Latest trace

Made on a Glowforge
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IMG_20180416_125455745
IMG_20180416_125455745529×943 144 KB
Here’s my latest attempt using the trace feature. Took many iterations as the lines apparently weren’t dark enough to register properly. Had anyone traced anything this large before? It’s about 11 inches wide. It seemed like it was washed out on both ends and wouldn’t recognize the lines. I tried covering up the inside lights but that didn’t help. I ended up having to manually go over the lines with a pen to make them darker. And then the first time scanning and clicking on all of the little holes, I got an error message when I tried to place the artwork. Aaarrgghh! Had to start over. But in the end, success!

35 Likes
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Whew! Cool dragon! :grinning:
(By the way, if you are wanting cut lines on both the outside of the dragon and all of the little holes, you can just click once directly on the dragon… the black part.)

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For something serious like this I’d try a different approach for scanning it - probably use a flatbed scanner and then take that into AI/Corel/Inkscape to clean up. The GF scan feature is a cool little thing that I use when it’s a quick & dirty thing I’m doing or I’m out doing show & tell with it and people can turn their scribbles into something lasered.

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Agreed-- the app is ok for quick 'n dirty scans, but nothing compares to starting with a clean, flat scan. If you don’t have access to a scanner, the free Adobe Capture app on a mobile device does a great job of generating an initial “scan” and svg file.

If you’re experiencing challenges from uneven lighting, Google offers a great free app called PhotoScan, that will automagically remove uneven lighting and correct for parallax – I’ve “scanned” wall-sized art with it that came out great.

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Thx for those suggestions. I tried scanning and using inkscape to trace it but I couldn’t get it to work. Not only did it have the double lines (which I learned how to get rid of in the tutorials) but there were also hundreds of little tiny dots and circles within the double lines. I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of them easily so I continued with the trace. I’ll check the other options out. Thx!

1 Like
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Fearsome fire dragon

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Wow, it came out great! I’m always amazed at the precision of the trace function.

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Thanks for your patience, and sorry to hear about your difficulties. Regardless, you created an amazing piece!