Brand new to Vectric Family! Inkscape vector import problem!

[Gaylon Raney]

Thanks for checking out my post! Want to introduce myself...I'm 32 and just bought my first cnc machine Shapeoko 3 XXL. Then started looking around for best brain to run it and kept hearing about vcarve and I checked it out and bought desktop. Once I get used to it and more comfortable I'll be upgrading to pro to take full advantage of my machine size. So for now just playing with software and machine nothing to serious now....still need to square machine and all like that.

Anyways I also wanted to find best way to change bitmap to vector and majority say inkscape is best. I did a few already and loaded into carbide create no problem. Then did 5 more pics and tried to load to vcarve only 1 out 5 worked. Others all said error that some of the vector might be missing. It looks fine in inkscape though so not sure what to do to fix it. Really want to get down converting vectors with no problems so please any help and tips if you have had same problem would be great! Thanks in advance and am excited to be here loving vcarve so far! Thanks!!

[Mobius]

What file type are you saving the vectors as?

[nicksilva]

I also wanted to find best way to change bitmap to vector and majority say inkscape is best.

Vcarve will convert a bitmap to vectors for you. here is the link to the video: http://support.vectric.com/tutorials/V9 ... ideo_id=22

[Gaylon Raney]

Not sure how I'm saving them actually lol just clicked it to save as and changed name...but 1 opened that way so not sure if the format changes depending on pics. What do I need to be saving them as?

I heard vcarve did it also but heard that inkscape still comes out with better vectors and more detail...not sure if is true or not but I'll give it a shot also. Still would like to know both methods just in case!

Thanks for your quick responses!

[martin54]

I doubt there is much difference if any between the auto trace function in either program, really comes down to learning how to use it properly
Quality of the artwork you are trying to convert is important to start with, low resolution images often don't come out well in any trace program regardless of price. Good quality black & white images or line art are probably best for a good trace, being able to use a photo editing program such as photoshop can help get a bitmap ready for tracing.
If you are exporting a vector file from inkscape (or any other vector based program) then you need to export using a file format that vcarve can import such as EPS or SVG

It would also be beneficial to learn how to draw from scratch & node edit using the tools within vcarve as with a bit of practice it is often quicker to redraw something from scratch. Auto trace can often require a lot of cleaning up to get a decent set of vectors for machining, this can sometimes be very time consuming.

This tutorial will explain the bitmap trace tool, it would be a good idea for you to start at the beginning & work your way through all the tutorials that are relevant to vcarve desktop if you are new to the software, will answer a lot of the questions you may have & give you a good understanding of how the software works

http://support.vectric.com/tutorials/V9 ... ap%20trace

[Gaylon Raney]

Thx Martin I've watched a few of the tutorials so far and they are well done just trying to jump ahead to the good stuff lol....but yes I will watch them all thanks!
As for the bitmaps they were black and white crisp pics....not sure of resolution or even what is good or bad pretty new to all this....pardon the dumbness on my part. I'll get there with time research and help here and there hopefully from u guys here! Thanks

[highpockets]

I also use Inkscape to convert bitmap files to vectors. I also use bit trace in Aspire, but mostly Inkscape.

I've tried to figure out why some SVG files saved in Inkscape will load into Aspire (or VCP) and others give me an error message
"Errors occurred while importing parts of the SVG file...."

If I save the save the same vectors as a EPS or DXF they import just fine.

