Re: Digital Bad Ass
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: heycorey</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Thanks for the info. I was working with gunsmith last year, doing some duracoating. He had a set-up from USCutter as well. To create stencils, I used a laptop with a touchscreen, layed camo'd fabric across the screen and traced the pattern into PaintShopPro with a stylus pen. The USCutter software was able to import the resulting jpeg. Ended up with some pretty good multicam stencils.
Nice work, by the way! </div></div>
There's a much, much easier way than manually tracing the outlines. Using a program like "inkscape" you can import your JPEG image and convert it to a vector file. The difference between the two is JPEG's work using pixels. As you zoom in everything begins to look like leggo blocks. A vector file will retain its crisp line resolution regardless of the scale.
From here you just use a "break apart" tool/function to dissect all the components/patterns. Isolate the different patterns/colors and arrange for cutting.
It takes a little while to get the hang of it, but once you do it's pretty simple. Way WAY faster than tracing everything out longhand.
Then there's the "cheater" method. You can Google "camo vector files" and you'll literally find thousands of different patterns that'll import/dissect instantly. No need for conversion from Jpeg to vector.
This is a huge time saver. As good as the software is, sometimes you get a "best guess" when it comes to converting files. They can be quite "dirty" and you'll easily burn up an afternoon/evening getting rid of all the crap you don't need.
Inkscape is a free download. It'll do all this, but its not the most elegant program. You get what you pay for I guess.
It won't cut anything though. You'd need to buy that part of the deal. Getting the two programs to "mingle" takes a bit of work and setting up the cutter communications is a bit of a biche too. Ports, baud rates, etc.
Beyond that it's not too big a deal. My biggest hurdle now is getting the scaling right. 24"x36" on the Inkscape program does not translate 1:1 to the cutter. You have to dick around with it. This can be a real great way to waste vinyl!
Good luck. Once you get it right, it's the chit. Just takes some fiddlin.
C.