Tracing Images
You can create a design from a physical object or an image of the object using the Tracing feature. For example you might want to make a shape based on an image from:
- A web page
- A google image search
- Your digital camera
- A hand drawing (take a digital camera picture of your drawing)
- Clip art
- A screen logo
- etc.
To trace an image into the eMachineShop CAD software:
- Obtain the digital image on your screen - best if it fills a good portion of your screen.
- Start eMachineShop CAD.
- Choose Edit | Settings | General | Tracing Paper.
- Close and reopen the CAD to activate the tracing paper feature.
- You should now see the eMachineShop CAD interface and the image at the same time.
- Use the eMachineShop CAD drawing features (straight lines, arcs, circles and spline curves) to trace the shape.
- Uncheck Edit | Settings | General | Tracing Paper.
- Close and reopen the CAD to deactivate the tracing paper feature.
- For complex shapes it may be preferable to make the shape as a cutout in the material to avoid the need to deal with multiple small parts. To do this, just draw a rectangle or circle around the shape.
- Choose Edit | Select All.
- Drag the corner handles to resize to the desired physical size per the ruler.
- Set the Z value to the desired thickness.
- Select View | 3D to verify the shape of the part(s). You might need to resolve errors first.
- Choose Job | Material and select a material.
Alternatively, to convert an image to eMachineShop CAD format you can use a software
package such as Corel but we find such software packages often don't
work so well as they create numerous line segments which bog down the
CAD software and make editing difficult. They also can create bumpy
lines instead of clean smooth lines.
Another method of getting graphics into the eMachineShop CAD is to use a drawing tablet. Although the eMachineShop CAD does not directly support tablets, most tablets can export DXF files which you can then import.
