How to create an SVG from a pic?

How to create an SVG from a pic?

Hiya guys,

Ive got a picture, its like a black and white floor plan, and Ideally I would like to extrude the (black)walls upward. So how to I get this ready for cheetah?

I recently brought CS1 and it has Illustrator, but I have no experience with Illustrator. I'm guessing theres a way to go Photoshop>Illustrator>SVGFormat>Cheetah, yes?

So far I've tried this:
In photoshop goto paths palette(instead of layers or channels) and clicked "New Path" Then gone File>Export>Paths to illustrator, but in illustrator Im not seeing any path, and I dont know my way round its interface.

Doe anyone have any 1,2,3 and extrude advices? Thanks
AC

You can open the picture in illustrator and choose the picture object and go to object in the menubar and choose live trace, you may need to tweek the parameters and then make it. Then save it as svg and import it to cheetah3d.

cnitteberg said:

You can open the picture in illustrator and choose the picture object and go to object in the menubar and choose live trace, you may need to tweek the parameters and then make it. Then save it as svg and import it to cheetah3d.

Click to expand...

I've always found illustrator to be completely confusing.

How do I "Select the picture object" exactly? I also tried flattening my image but still have two nodes, which confuses me.

I have no access to "Live trace" under any menus I have looked into.

Thanks again
AC

I believe LiveTrace was added to the CS2 version of Illustrator - as you own CS1, you may be out of luck.

LiveTrace offers the same functionality as an old OS 9 Adobe program called Streamline.

Sorry i could not be of more help.

Yes, you are probably right. But there is a similar function in the opensource software incskape(run through x11), so you could try it out! its called something like "draw off bitmap" or something, but I don`t have the english version so I am not sure of the name of the function. You also have to select the bitmap here by clicking on it!

Hi Aaron.
Inkscape got a very efficient autotracer.
I just made a screenshot from your drawing and sent it to Inkscape. I attached the svg, untouched - I know there a lot more knots in there you don´t need at last, but we are talking about a solution within seconds - not even minutes.

With kindest regards
Frank

The problem here is that SVG is a vector format, and (unless you're using paths) your original photoshop picture will be a raster image. So at some stage in the process you need to do some tracing.:smile:

Either:
(1) Save as jpg from photposhop, use this to create a blueprint in C3D, and trace over it in C3D; or
(2) Use an auto tracing tool (eg 'Auto Trace' in Illustrator 10, or 'Trace Bitmap' if you have Vectorworks) to create vectors and export them as SVG for use in C3D. I'm sure there are lots of other tracing tools around
(3) Your image looks simple enough to just trace over by hand - you'd get better results probably. Then export as SVG etc.

..... and if you are more familiar with Photoshop you can try the drawing tool (P) and it will generate the vector data for you. Save as pdf and load into Cheetah3d and you´re done.

Cheers
Frank

Edit: add zipped pdf example.

Hey great stuff guys,

I'm going to go with the create pdf in photoshop approach. (Yup I'm gonna skip around that crazy Illustrator app again).

Inkscape is like gimp for me, in that even though I have x11 installed, it wont run. So I've never managed to get inkscape or Gimp running on my machine. which is a bit of a shame. Ive tried double clicking the x11 app then running these apps straight after and it just keeps saying I need to install x11, again and again.

Making the spline in c3d is a great idea too, I hadnt thought of that.

Off topic, was it daylight savings change where you are today? IN NZ we dont change until April6 but all 3 macs I used today went back an hour in time..? Which meant I missed the bus, missed my favorite tv show and almost missed picking the kids up from school!

argh

Can someone tell Apple?

Cheers y'all
AC

Haven't used it but pretty sure it has a trace feature: Scribus

Illustrator has had some form of autotrace in it since Illustrator 88 (v. 2) so I don't think CS1 folks should have any issue (except finding it ;-) ).

fwiw, Illustrator always did my head in too :shock:

QCad or Intaglio are my vector drawing programs of choice. (although I've been playing with Eazydraw and OmniGraffle recently too).

Illustrator is hideously difficult to learn, but it's also very, very good and has no credible rivals since Freehand was discontinued. And since fundamentally they're all bezier drawing programs there's no fundamental difference in difficulty -- Illustrator just has ridiculously more functionality.

That said, Illustrator is pretty expensive.

If you have access to Illustrator, learn to use it.

I have to agree, Illustrator is an amazing app and extremely powerful I use it everyday and am still learning new stuff. Never was a big Freehand fan even when though I learnt on Aldus Freehand back in the Stone Age. Corel was ok but for alot of the stuff I did for packaging ArtPro was the best.

Andrew

P.S. Cheetah was a good set of spline tools, once you get your head round how they work they can be quite powerful.