While I wait for my LongMill. I have been learning Fusion360. I’m wondering what the best way to import picture and would kind of file the picture should be.
F360 won’t deal with a picture, in the sense of being able to turn it into something you can directly carve. It handles DXF, SVG, STL (and 1 or 2 other) drafting file formats - relatively precise line drawing and mesh file formats.
If you have a picture you want to turn into a carving, you’d need other software (Aspire, e.g.). And if you wanted to turn the picture into a line drawing, again, other software (Inkscape, e.g.) for that.
Ok I’ll check out those programs. Thanks for the help
I use Carbide Create for this purpos.
wondered same but I am Mac not PC and most software discussed here is PC only. I am also learning Fusion Nic, any resources you can share? I have been watching Product Design Online on YouTube he does have lessons geared towards woodworkers.
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i know you asked @Nic but i’m going to echo @jwoody18 (thanks!) for calling out Paul McWhorter’s youtube series “Learn Fusion 360 Or Die Trying”
i worked through the first 8 videos over the last couple of weeks and the first thing i designed afterwards was markedly better than anything i had done previous to watching. i was a little apprehensive when i saw the series is geared toward 3d printing but the focus is on the principals of using the design interface.
i will definitely look through the “Product Design Online” videos. thanks for the tip.
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Having played with VCarvePro and Aspire, trying to get them to make good traces of bitmap graphics to produce vectors for cutting, I am convinced, FWIW, that the best applications for doing this are graphics programs, not CAD/CAM programs. Corel Draw is front and centre, but too pricey for me. Adobe Illustrator, the same. I’m playing with Inkscape, which is free. It’s not near as good as the pricey two, but better in many cases than the Vectric programs.
I’d like to hear about the experiences of others here. What are you using to convert bitmap images to vectors?
I’ve been using inkscape for many years for image type manipulation and all sorts of stuff. if i needed to draw something i would probably lean on adobe draw/illustrator on my ipad.
Grant, I’ve been using Inkscape’s Object to Path and Trace Bitmap commands. They make very usable, though not always scaled correctly, SVGs.
@BillKorn Tks much for this, Bill. I have Inkscape installed, but have not used it much. Time to learn.
You might try https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR-69_Ukrk6u4gwqacqx-WQ Arnold Rowntree very easy intro and he walks you through the basics.
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I need to learn inkscape as well, I need to import logos and trace them for some projects I will need to do once I get my Longmill.
Grant and @BillKorn I don’t know if this will work for you but I’ve had surprisingly good luck using https://convertio.co/ to convert between bitmap and raster formats. It’s not always perfect but its very fast and only requires an upload/download and a mouseclick.
@jwoody18 Tks much, Jeff. I’ll add that to my list options. I did a couple using a buddy’s Corel Draw and they were perfect. Corel Draw, though, is not for people in my snack bracket.
Thanks Jeff. Concertio does a lot of cool conversions. I like the pdf to jpg.