've seen on this site so far. I truly appreciate the time you've taken to help me.

I hope to be able to contribute one day here once I get familiar with the program.

Thanks again!

Might be offtopic but that torus looked interesting to me, so remodelled a similar one in blender.
Click on the images for much larger views!



A more wide angle-look:

You guys are amazing! I really wish I could take advantage of all your talents right now. I hope I can get my Inkscape program to cut to my Cameo. Lazur, when you mentioned a "blender", is that a feature in Inkscape to create this image?

Hi Lazur URH.

Great scene - I liked the image as well, what about uploding the blend file? Please
Thanks in advance.

bassman20;
blender is a; 3d modeler - renderer - animation system plus a lot of other things, have a look at http://www.bleder.org.
It's all free - like Inkscape, download and start playing, be warned though - the learning curve is very steep in the beginning but there are lots of tutorials etc "out there".
When I installed Blender the firs time I started the program and "gave up" in ten minutes,
but later I read some tutorials - watched a few videos etc. and can now "move around" in Blender and even create "things".

RGDS
Ragnar

That's a free 3D modelling/animation program.
http://www.blender.org/
It was modelled as a 3D object manually, then rendered to those png-s.
Not the best workaround, as with povray it could be done much easier but I didn't learn that program yet.
Blender can't render the 3D to 2D vectors as far as I know to be imported the result in inkscape, but it can create .obj files that inkscape can render in orthographic projection with the 3D polyeder extension.


Can upload the blend file, it's 9MB, and have 102400 faces... Is your machine ready for the heavy load?

Here is the link for the model:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/cy632ksr1lxhbxl/torr1.blend
Good luck!

Edit: Could possibly write down how it was made, but some 3D experts could do it much easier.
And wouldn't go with that much face count.

Edit2:

Hi Lazur URH.


RGDS
Ragnar

brynn wrote:

Off topic:

ragstian wrote:[offtopic]
Hi Lazur URH.
I have learned to be "careful" with humor on this forum but this time I just can't resist:
........

Plain and simple humor is FINE! The problems happen when humor is used aggressively. [/offtopic]