scanning scroll saw patterns

[mfoxworth1]

I am interested in knowing if the CW will do scroll saw patterns? I have scanned a pattern in, however, it always has the BOX around it. Is there any way to remove this box and actually cut out the pattern?

[tahoetimr]

I have a very similar question myself. I need to develop a number of custom cutouts that will be cut on .25" board....right now the only way I have to do the outline of these cutouts is to scan them into a graphic format and then import into Designer. I just got my machine this Christmas and haven't cut a thing yet.....been reading for a week!! Thanks!!

[Rickrljones]

I have performed this procedure by doing the following.

1.Take the piece of wood you want to carve, lets say its 1/4" stock, now hot glue (spot glue) a piece of 1/4" wood, paneling, or MDF to the stock blank at the same measurements.
2. Tell the CW the wood thickness is 1/2" (1/4" stock and 1/4" backer)
3. Set the depth of the carve to 1/4".

Carefully remove the carved region from the backer board and your project will be free from the boxed edges. Hope this helps.

[AskBud]

I am interested in knowing if the CW will do scroll saw patterns? I have scanned a pattern in, however, it always has the BOX around it. Is there any way to remove this box and actually cut out the pattern?
It may depend upon the background/paper.
One thing to try: When you import the pic into CW, use the "Lower" option, and see if the pattern stays as the square goes away.

There are ways to accomplish the task. It just takes time to see what works best, CW or some other Paint program. Outside of CW, play with several color combinations.

If the drawing is digital, rather than on paper, it may have less variation than the porous paper.
AskBud

[bjbethke]

I am interested in knowing if the CW will do scroll saw patterns? I have scanned a pattern in, however, it always has the BOX around it. Is there any way to remove this box and actually cut out the pattern?
Not sure what you mean by the BOX around it. (Post an Image) I cut out a lot of projects with my CW that I could do with my scroll saw. I use my Epson photo scanner, use Corel or Illustrator to make the drawings then export it as a PNG format to use in the CW Designer.

To make a carving with out the border you need a drawing with closed loops so you can attach or weld then to each other so your finished project will not fall apart. You can use the drawing tools in the CW Designer also, but I find my other two programs work better for me.

[ChrisAlb]

Hey everybody,

I personally don't do any scroll saw work but I read a lot in here from folks who do. Forgive me if I'm over simplifying things but it seems to me that patterns for scrolling are among the easiest to produce. Basically, they're just black and white and as such, I find them pretty easy to produce. So I took a little time and a basic scroll pattern to work with. This is how I do it. I used PSP X2 and Designer to make this. It took about 20 minutes. The board in Designer is 1/4" thick.

Photo 1 shows the original pattern / After I erased all the background white (parts to be cut out) / And then inverted what was left and copied it to the clipboard.

Photo 2 shows the clipboard import into Designer / After pressing lower once / And the saved pattern on the board.

Photo 3 shows the "outline pattern" results / And the final result after applying cut-paths to all the vectors.

One Note: After outlining the patterns I held the control key and deselected the outside heart path. Applied the default (Non Flipped) cut-path to all the inner paths. Then I selected just the outline heart path and applied the cut-path (Flipped) to it. I used the 1/16" cut out bit for all of them, hid the cut outs and then deleted the original pattern.

This was a free pattern so I'll assume it's OK for me to post the resulting MPC.

[HighTechOkie]

I am playing with some new software for converting line drawings (and raster images) into a vectored .mpc file. If you would send the file to my email, I would be glad to convert the images for you.

Rob
rob at slaughterbeck.net (replace "at" with @)

[mfoxworth1]

Thanks to everyone for all your help! I know we will get this one day!
God Bless and Happy New Year!
JoAnn & Mark

[Jeff_Birt]

This is a good application for the quantize filter in Pattern Editor. You could simply import your scanned artwork into Pattern Editor and use the quantize filter to 'level off' the resulting pattern and then lower it until the background square disappears. See the August 2008 Tips and Tricks for more information: http://www.carvewright.com/downloads/tips/CarveWrightTips&Tricks_Aug08.pdf

The quantize filter basically reduces the number of shades of grey in a pattern. The result is that it tends to flatten out scanned in logos and other line art. It is a very simple and quick process. No need for raster to vector to raster conversion.

There are a number of such specialized tools in PE that really makes creating/touching up patterns simple.

[bjbethke]

Jeff; I find the quantize filter in Pattern Editor Works great if you have a good image to work with. For Scroll Saw patterns you need a good edge. Most Bit Map images do not work very well. I find the Trace functions in Corel and Illustrator work best for me, and you can use the fill function to make a filled image, then with the outline function in the CW designer makes it easy and simple.

[Jeff_Birt]

I agree that sometimes using Corel Draw is a big help.

For the most part, given a decent image to start with, you can accomplish the same thing in Pattern Editor. If you don't have a nice solid edge use the 'Round Edges' filter first. Then you can fill in the center of the solid areas as needed with the fill tool.

I'm not meaning to argue about which is the 'better' way. I use both, and just wanted to point out other alternatives.

[Beerfaced]

You can use the magic wand in pattern editor. Just click it on the background you don't want and hit delete. That should remove the square around your subject. Then all you have to do is smooth it a touch and round edges.

Hope that helped.

Rob

[tahoetimr]

Thanks again for all your input.....I've got to get some "work" done this afternoon but will try some of these suggestions this evening. I don't have Corel so will try it with the PE on the CW software. Thanks again!!

[tahoetimr]

I just found out that I don't have PE....I told you all that I'm green at this!! Apparently it's only available with a scanner or as a separate program at $200. With that in mind the Corel mentioned for $90 on ebay is looking pretty good. Still working but I will try to do some scans later tonight. Thanks again!!