Can CamBam carve images from photos?

[huntleybill]

I ran across CamBam and am considering purchasing it. One of the projects I want to do it to import a photograph and relief carve the image onto wood. Then inset that carving into a plaque. I have included images to show you what I mean.

Currently, I am using easel to create the plaque. Then use Meshcam to import the image of the dog and create the carving. Unfortunately, I cannot get easel or Meshcam to do both operations but that is not my real issue. I can work around that.

What I want to do with the relief carving is to carve out the image of the dog in this example and than mill a circle  completely through the stock in order to inset that dog carving into the center of the plaque. In this case, that circle is 5 1/2" X 1/4" deep.

I have gone to Meshcams forum and asked how to get Meshcam to mill out a 5 1/2" circle around the dog image but I have had no answers to my inquiry. In fact, they have not "approved" my question to be added to the forum. It has been 2 weeks now. Tends to make me not want to purchase their software!

So, can CamBam do the mesh carving like Meshcam? Can it then mill out the 5 1/2" circle? I am a one man hobbyist, not a big shop. So Aspire, V-carve etc are not options for me.

Any help would be appreciated
Thank you
Bill

[kvom]

Check out the heightmap plugin.  It generates a 3d raster from a B&W bitmap, with the heights depending on the grey level.  Each raster line can then be engraved. The circle part is petty vanilla CamBam function.

http://www.cambam.info/doc/plus/tutorials/Heightmaps.htm

[EddyCurrent]

Here's a quick cb file to try it out. It's not perfect by any means as I did it quickly tonight, but it does show that CamBam can do it all.
That was all cut out of one piece of wood, no inserts, but you could easily do the insert method if using contrasting timbers for example.

I got the dog's age wrong, sorry   and the font was just picked at random.

The cb file is zipped due to it's size.

  

[huntleybill]

OMG!!! THAT'S IT! That's what I want to do. Please tell me how you did that.
Remember, I just started with CamBam. Step by step tutorials would be fantastic.

I can't thank you enough for this info.
Bill

[EddyCurrent]

Bill,

This is the dog part first (numbers are mm)

1. Draw->Surface->From Bitmap

navigate to and open, fulllmilli.jpg
X Width = 100
Y Height = 100
Invert = yes
Z Max = 0
Z Min = -3
Create Surface

2. Draw 140 circle centred on 0,0,0

3. Select the bitmap then, Edit->Transform->Align
X = Center
Y = Center
Z = Upper

4. Create new layer called "boundary" (or whatever you desire)

5. Draw a Polyline around the dogs head, freehand (there are other ways to do this but needs a better bitmap outline initially)
Use the 'Flatten' plugin to move the polyline to Z=0
Make a copy of the polyline (copy / paste)

6.  Select one of the polylines and also the 140 diameter circle then,  Edit->Convert To->Region
Select the Region and add a Pocket MOP (Machining Operation)
Set the parameters to your machine and tool requirements.

7. Select the bitmap and add a 3DProfile MOP
in parameter 'Boundary Method' choose 'Selected Shapes'
in parameter 'Boundary Shape IDs' enter the number of the polyline copy.
cut down to -2.9 to leave a final 0.1 'skin' for finishing

8. Copy that 3DProfile MOP
change  to 'Vertical' direction, smaller tool, smaller step over
remove final 0.1 'skin'


Flatten plugin is here; http://www.atelier-des-fougeres.fr/Cambam/Aide/Plugins/flatten.html
How to install plugins; http://www.cambam.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5986.msg47492#msg47492

[EddyCurrent]

Bill,

the text part

For the text

1.  Draw 155 dia circle centred on 0,0,0
     Draw 230 dia circle centred on 0,0,0
     Draw 165 dia circle centred on 0,0,0
     Draw 220 dia circle centred on 0,0,0

2. Add a Text object ("Milli") of desired font and size (anywhere on the screen but outside of the plaque area)

3. Select the 160 dia circle then, Edit->Convert To->Polyline

4. Select the newly created polyline and also the text then run the, 'Text On Polyline' plugin.

If the text is on the inside of the circle
4.1 use 'Undo'
4.2 right click the polyline then, Polyline->Reverse
4.3 do step 4 again

Now the text is on the outside of the circle but in the wrong place.

5. Select all the letters of the text (they are now individual letters)
then, Edit->Transform->Rotate
use the centre of the circle as the rotation point to rotate the letters into the correct position.

6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 using the 220 dia circle and more text ( "1990 - 2011")

7. Delete the two converted circle polylines and the text outside of the plaque

8. select the 155 circle, 230 circle, all the text letters then Edit->Convert To->Region

9. Select the Region then add a 'Pocket' MOP
in the  parameter Primitive IDs also add the Polyline numbers of the letter centre parts, (i.e. l, 0, 9)  

10. Repeat step 9 but use a 'Profile' MOP with a smaller tool to clear out the small parts left over from the Pocket MOP


Text on Polyline plugin is here; http://www.atelier-des-fougeres.fr/Cambam/Aide/Plugins/TextOnPolyline.html

[huntleybill]

Thank you Eddie. This is fantastic. I will give this a try.

[EddyCurrent]

Bill,

It looks like you did not download the cb files I attached to the two posts above, it might be a good idea to have a look at those because I set some parameters not discussed in the text.

[huntleybill]

Yep...I down loaded them. I'm taking one step at a time in order to better learn this. So I am doing the dog first and would like to cut it out as a separate entity (for now). After I get this down, I will try the whole thing.

I am having some difficulties figuring out how to mill out the perimeter of the stock. The stock is 1/2" thick. When I click on the circle around the dog, I don't know what settings to use to cut through the stock to make the 140 mm circle.

Thank you again for holding my hand through this.

[EddyCurrent]

Yep...I down loaded them.

Sorry, I thought it said "downloaded 0 times" but maybe it said 6.

Use a Profile MOP, Ive added one to the attached file.

It would be a good idea to watch these videos; http://www.cambam.info/vids/ I still go back to them myself at times.

[huntleybill]

I like videos. Thank you for attaching them.

[huntleybill]

OK Eddy
I took your example and ran it on my CNC. Pic is attached. It cut out the image of the dog as well as the circle. I studied the file I downloaded and if finally dawned on me that when the region was created from the two polylines and then a profile was made from that region, it milled the max depth (-12.5) on both polylines of the dog and the outer perimeter.

So, I created another circle and made it 1mm bigger than the first circle, then used that circle to create a MOP using the -12.5 max depth and set the tabs.

I don't know if I made sense with my explanation so I attached the file for your review.

Am I on the right track here? if there is a better way, I'd love your opinion.

Bill

[huntleybill]

I also wanted to ask you why it milled that area just outside of the dog image. It is at a different depth. It shows a blue tool path when looking at the file itself. It did the same thing on mymillitest file as well.

[Bubba]

Check the Z depth settings..

[huntleybill]

Not sure what you mean Bubba. Can you be more specific? I have the stock surface and the stock size (Z) set to 0.