ArtCAM Tutorial

J. C. Lee 2007

Create Model from Image

ArtCAM Pro allows you to open a scanned photograph (or another bitmap image) directly, automatically converting it to a 3D relief. It does this by creating a Greyscale image of the photo, and giving all the light areas high values and the dark areas low values. For this reason, it is best to use a good quality image with plenty of contrast between light and dark.

Creating a 3D Model from Photo Your chosen photograph could be an image from a digital camera a scanned image from a book or magazine an image imported from the internet

It must be in JPEG, Tiff or Bitmap format.

First click on Create Model from Image In the Load Phtograph box browse to find your photo, and click Open. - the 2D and 3D View windows and the Set Model Size dialog box appear:

Change the sizing method to Image Size, and enter the required measurements of your material in the Height and Width boxes.

The Height in Z box allows you to set the height of your 3D Relief. (typically about 2mm eg. assuming material has a thickness of 3mm, a minimum of 1mm must be left unmachined, so the relief can have a Z height of 2mm)

Click OK with the Left mouse button. The 2D View will now be showing a greyscale image of your photo:

ArtCAM Pro has automatically calculated the 3D Relief for your photo and it is shown in the 3D View. You can see how different parts of the photo have been raised and lowered.

It is unlikely that you will want to use the whole image and it is very simple in ArtCAM Pro to crop the image as follows Re-open the 2D view Select the Polyline tool from the Vector toolbar Draw a crop line around the area you want to keep (dont worry too much about the accuracy as you can always readjust the line afterwards!) Use the Node Editing tool to do some fine adjustments to the outline, by adding / moving the nodes, unitil you are happy with the accuracy. Note: It is a good idea to make sure that Snap To Grid is off before you do this.

ArtCAM Tutorial

J.C.Lee 2003

Choose a Primary colour (LH mouse click on any colour in the palette at the bottom of the screen) Use Flood Fill Vectors to fill the chosen area

In the Relief Editing toolbar, click on the Keep Under Colour icon.

This will remove the entire 3D model except that which is under the colour take a look at the 3D view to see the effect!

Smoothing the relief The model may look a little rough in close up particularly if there are lots of areas of light and shade in the picture. To smooth the relief, choose Smooth Relief from the Relief Editing toolbar And apply 1 smoothing pass to the model.

The finished model should now look much smoother.

Saving the relief This 3D relief could now be saved as a *.rlf file by using Save Relief in the Relief toolbar and added to another ArtCAM model Why not give it a go!