Regarding Tracing Procedure

Will someone please explain the procedure used to make a sketch superimposed over a scanned image. I have a scan of an irregularly shaped object that I need to make a 3-D drawing of, If someone could explain how to import it into solidworks, in order that I may use spline to freehand over the profile of the scan so that my proportions will be fairly accurate. Also, what do I do to make my new drawing more visible over the imported scan? Thanking you in advance for sharing your hard earned skills with a newcomer to Solidworks. Mike

Reply to
plasticmoldedproducts
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Use Deltacad. Save as dxf. Import dxf to Solidworks.

Reply to
JKimmel

In the menus, go to Tools, sketch tools, sketch picture. It can also be added to toolbars.

You will have to position and scale the image manually. Double-click on the image to get started. A quick read through help on "sketch picture" should be fruitful.

Reply to
Dale Dunn

Open a sketch, then insert a Sketch Picture. The picture is represented in the tree as a child of the sketch. The picture can be suppressed independently from the sketch. If you use a sketch picture you have the option of leaving the sketch otherwise empty (no sketch entities other than the picture), which I believe is the only time you can do this. Often I use a separate sketch to actually trace just so the sketch with the picture doesn't get swallowed up by another feature. I usually name the sketch picture sketch something significant so it's easy to find later. It also (for me anyway) goes at or near the top of the tree.

It is best if the image is high contrast, so even zoomed up the edges look well defined. Anti aliasing in images makes the edges look a bit fuzzy when zoomed in and you may have difficulty placing a spline over it.

If you're tracing with splines, that takes a bit of practice. The spline curve itself is interpolated between the spline points, so the final shape of the curve at a point isn't finished until you have put down the next 2-3 points. If you have areas where the curvature is much tighter than the rest of the curve, you may want a higher density of spline points in that area. Generally speaking, when placing the points by hand, the fewer points you can use and still get the shape you want, the better.

Anyway, good luck.

Matt

Reply to
mjlombard

Thank you all. I can see that my natural skills with the spline tool are not exactly legendary, but at least, I have the principle of the procedure and it worked exactly as described. It seems that I have better results using three point arcs and just segments of circles and elipses and trying to blend so as not to have open geometry before extruding, rather than using the spline tool. Unless I need a lot of practice as you suggested Matt. I probably do. Thanks again. Mike

Reply to
plasticmoldedproducts

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