Convert image to drawing objects

paulpmilton

Hi,

Does anyone know if there is a way of converting an image to drawing drawing objects, whether that be a LSP command that can do it within BricsCAD or a 3rd party option?

I have a regular client that has provided their logo as an image that I currently insert into sheets as required but it would be great if i could make it a DWG format block without having to trace over it. Even just an outline of each colour would be fine as the logo only uses a few colours, I can then hatch the outlines as required.

Cheers,

Paul

Jason Bourhill

I think Sofoco Tools might have the functionality

You can copy and paste the image into a drawing as an OLE, which in turn you save as a block.

Regards,
Jason Bourhill
CAD Concepts

Michael Mayer

Does this online service do what you need ?
https://vectormagic.com/

paulpmilton

Thanks for that, I'll have a look at Sofoco Tools.

I've tried inserting the image directly into BricsCAD but all I get is a white box of different proportions with an image logo in the middle. When selecting this it shows up as an "OLE Frame" in the properties box so it doesn't look like this will work.

Cheers,

Paul

paulpmilton

@Michael Mayer said:
Does this online service do what you need ?
https://vectormagic.com/

It looks like I can get it into a vector format which is most of the way there but not a DWG/DXF format which is what i'm after. A handy tool for making vector PDFs though!

Michael Mayer

Ah, sorry I found this when someone asked for a PDF conversion.

Richard Sands

I've never tried this and it would be a long way round for shortcut.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qubecad.dxfcamera&hl=en

I've looked at these and often wondered what they really are like.

I just tried the SOFOCO tools application but it gave an error message in Ver 16.

Chris Schildmeier

@paulpmilton said:
Hi,

Does anyone know if there is a way of converting an image to drawing drawing objects, whether that be a LSP command that can do it within BricsCAD or a 3rd party option?

I have a regular client that has provided their logo as an image that I currently insert into sheets as required but it would be great if i could make it a DWG format block without having to trace over it. Even just an outline of each colour would be fine as the logo only uses a few colours, I can then hatch the outlines as required.

Cheers,

Paul

If you print/convert the image into a PDF you can then use Dotsofts PDF 2 DWG tool: http://www.dotsoft.com/pdf2dwg.htm

Jason Bourhill

@paulpmilton said:
I've tried inserting the image directly into BricsCAD but all I get is a white box of different proportions with an image logo in the middle. When selecting this it shows up as an "OLE Frame" in the properties box so it doesn't look like this will work.

I think you missed a step. You need to:

1. First, open the image in a graphics application (or viewer) like MS Paint.
2. Select the image (Ctrl +A).
3. Copy the image to the clipboard (Ctrl + C).
4. Switch to BricsCAD, and use PASTE (Ctrl + V) to bring it in.

Once you have the image pasted as an OLE you can adjust the physical size from the property bar.

Regards,
Jason Bourhill
CAD Concepts

Steven_g

Inkscape is a free program that I have used in the past, it's a bit of a learning curve but for simple clearly defined images it is really good at this type of thing, it picks out outlines in even fairly complex images depending on which settings you use and it will export to dxf

Joe Dunfee

I have used Inkscape in the past. But, normally the results are very dense polyline segments, or splines. Inkscape's native tracing utility does not recognized circles or arcs, and draws a large number of segments on them. So, I normally just end up tracing it anyway.

-Joe

Michael Mayer

I tried the image tracer in Vectorworks.
Also not very useful, that's why I didn't mention.
No intelligent 2D objects or curves, just a bunch of separate lines.
And not very obvious where it draws them or not.

Joe Dunfee

I know there are commercial drawing image recognition software programs out there that are able to do a more intelligent task of doing the job. (sorry, no recommendations. I have not used any of those) The reality is that drawing recognition is difficult. Drawings can go through a lot of things that distort them. The original print will have some distortion. And even purely digital raster prints are approximations of what the real data is.

For example, are those two separate arcs really two arcs, or is it a circle? Perhaps those two small breaks between those arcs just showing the linetype of the circle. Or how about a fairly round ellipse. Is it perhaps a somewhat distorted circle? Is the line that spans 1/4 of the page, that is almost co-linear as another line on the other side of the page really co-linear? If so, which one of the two lines represent the real line they should both be on.

-Joe

Michael Mayer

So similar to an OCR software. Nearly ...

I also thought about Linux and its Graphic App Options but have no
experience with these.
I also looked at my Mac Image Editors like Affinity and Pixelmator.
They don't do such things. But maybe Photoshop with its rudimentary
Vector support can do this.
I think with most Vector Graphic Apps you should be able to do such jobs well.
I just don't use one, as I normally do my Vector stuff in CAD Apps

Joe Dunfee

The knowledge of how to use the vector graphics app is certainly need to use the vector drawing programs well. And you can get pixel artwork into the kind of line art you would want. But, it involves a major learning curve. So, there is no avoiding the pain. I just go to whatever is the least-painful route.

For logos, I often just paste the image. But, I have pre-edited the image to make it an acceptable resolution, so the drawing doesn't get too large.

if I want line-art, sometimes I have simply pasted the image into BricsCAD, and then traced over it. Those are cases where I expect to use it a lot. Vector graphics tend to survive and show through situations that tend to make a raster image not appear. Normally, I don't try to do much detail, and deliberately keep the logo small on the drawing where I am using it. To trace, I use a polyline with some width, so I can see it. I put it on a layer with a distinctive color, to make it easy to see where I've been. Then, I copy the polyline to the side, at a known distance, so that it is easy to add new trace lines I may have omitted.

-Joe