Hi. I am trying to figure out how to take a photo of tools and their layout, to cut out foam on the CNC. Is there an easy way to do this? I would like to just punch in measurements and the layout and get the rest āautomatedā. If that is even possible. TIA
@GPeak I did a small layout for a mechanic friend. We placed the tools on paper and traced them. Then we photographed the paper. Be sure to have the camera as perpendicular to the paper as possible. Also, have a ruler it the picture. You can then measure the picture of the ruler in the file and change the size of the overall photo. Itās better is you can scan the drawing, but ours was too big for any scanner we had.
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If you are using Fusion, you can directly import a photograph and then trace the object(s) that you photographed. I find that if I try to trace an object that is sitting in front of me, I tend to be off quite a bit due to pencil tilt. Not much of a problem if you have a flat object but even something like a simple screwdriver comes out wacky if I try to trace it by hand. If I import the picture and trace it inside Fusion it is MUCH more accurate (and faster).
As @gwilki says, it is imperative that the camera is set up perpendicular.
It is by no means āautomatedā ā¦
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If you are going to do this a lot, you might want to look into the camera tool that is inside lightburn. It lets you calibrate a webcam into a rather amazing tool with wich you can take a picture of something with accurate measurement. I have used this tool with a simple hd camera to get outlines of organic shaped material. The real perk it gives is that after calibration the software accounts for any lense distortion and gives a true picture of your subject, even if your camera is a fish eye or isnāt perfectly level with the machine bed.
Itās been a while that ai used it and the camera is way out of calibration by now, but if I wanted to go the route of photographing tools for inserts, I definitely would upgrade the 2Mp I have now to an 8Mp and take it from there.
The setup made a mission impossible possible for me. Not easy, mind you. It took some time for me to connect the dots, but after a while I could import mm accurate outlines in vcarve and design inside impossible shapes without booboos.
It might be the tool you are looking for.
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check out the website tooltrace.ai and play with that, thatās how I did the drawer for under my altmill, worked great. I tried several others, but this is the only thing that really worked well, you just snap a photo with a letter sized piece of paper in the image and itāll correct for tilt and size, and give you a file you can use to cut, or 3d print.
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Thanks guys for the input. I am using VCarve Pro 12.5. I have watched a few videos on tracing images. Might give that a try. If I canāt figure that out, I will look for different software. Thanks again.