Re: bitmap to g-code software

["Dean L. Hedin" <dlh2001-at-comcast.net>]

On Wednesday 27 November 2002 08:27 pm, D Lampman wrote:
> Hello.  I got this address from Ray Henry at EMC and I am looking for
> bitmap to g-code conversion software to run on Linux.  Similar to
> photocarve.com or Deskart at Deskcam.com
>

There is'nt much availible for free.  But you know what?  It is not that big
of a project to write a program to do this.  I would grab the allegro game api
from sourceforge and use that to load the image.  You then call get_pixel() 
and use the RGB to set a new Z value, and then just raster across the image.

I have a freebie, SCAN2CNC.  It is DOS based but it will probably run under 
DOSEMU if you have that configured on your linux box.  DOSEMU is easy to set 
up.  The file is 330k email me back if you want it.

Here's how it works (from it's help file):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scan the drawing
Load the scan into a graphics program such as Corel
Print the drawing specifying the Epson LX80 dot matrix printer.  Print to
File (so you do not need to have that old fashioned printer, just the
driver which comes with Windows).
Process the print file through Scan2CNC which will translate the printer
file into G-Code.  The toolpath will replicate the printer file so it will
be raster cuts in the x direction with y axis step overs between cuts.
You can scale & manipulate the image in Corel if you wish & the print file
can be scaled as it is translated into G-Code.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now's here's my linux spin....

>From a linux app print to postscript file.  Run ghostscript with the required 
options to read in the ps file and output Epson LX80 format to a file.
Copy the output file to the DOSEMU directory so SCAN2CNC can get at it.
Then run SCAN2CNC as stated  above.  When you are all done and everything
works make a shell script to automate the whole task. 

If you want to get fancy you can hook the script to cron to run every minute 
and check for the existance of the .ps file.    That way anytime you print 
from a linux app it will output g-code!

This is kinda how I print to our novell printers at work.

I have'nt yet tried SCAN2CNC under DOSEMU but I am confident that it will 
work (it's only reading and writing files, and those types of DOS programs 
usually have no trouble)  Email me if you have any trouble with the 
ghostscript command line to do the above.  Read the man page first!