Ok, I’ve searched for the best answer to the question of how to edit an outline, tried a couple of those suggestions and still can’t get a good usable outline. What’s the best way to do it? I can get an outline of the item but it’s not really complete. It has openings and some other artifacts that won’t/don’t work. I can save the outline in a format that can be used in another program, edit then import or load the file but I’m having loading issues and it’s just not working for me. Suggest the best way to do this, please! By the way, not quite sure this is gonna work either, but I’ll be trying for a good outline, applying an offset and then changing the head on my tool from laser to milling head, the offset being half the end mill diameter.
The good outline is what I really need.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions to get and edit the outline.
I’m curious what you mean by “outline” exactly. Do you mean like a silhouette or the perimeter of a particular shape? If so, I have a technique that I use to extract tool outlines for foam drawer dividers, using a backlit tablet and the Trace Tool in Lightburn.
Sort of a silhouette but it can’t be backlighted. It’s a raised area on a solid background. I’m able to get a reasonable outline by coloring the background white with paint then coloring the raised area black with a marker. Editing the resulting outline is my issue and has me looking for info on using the node editor. I like your tool storage and cutout idea.
Backlighting it is only used in the process of extracting the vector profile. The reason the backlight worked so well, (particularly when done in a darkened room) is it helps to eliminate colors when doing the Image Trace once you bring the photo into Lightburn. Once the vector profile is extracted, the image is tossed.
Assuming I understand correctly, you have a physical item that you have a straight on picture of and you want to create an outline? Thinking like a foam cutout for a tool as an example? If this is the case, can you share an example of what you are trying to outline?
Honestly the best way I’ve found is just to get comfortable with bezier curves and node editing. Draw some rough boundary lines with the line tool then go in and start adding nodes and dragging curves until you get a trace you’re happy with. It seems daunting at first but actually once you get comfortable with the hotkeys for manipulating nodes and curves, to me it’s kinda relaxing to do.
If you are able to edit the image and make the background transparent you can import the fixed image into lightburn and select trace image. Version 1.5 has a new tool that will trace the transparent layer in the image.
Here’s the project. The pic is a key with the background whited out and the raised portion blacked out. I’m trying for a clean outline of the black portion to feed to my CNC with the laser removed and a milling head installed. The outline would need an offset depending on the end mill size. This particular key is from a car that has since taken up residence in the recycle yard but serves the purpose to see if my machine modifications will actually work. The limitation so far is my lack of expertise with Lightburn, GIMP and Inkscape.
JMartin, Carl and Rob_H, I can try those methods. This is an ‘I wonder if this’ll work’ idea and I’m lazy so I’ll try a few more things, save the files for later and probably never get back to it. I appreciate the suggestions.
JMartin, I do like the tool cutouts. Think it’ll work for my pliers drawer?
That looks about perfect in a fraction of the time I’ve put into it so far. Also, the pic is an upgrade moving from my phone to a Nikon with a MicroNikkor lens.
This was just a very quick test and with a bit more time spent adjusting some of the other controls/values I could have improved the trace.
After tracing I ungrouped everything and used the node edit tool to delete a lot of the untidy and unwanted extra bits. A combination of node editing and ‘Optimize selected shapes’ got it to where I ended up. With a bit more time it could be tidied up further. All I then did was offset the contour by 3mm (assumed a Ø6mm cutter). Key trace.lbrn2 (182.2 KB)
Thanks for the recommendations, folks. I think I have this figured out good enough to produce some sort of result. A better picture helped, some cleanup of the pic with GIMP helped a lot with the Trace Image tools and a couple tutorials using the Edit Nodes helped with a good result.
