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-   -   Creating halftone pictures with a cnc machine - lines or dots (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3419)

PEU Wed 10 August 2011 22:07

Another photo, this time my wife:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op_tHMJI7FY

http://i54.tinypic.com/69j8u9.jpg


Pablo

Kobus_Joubert Wed 10 August 2011 23:59

Hey Pablo, you could have used a nicer sheet of wood for such a lovely lady :D

Looking good, mind sharing your sizes, settings and bits used. I tried one the past weekend and it was not THIS good.

PEU Thu 11 August 2011 06:45

LOL yeah, I used an old piece of scrap melamine, I will buy mdf coated with melamine that is used for drawer bottoms and cabinet back panels, its only 5mm thick and very cheap because melamine is on one side only, but in the meantime you use what you have at hand :)

I used white/black, a 45deg V bit, min diameter 0.4mm and max diameter 2mm, spacing also 2mm, Z needs to be very accurate using these settings because when the hole is 2mm, and there are many next to each other, there is almost no material left in the surface, and you need it for contrast.
I did not show the other side of the board for a reason :) I set it up a little deeper and in the hair area the holes ate all the melamine.

Kobus_Joubert Thu 11 August 2011 07:10

OK so basically it is one of those ENGRAVING bits. I used my 90 deg 12mm bit.... I see some contrast, but not good enough.

What is the overall size of the piece ?

Did you wipe in BLACK paint to fill the holes for more contrast or is that the wood colour we see. (brownish)

olz Thu 11 August 2011 07:17

1 Attachment(s)
Salve!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Metalfusion View Post
Version 2.0 is up!
Great job Tomi!

It would be possible in future implement halftones with straight lines?


Abs.

Paulo Marcos G. Bubolz
----------------------------------
Design libertário - Arquivos Gratuitos para Fresa/Corte

PEU Thu 11 August 2011 07:29

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kobus_Joubert View Post
OK so basically it is one of those ENGRAVING bits. I used my 90 deg 12mm bit.... I see some contrast, but not good enough.

What is the overall size of the piece ?

Did you wipe in BLACK paint to fill the holes for more contrast or is that the wood colour we see. (brownish)
I used PCB engraving bit, because the bigger one I had that came in a router bits set wasn't pointy enough. Im looking for a local source of this type of engraving bit http://cgi.ebay.com/1-4-Router-CNC-E...item1e63a3e904 it looks pointy as needed for the job.
The board size is 210x210mm. Yes, after machining I used a very liquid mixture of black tint to darken the holes and then wipe the excess with a cloth.

Metalfusion Thu 11 August 2011 08:42

Quote:
Originally Posted by olz View Post
Salve!
It would be possible in future implement halftones with straight lines?
Please, do some research before asking. Version 2.0 also does straight lines.

And for everybody else too: If you haven't noticed, there is a user guide in the readme file that comes with the software. It briefly covers every setting and feature that the program has.

No offense :)

PEU Thu 11 August 2011 13:14

Non taken :) maybe a little question mark that links to the help file would save you answer that question again.
Looking at the source code I found this comment that made me happy:

'the size limits from dxf export tab also affect the gcode generation

I just tried it and indeed a lot of holes are not created thus saving a lot of time.
In my wife carving it would go from 10081 to 6312 dots, about 40% less machining time

Cool :D

Metalfusion Sun 04 September 2011 12:36

Version 2.1 is up!

The changes from version 2.0 mainly consist of some significant bug/glitch fixes. It is highly recommended to update. The dot halftone toolpath is now optimised, it goes back and forth instead of doing long rapids.

Changelog entry:
Code:
4.9.2011 V 2.1

Polishing, some important fixes.

IMPROVEMENTS / FIXES:
	-Fixed multiple problems with path width calculation algorithm.
		-More accurate results with large line spacing values.
		-Much less noise / artefacts with small resolution source images.
		-Fixed path endpoint sizing problems.
		-Improved performance with large image files.
	-Optimised toolpath generation ( shorter rapids ) for dot halftones. 
	-Added "optimiserapids" option to save file format. When set to zero, all path filler lines will be run in the same direction.
	-Fixed a nasty memory leak where none of the memory allocated for the path data was freed.
		-It was caused by the Blitzmax's carbage collector's inability to handle circular references.
	-Now works with huge amounts of filler dots ( tested with over 5 Million dots ). 
		-Also tested to work with up to 100 Megapixel source images.
	-Changed the default settings to give a better first impression.
Download here:
http://www.students.tut.fi/~syvajar3...alftone_21.zip

KenC Mon 05 September 2011 06:28

Thousand Thanks! This is wonderful!

PEU Mon 05 September 2011 12:25

Thanks Tomi, it gets better and better every release. Thanks!!

Pixelated Thu 08 September 2011 08:23

2 Attachment(s)
I thought I'd just add that you can create these sorts of images in Illustrator with the Object Raster script from Scriptographer.org. e.g.

lunaj76 Sun 30 October 2011 08:59

Kind of a Half-Tone thing. I wonder how they do this?

http://www.interlam-design.com/Mirage_ProductList.cfm

Jason Marsha Sun 30 October 2011 12:25

Perfect for cnc.
Take a peep at their wall panels which they call art diffusion

http://www.interlam-design.com/Art_Product_Search.cfm

Its an impressive gallery of designs of which many can be done with a cnc machine.

PEU Mon 31 October 2011 06:56

Quote:
Originally Posted by lunaj76 View Post
Kind of a Half-Tone thing. I wonder how they do this?

http://www.interlam-design.com/Mirage_ProductList.cfm
Check: http://jasondorie.com/page_cnc.html (Reactor Entry) the process take time (more resolution, more time) but the result is the same.

It works like a worm eating the photo, at worm speeds :)

JasonDorie Mon 31 October 2011 14:00

I have a version of the Reactor software written to use your graphics card for processing, and it is easily 10x faster, more if you have a good card. So far I've been restricting that version to commercial users, but I may change that.

I also have a halftone program with similar capabilities to Tomi's, and a realtime preview.

Jason

PEU Mon 31 October 2011 19:01

If you ever release it let us know Jason, in the meantime is fun to see the worms eat the whole picture :D

Thanks for the free software!!

Gerald D Mon 31 October 2011 22:17

I like the "worms" much more than the other patterns because they give a better definition:


lunaj76 Mon 31 October 2011 23:31

Cool Thanks!

KenC Mon 31 October 2011 23:35

Thanks for the great software!

Jason Marsha Fri 04 November 2011 20:10

Oops I crashed VCarve with the Reactor output file. I guess the pic was too big.

JasonDorie Fri 04 November 2011 20:54

I've done that a couple times now. I usually do the joining and the carving paths in sections now and keep an eye on the memory usage as I go. 1.7Gb is the point it goes boom. :)

Jason Marsha Sun 13 November 2011 07:38

Ok that's good. I thought I had to install some more memory.

rischoof Fri 27 January 2012 03:37

load a picture in reactor 1.2
 
Does somebody know how I can load a picture in reactor 1.2?
When I open reactor 1.2 I don't know how to copy in or load a picture.
must it be a black and white picture?

JasonDorie Fri 27 January 2012 14:25

Just drag & drop it from your Explorer, and no, it doesn't have to be black & white.

PEU Tue 04 September 2012 17:14

Found another program that uses a different algorithm:

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2012...in-processing/

Freeware!


Pablo


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