Thread: New Aussie Build

Hi Daniel

Does inkscape do what you want?

Inkscape 0.48 has added a Spray Tool to quickly and easily spray multiple copies of items. With the parameters for rotation and size it allows creating effects that previously would take much longer to achieve.

Bob

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies as this is a topic that i am still very keen to figure out. I haven't yet tried the new version of inkskape but will have a look since its free. As for photoshop and illustrator, i have tried quite a few plug ins and the standard filters to no avail. It could be me, suing the wrong settings but more likely what i am trying to do is completely silly and my expectations too high. Either way, i have now moved from those packages to corel and now trialing them to see if its worth the swap and so far, i am very pleased.

What i am after, and its probably lazy of me, but i want to take a picture in greyscale that has shading etc, and produce a "clean" vector line drawing (as clean as possible anyway) with an outline of the drawing and then hatching for the changes in shading. The lighter the grey areas, the lines will be single hatch with more spacing bewteen lines and as it gets darker have the line spacing condense and cross hatch starting to happen.

I remember a few years back a product that was close, but cannot find it anymore. It was however a engraving package for lasers. It created layers depending on the setings used. An outline, if required of the object, then as many layers as required to create the hatching that worked to the settings you wanted. Each layer was a set of directional single line hatching, the next layer would be for the next tolerance of greay and be perpendicular to the first directional layer to create cross hatching or be a set of lines fitted between the first layers lines for the extra darkness areas.

I doubt i'll find something close but who knows. Using the fill tool as suggested would work, it just means time for me to have to setup vector areas to fill.

Anyway, will keep looking but i do really appreciate the responses.

Daniel

P.S Hardest things about all the packages around such as vectrics photocarve is they create centreline v carve vectors, and these are not always accurate when using diamond drag and can sometimes require a fair amount of movement on the z axis which can put excessive strain on the diamond point causing them to crack which is what happened using photcarve.

Hi Daniel

What your describing is a line screen but modulated in the FM rather than the AM.
Here's how I think you could do itbasically what you already described)

Convert your pic to vector using inkscape, vector magic etc with th erequired gray levels. to get your boundries
Seperate each tone to a seperate layer and apply a line fiter for each at a different angle ie 10 degrees seperated.
Not you apply one angle to 10-100 %
Next angle 20-100%
etc
Merge all the layers and then cut or more likely run each layer seperatly.


Let me know if you do fiind an automatic way of doing it.

Cheers

MArk

Mark,

That should work great, it will cut my time a bit as i used a similar process but it was more long winded. Setting up the gray levels is the time consuming part of the process trying to find the best combination of levels and angles for the hatch.

The logic is straight forward to a point and am very surprised that no software seems available with a plug in that has this type of feature but i will keep looking and let you all know if i find something.

For anyone also looking at this, this would also be very useful if using a pen tool.

Daniel

Well its been a long time since the last update on my machine but better late then never.

The planned upgrades have taken much longer than expected, mainly due to work and other commitments. Luckily i have finally been able to get some time to work on the build and have at least something to post. Not much has been done so its still along way from done but on the right path at least and hoping getting the thread running again will keep me motivated to get it done in the next month or two.

I've spent a lot of my time designing future builds to keep busy, helping some others build and procuring some nice bits and pieces to add or use with the machine when done. What i have been able to do is get the new frame built and painted. I then stumbled upon the fact that my machine frame was a little warped after adding some cross bracing which threw me for a few weeks and attempts at aligning it to where i was happy. After a few emails with Mark i was convinced that epoxy will be the way to go and get my main beams aligned. Since the main beams were originally machined the epoxy would be injected into the mounting locating when the beams were levelled using some screws. Using West Systems 105 Epoxy and 206 Slow Hardener with 20% aluminum powder i finally got around to trying it out. I did one beam and then the other a day later. First pour was satisfactory but not great but the second one was much better and i was very pleased. Although i don't have a machinist level (Planning on buying one in the next week or two) i made do with a digital level and standard level. Interesting though, started with the digital and ended up with the standard level mainly because over the 2m+ length of the beams a difference of ~3mm would not be seen on a 0.1 digital level. I would think that even with the standard level i am extremely close and within my accuracy levels that i need. This will be checked with the machinist level later and will be shimmed if its needed.

Having the beams mounted i now believe the rest should at least flow on at a decent rate. This week i will probably fix the first epoxy pour, and mount the under table braces as i'm just awaiting some bolts and nuts to mount them. This should take care of the main frame and table. During the off period the table top was also sealed with bondcrete to stop as much swelling as possible.

Also hoping to buy some steel this week to start to weld the frame of the new electronics and control enclosure which will run along the right side of the frame where you can see the ledge. The good news is that a lot of the other main parts such as gantry sides etc are cut and just need a few drilled holes and what not to finish them and some small machined parts that need to be made and i should be progressing well up until the z axis.

In retrospect i should have sold the first machine and made this one as i'm pretty much re making it anyway as the gantry will house new beefier linear rails from NSK and all but the gantry beam are almost replaced but hind sight is always 20/20.

Anyway enough babbling, i will post a photo of the frame as is and will post more later of the progression. As usual any feedback welcome.

Daniel