Circular Lithopane

[TimSchubach]

Hi all - Happy New Year.

I imported a photo into CorelDraw, and was able to crop a circular image from it. I then exported the image, opened it in PhotoVCarve, and followed the normal steps for creating a lithopane. However, even though the image is a circle, it certainly looks like the tool path runs corner-to-corner over the whole square I now have clamped to my table.

In theory, I guess that's not really a problem as long as I (re)cut my blank with enough waste for the clamps and then cut the finished lithopane round, but I was hoping there was a way to make PhotoVCarve create a tool path that was restricted to the circle. Is this possible, or do I just need to waste the extra material?

Thanks much!
Tim

[calgrdnr]

http://forum.vectric.com/search.php?key ... lithophane should work the same

[Ms Wolffie]

I believe you forgot to eliminate background colour (outside the circle).
I just tried to calculate a circular photo and had no problem.
When calculating, the outside of the circle changed colour to show it was not being cut.

[martin54]

How did you export your photo? if you exported as a jpeg then you actually exported a rectangle (circle) with white background as you can't have a transparent background with jpeg's.
Actually exporting as a tiff or BMP would allow you to have a transparent background & would also give a better quality import as a lot more colour information is retained with those file formats.

[peque]

Gracias Martin, acabo de descubrir una manera que me solucionara algunas cosas en el trabajo con esa respuesta
google traductor
Thanks Martin, I just found a way to solve some things I work with that answer

[TimSchubach]

Thanks for the help guys. I exported the photo from CorelDraw using the File --> Export function, so no wonder I ended up with a rectangular image even though I had cropped a circle. I did make the background black, but there were still toolpaths through those areas as expected. So just to satisfy my own curiosity, I used two pieces of some decent double-sided tape to hold the piece down, and I was able to cut the lithopane. While that did work, I still feel better using clamps, so I'll review the PDF that was referenced, and go from there.

Thanks again.

Tim

[Ms Wolffie]

In a lithopane, the cutting is so minimal that there is no real pressure on the material, you only need guides around the it to keep it from moving so clamp the guides, not the material.
The trouble with clamping is, that a thin flexible material often lifts up in the center when there is pressure on the edges.
I discovered this the hard and expensive way.