G-code from pics...

[Carl Mikkelsen <cmm-at-alum.mit.edu>]

I saw this pass through on the digest this morning...


>Matt Shaver has been working on a g-code builder that starts from 2D
>bitmaps and derives z depth from grayscale.   His notion is to create
>carvings from pics.  Your ideas here sound like it would be a terrific
>complementary kind of programmer for carving a 3D shape from a 3D block.

For the Stewart Platform milling/routing machine 
(http://www.foxkid.net/cmm/platform/project-notebook.html) I built last 
year, I wrote a tool path extractor for images.  The motivation was my 
brother-in-law wanting a favor for the friend who built his trailer.  Here 
is the (longish) URL for a picture of the sign:
http://www.foxkid.net/cgi-bin/next-res.pl?home_album=/Processed/Carl%27s%20Projects&basedir=./Processed/Carl%27s%20Projects/Stewart%20Platform/Truck%20Signs&res=svga&name=PB040782.JPG&album_name=Truck%20Signs
(Since it's so long, be sure to delete line endings if you paste this into 
a browser).

The output isn't G-code, but it could be.  Would this be helpful?

-- Carl



Carl Mikkelsen
cmm-at-alum.mit.edu
www.foxkid.net