Hello all!
I am looking to make my first plaque for a gift to my brother in law.
I would like t carve this destroyer drawing. this is a png file.
Can you guide me? I have tried to convert the file into SVG and then import it in easel but I would like to know if there is a better way to do it.
I wish I could help Laurent, but I am still struggling with converting simple pictures. That will make a great gift plaque.
My father served aboard the Iroquois in WWII. If you get the emblem converted, I would love a copy.
Good luck with the carve
Hi Laurent,
I tend to go the png → svg route as well. Usually i use pngtosvg.com and play with the settings there until i get it close to what i want. You could also use Vector Magic but you have to pay for that service.
When i import the svg into easel, i always have to do some cleanup. For instance I used your picture:
Came up with this svg:
and imported it into easel.
There are a lot of artifacts around the edges. To clean this up i made a duplicate workpiece, set all shapes in that workpiece to the same depth, combined them, then offset the single shape by a few thou to “absorb” the artifacts.
At this point i would go through and copy different shapes from the original work piece and paste them on the new workpiece. to get that detail back. You may also need to do use the “edit points” feature to make tweaks to the shapes.
You could also use this: bitmap to vector, convert your bitmap online to a vector file or 3D model :: drububu's pixel art tutorial
to create a pixel-perfect svg for the png you started with. However, when you import into easel you are going to get a lot of individual shapes. You can use the “select by matching depth” and combine them together, but you’ll havve to find a way to smooth out the shape for carving.
Good luck on whatever path you choose! let us know how it turns out
Cheers,
Ethan
I’m guessing you want to engrave so as to get all the details. While you might try to do the bitmap to vector conversion yourself, you may also want to check out fiverr.com. For this amount of detail, I’d bite the bullet and pay to have someone else do the conversion. Usually pretty inexpensive and fast.
If you really want to go all-out, find someone (there are a few folks on fiverr) to convert to a 3D relief .stl file. More expensive than just a vector conversion, but if it’s your wife’s brother, there may be extra points in it for you.
Hello Darrin!
WOW! Small world and quite a story…
Don’t worry, if the output is as good as I would like it to be, I will send you a copy.
Thanks
https://easel.inventables.com/projects/fUGCjaZ8b8X2GSqAkHdPSA
this one will Vcarve, in a simplified way, in 27 minutes…at least in the small size
in Inkscape, i converted to greyscale, then did a trace bitmap.
And finally, here’s the results…
I learned a lot, again. I used Inkscape to convert my png file to svg. I also used for the first time 1/32 straight bit and a 30 Degree V bit.
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Beautiful work.
Well done sir.
That’s great … plus this thread is full of great tips from the community. I learned a lot reading it.
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That is an awesome pair of plaques. The boat looks really good.
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