[mohamed]

Hello guys,

Could send upload the problematic SVG files to support (support@vectric.com) please? I'm afraid we can't really fix an issue we're not aware of

Thank you

Mohamed

[martin54]

Thx Martin I've watched a few of the tutorials so far and they are well done just trying to jump ahead to the good stuff lol

I can understand why people want to do that but you are really better starting with the basics & building from that, bit like maths, you wouldn't jump into advanced calculus without learning how to add subtract, multiply & divide
Takes a lot longer but understanding the software & how to use it properly will pay dividends in the long run, well that's what I am hoping at least

Just because it looks crisp on a computer screen don't be fooled into thinking it is a good image, have you ever looked at a photo on a computer screen & thought it looked really good only to find when you printed it the results weren't very good ?
I am fairly new to CNC myself but have been dealing with both vector & bitmap graphics for many years as a signmaker doing cad cut vinyl & digital print so fortunately for me this was one area I didn't have to learn about from scratch

[TReischl]

I am fairly new to CNC myself

Alright Martin. . . . over 3,000 posts and you have been a member here for 5 years and you are claiming to be "fairly new"????

Heck, Martin has forgotten more than most of us have ever known!!!!

[highpockets]

Hello guys,

Could send upload the problematic SVG files to support (support@vectric.com) please? I'm afraid we can't really fix an issue we're not aware of

Thank you

Mohamed

Sent one to Charlotte yesterday.

Thanks Mohamed....

[Gaylon Raney]

Once again thanks to all that have helped and gave great advice! I'll try saving them as new format...and if that don't work I'll send to support ok Mohammad. Ok Martin help learning curve a little on pixels for me and anyone else then its great you know about that so what is considered high quality and low quality....and an acceptable level to use in middle lol. Thanks to all and already learning from u guys....guess I'm off to some more tutorials for the day lol

[mohamed]

Once again thanks to all that have helped and gave great advice! I'll try saving them as new format...and if that don't work I'll send to support ok Mohammad. Ok Martin help learning curve a little on pixels for me and anyone else then its great you know about that so what is considered high quality and low quality....and an acceptable level to use in middle lol. Thanks to all and already learning from u guys....guess I'm off to some more tutorials for the day lol

Hi Gaylon,

If you could send support the SVG file anyway, we would be grateful. It would be really helpful in tracking down the issue for your benefit and everyone else's who want to use this feature in the future.

Thank you

Mohamed

[martin54]

I'm not sure I could explain it well enough so will see if I can find an article that explains things much better than I could.
Low res would be a lot of stuff that is saved purely for viewing on the internet so somewhere between 72 & 94 dots or pixels per inch, some of this will auto trace ok if black & white or possibly colour if there is a lot of contrast between the colours. If there isn't a lot of contrast then the software has trouble determining the edges of each colour leading to a bad set of vectors. High res for me would be something that I could print at it's original size & it looks good I do actually have software I can use to increase the resolution or keep it the same & enlarge the picture, good to have when you are producing prints to put on the sides of vans & lorries for that I would be looking for somewhere around 300 dots per inch if it were to be viewed close up.
For auto trace then probably above about 150 dpi should give you reasonable results. Try & avoid images where there isn't much contrast between colours, avoid anything with a gradient, solid colours will convert best.
Watch the tutorials & experiment yourself with the settings. Unfortunately there isn't really one setting that will give the best results with every single image, some images just won't auto trace that well which is why it is a good idea to learn to use the drawing tools, you would be surprised just how quickly you can trace images manually with a bit of practice.

Ted, I wish most of my posts are just passing on other peoples good advice or are in the gallery commenting on how good something that has been posted is. Not quite 5 years lol, I didn't realise it was that long, time is going far to quickly for my liking I don't get to use the machine anywhere near as much as I would like to so 5 years is probably only about a year really making me quite new
As for the software well I have watched a few people join the forum after me & they are now well ahead of me when it comes to being able to use it, I picked up the basics pretty quickly mainly because I was so use to working with 2d vector graphics as a signmaker doing cad cut vinyl & digital print but learning how to model in 3d is a whole new ball game

[Gaylon Raney]

Been watching more videos of tutorials and very excited to see there's a lot of things I didn't know about! But with that said I downloaded the clipart and all that came with it but when I try to open it or add folder in vcarve it wont find anything. Its all there in my files on the computer and I even moved them all to another folder and it would find that folder and add that folder but like nothing in it. What am I missing?