Good Day,
We are a Architectural Millwork company currently in the process of computerizing our knife catalog. Currently I'm having to pretty much scan and trace our knife profiles using AutoCAD, even using RasterDesign I'm still having to trace the profile before scanning it.
Is there anyone who has gone through cataloging a bunch of knives that has come up with a better process? I'd like to automate the process as much as possible.
From contributor tm
Wes, we did the same thing years back and I tried all the different software with no real success. To be honest the worst was bringing it back into autocad, it didn't always like the dxf conversions from other software. Paste the scan in autocad and trace it out, you will get amazingly fast at it. I also recommend you do the best job you can meaning not just for printing, that way you will have a hard file for generating new templates or quick modification of an existing profile. I do all my reproduction mouldings the same way, scanned, traced in autocad, scaled to size and saved for future catalog.
From contributor We
Yes,
That's what I keep coming back to. Suck it up!
From contributor Do
Try V-carve pro, might not produce a perfect scan but should at least create a rough outline to snap to on another layer. In some cases it might just be easier to measure and draw. There's no silver bullet yet, but I don't see why it should be technically impossible to write a software that can do this.
I think an ideal software would be an interactive tracer, maybe something that asks the user to verify a couple of points and dimensions and the software figures out the rest based on input.
From contributor Ru
Hi Wes, we had to "bite the bullet" as well and just manually trace over any vectorized or rasterized images. The one thing I can't emphasize enough is to avoid splines (even ellipses) and any small line segments, using tangent arc segments whenever possible.
I find that shops tend to job this out and the subcontracted drafting service doesn't appreciate the importance.
Best,
Rufus
From contributor Ru
You might find some of what your looking for on our website inside the moulding profile catalog. You can search by size, over 14,500 full scale "template ready dxf files available. Many folks have gone this route to save a bunch of time and money.
If you want to purchase in bulk please contact us I will see what I can do.
Tough job many good points in above responses, pay particular attention to the comments about splines, ellipse's and line segments, it will drive you crazy.
There is a simple video on how to use the moulding catalog at bottom of homepage.
Good luck!
