Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Photo to g-code for carving wood

On Saturday 14 June 2003 10:38, fuddham wrote:

> I have been experimenting with several photo to g-code programs:
> bmptocnc...

<...>

> Could someone give me some pointers, software ideas,
> and post some photo carving they have done?

First of all, I'm sorry I didn't reply to your earlier e-mail, but I've had a
lot going on (don't we all...).

Second, here's a site with some practical advice:

http://home.alltel.net/mmharper/

It's about stone carving, but almost everything is applicable to wood as well.
There's a g-code program on that page you can download to carve a picture of
Jesus which you could use to verify that you have to correct type of cutter
(if your finished product looks like his, you're on the right track).

Third, you need a sharp pointy cutter, not a ball or flat bottomed end mill.
The tip of the cutter needs to be smaller than the pixel size in the bitmap
at the scale of your g-code program (in bmp2cnc that's the -s or --spacing
parameter).

Fourth, you need good photos with high contrast and without a lot of areas
that are either completely black, or completely white (see the above page for
some examples).

If you find you need some additional features in bmp2cnc to achieve the
results you want, I'd be happy to work with you to make the required code
changes. The some goes for bugs if you find them. I believe there are at
least a couple of folks using bmp2cnc and I'd like to hear from anyone who
is, especially if they have pictures of the final product. As for me, I wrote
the program to help myself learn the C programming language, but I've only
tried to use the program once, and I had the wrong type of cutter and a poor
photo, so the output looked awful. Maybe some day I'll get some time to try
it out again...

Matt