using shapes

[martin54]

Is there a way to produce anything other that a square/rectangular shape with photovcarve, I'm sure you will be able to do it with aspire but since I don't own aspire that won't be much help to me. I tried opening a circular image but the program just filled in the transparent background with black rather than allowing me a circle to work with.

[glenninvb]

Martin,
Don't own and never used PVC, but I think you can import PVC into VCP and profile any shape you wish?

[rsetina]

Not sure, but I wonder if you can you draw a vector around the photo and carve only the area inside that vector.

[martin54]

Martin,
Don't own and never used PVC, but I think you can import PVC into VCP and profile any shape you wish?

Glenn, yer you can import PVC files, done that a few times but you can't change the toolpath in VCP.

I could import the file, let it run & then profile cut the shape I wanted after but firstly that takes a lot more time because the PVC toolpath is going to run the whole rectangle & secondly I was wondering if I could put the shaped photo in a pocket so the outside shape was at a higher level which won't work because of the imported PVC file.

I only asked because I had seen the christmas decorations that had been done that way but that was with Aspire which I don't own. Looks like the only way to do it is with something like Aspire.

rsetina, no PVC doesn't have any vector tools, it is purely for creating a carving from a picture.

[Adrian]

When you've imported the picture into PVC there is an option to select a colour that will be transparent. You can use that in conjunction with a graphics program to create various masks that PVC won't machine.

The baby.jpg sample file that comes with PVC is a good example of how it works.

[martin54]

When you've imported the picture into PVC there is an option to select a colour that will be transparent. You can use that in conjunction with a graphics program to create various masks that PVC won't machine.

The baby.jpg sample file that comes with PVC is a good example of how it works.

Thanks Adrian, The photo does have a mask which is how I created the circle in the first place but I used a transparent background & saved as TIFF so it stayed transparent, when imported PVC turned the mask black. Did try using that option to turn a colour transparent but it also turned half the picture transparent lol

I can easy try that option again, photo is converted to black & white so If I colour the mask I shouldn't lose any of the picture. I'm always telling people to watch the tutorials but have to be honest & say I haven't actually watched any of the photovcarve ones for a long time

[NormanAlbert]

Hi: Use photo shop to creat a border around your picture, select the outer portion and give it a solid color different than anything in the picture. Also crop closer to the actual part of the photo you want. Save as jpeg. Import into pvc and and select "make color transparent" and click on that chosen color. Now you have just what pvc will work on. Norm

[martin54]

Thanks Adrian all done now, really should learn to take my own advice lol. Always telling people to use the tutorials, I watched them all when I got photovcarve about a year ago but have never really used the program because I got side tracked with other things. Should have done a refresher before starting

Norman thanks, already done by the time I read your post, not with photoshop but something that does the same job. JPEG however is not the best file format to work with, BMP or TIFF are better because they retain more colour info than a JPEG.