Straightening scanned image and outlining.

[Dave D 0]

I'm attempting to scan and cut window masks for R/C car bodies. I understand how to scan and auto vectorize the image however I'm curious what is the best way to clean up the straight edges. As you can see in the pic below there are two lines that should be perfectly straight however due to not being able to position them perfectly in the scanner they are at a slight angle and when cut cause slightly jagged edges on the vinyl. Is there anyway to rotate the entire image to make those perfectly straight while not throwing off the rest of the shape?

Also...How do I create essentially a reversed outline? I want cut a line approx. 1/8th inch inside the existing lines so that I can outline the windows in a different color.

Thanks in advance for any help.

FYI: I'm using FlexiSign 8.1.

[Dave D 0]

Ok. I just figured out how to "inline" the image, but I still need some help on straightening it out.

[mars 45]

Not sure how in Flexi, but you need to reduce the number of nodes.  So get into the node editing mode with your software.  If the two sided of the window are identical - just mirrored, I would ungroup the scan and work with one side to get the lines straight.  You should be able to just delete any nodes between the beginning and end of the straight path and the result should be a straight line for that part of the image.  When you get it like you want just mirror it - select both and group.

You can do the inline on the half image before you mirror it.

Hope this helps. 

-Mike

[Beardown 0]

So are these already vectorized?  If not...Bitmap>vectorize>beiser should do it. Also in flexi, straight lines will look like that. Try this zoom in alot and see what they look like then. I know when I am looking at something freom page veiw it will look (choppy) nothing like Illustrator. Try zooming in and see if they are straight.

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[mars 45]

Beardown is right the lines "jump" from one scanline or column of pixels on the monitor to the next in "steps"  and the line looks jagged.  Even the highest resolution monitors will show "jaggies"  on some of your lines.  Zooming in will show if there are actually nodes making the cut object jagged - those are what you need to remove.  Since you said it makes the lines jagged when you cut I think you have extra nodes.  If you haven't in fact cut it try what beardown said - it's a good thing to know to look at lines zoomed  to see the details. 

BTW I like the zoom control on SBE with my wheel mouse -- putting the cursor toward one edge or corner from the center and rolling the wheel zooms and also lets you keep the part you are zooming in on onscreen.

-Mike

[Dave D 0]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm getting closer. I was getting some jagged lines when cutting. It seems most of this was being caused by the way I was vectorizing the image. I was scanning in color and then just using "autotrace" to select each section of the mask. This seemed to be vectorizing with far too many nodes. This time I scanned in black and white and then used "bezier". Is that the best way to do it? I ask because scanning in black and white seemed to be a little tricky. On my first couple of scans I was getting bits of white along some of the edges which of course threw off the vectorizing process.

One more question....

Once I have scanned in and vectorized the window masks, how can I split them off into different sections so that I can rearange them or cut just one window at a time?

Thanks again for the help guys!!!!

[mars 45]

Dave,

Select the vectorized image and use the ungroup command.  The shapes will be individually selectable then and you can move them around - cut only one - copy and paste and cut multiple copies of one or all of them.

-Mike

[Dave D 0]

When I select them and point to "ungroup" all the options are grayed out.

[Beardown 0]

Open your scanned image. Select Bitmap>vectorize>Beizer.

Now click and drag the highlighted image over next to the original bitmap. select the original bitmap and press the backspace button. That will delete it. Now click on your vector.  Click Arrange> Group>ungroup all.

Now everthing will be ungrouped. You can use the node edit button and delete the nodes you do not want. What I do is use the node edit tool highlight the nodes I do not want and just press the backspce button untill they disappear !!

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[tlzimmerman 11]

My .02 you may look at not doing an auto vectorize on these.  If it were me doing it I would be manually tracing them, then you can control the extact placement of nodes, and exactly where things should be straight curved not jagged and what not.  I do all my tracing in inkscape as I have found it to be the easiest program for me to use.  I have some tutorials on how to manual trace stickied in the vectorize section using inkscape if you are interested.

[Dave D 0]

Thanks a lot for all the help guys!!! I've finally got it!!!