How do I go about scanning parts and importing outlines into Inventor or AutoCAD?

Hi Guys,

I have a couple of engine gaskets I want to get scanned and import either into Inventor or AutoCAD. What is the best way to do this?

Thanks.

Dave

When you say "scanned" do you mean a 3D point cloud or do you mean a bitmap 2d picture (jpg, png, bmp)?

Point cloud - get as Excel format file and import.

Bitmap image - start sketch and import image. You will need to sketch a circle or line of appropriate known size for reference and then dimension the image to scale it to appropriate size.

Hi JD, the latter, unless I go to a print bureau with Corel Draw and get them to create and convert a jpg into DXF. What is the best way to go?

Regards.

Dave

Should be trivial. Attach a scanned image here if you have trouble. I always put on one sketch and fully constrain. Then do my other sketches. Here is a 3D example.

Notice that I turned off the background of the image.

Thanks but I still don't know what the preferred scanner file type is, it could be TIFF, JPG, PDF, BMP - which is best to get the most accurate transfer, and how accurate can I reaslistically expect it to be? I ask this because I know for example that when a Zerox print (OK so it's a different system) is made the image is actually scaled up by 1%. Although I have never understood why this is so.

Could you please explain how you got that image on your sketcher screen?

Thanks.

Dave

I've got to get back to work, but I'll come back and explain a bit more.

Ah! - now I see. I have never explored that icon before - I can't think why not. Thanks J.D. everything falls into place now.

Regards.

Dave

Experiment with the different image types. jpg does not tend to work well. For some reason Word doc inserted works great, I saw the explanation somewhere that led me to realize why *.doc works well (and why I don't really need to use *.doc) but unfortunately I was too busy and now don't remember the best way.

In any case an image generally needs to be scaled after import by adding a dimension and unless the object was thin and flat there is always going to be parallax error. But designers tend to use nice even numbers - so even if the image isn't perfect you can create sketch close to image and then dimension. Based on the dimension you can figure out the design intent and round the dimension to standard sizes/tools.

Thanks for the "low down" JD.

Actually both items I want to scan are flat and not more that 0.6mm thick, so parallax errors should not be an issue.

As both items will fit together on an A3 scanner I was hoping that I might get a true 1:1 image. However, providing that the image is uniform in both X & Y then I should be able to scale them without problems.

Regards & best wishes.

Dave

I scan things often. However not often enough to remember how to use all the features.

1. I import it in acad as a raster image in any format

2. trace over the top of the image. I use the image as a guide only as I draw

3. erase raster image

4. import the acad drawing as a scetch in inventor

Hello, and thanks for your input.

Your remarks raise a question though - why bother with AutoCAD, why not just take the image straight into Inventor as JD suggests. What advantage does your method have?

I would agree that certain things are easier done in AutoCAD, but I am not sure that this is one of them as it seems an unnecessary complication. Mind you, I have never done this kind of thing before so what do I know!

One of the gaskets I have already created within Inventor, the other is much more complex and will have to be scanned. This project is on temporary hold at the moment, but I will bear in mind everything that has been said and try both methods to find the one that suits me best.

Thanks to all, I appreciate your help.

Dave

- why bother with AutoCAD..

I would bring directly into Inventor rather than do the extra work of going through AutoCAD.

I am trying to follow this to make a sketch and I am having trouble. When I import the image in it has really bad quality and won't scale properly. It also has the filename underneath it. What can I do differently? I import it into my sketch and place it and this is what I get: