Scan2cad Hints & Tips

Some keyboard shortcuts M Magnify at cursor F Expand zoomed view to Fill the screen D Demagnify Home Zoom Extents R View Raster only V View Vectors only Hints & Tips B View Both raster and vectors Shift+F Fade raster (makes Scanning Checklist vectors easier to see) G Turn vector Grab You can eliminate most vectorization problems by scanning Points on/off your drawings using the checklist below. C Turn vector Colors on/off photo) will normally create an Color, grayscale or Ctrl+F8 Clear vectors image that contains 256 shades monochrome? Ctrl+D Measure in pixels. of gray. Most scanners give you the Grayscale images are not Color, grayscale or option of scanning in color, normally suitable for raster to monochrome grayscale or monochrome. vector conversion. You should These options have different only select Grayscale if you are When you open a raster file in names depending on the make going to convert the grayscale Scan2CAD there is a number of scanner you have. image to black and white after after the file name at the top of scanning using Scan2CAD’s the screen. This tells you what Color Threshold functions: Your scanner’s color option will type of raster image it is: normally create a raster image • Simple Threshold - click . (2) Monochrome image with 16.7 million colors. • Adaptive Threshold - click . (256) Grayscale or 256 colors You should only use this option See the Scan2CAD Help for (16.7M) 16.7 million colors if you are scanning a color more information on Simple and drawing with a view to Adaptive Thresholds. Don’t use JPEG or GIF! converting it to a color DXF file. Warning: Grayscale images Do not use your scanner’s color • JPEG and GIF files from the can be very large. An E/A0 size option if you are scanning a web are likely to be too low drawing scanned in grayscale at black and white drawing - it is resolution to vectorize well. 300 dpi will take up about easy to do this by accident as • Saving an image as JPEG or GIF 128Mb of memory. most scanners default to color. normally reduces its quality. Monochrome • JPEGs and GIFs are always If you are scanning a color Your scanner’s monochrome color and are unsuitable for drawing that you want to option (often called line art, black and white drawings. convert to a color DXF file, black and white drawing, 1 bit) experiment with your scanner's will create a much smaller settings until the colors on the White lines on a image that contains two colors raster image are as high black background - black and white. This is the contrast, vibrant and saturated option you should normally as possible. If your image has white lines choose. on a black background click Warning: Color images can be When you scan a drawing in to reverse it. Scan2CAD works very large. E/A0 size drawings monochrome your scanner or on images with black lines on a scanned in color at 300 dpi will scanning software has to make white background. take up about 385Mb of memory. a decision about which parts of Grayscale the drawing to set to black in Auto Deskew Your scanner’s grayscale option the raster image and which to (often called black and white set to white. If your image is monochrome, you can deskew it automatically Continued overpage ... by clicking . Stuck? Questions? Email us at [email protected]. Web: www.softcover.com Page 1 © Softcover International Ltd 2002-2006. Scan2CAD is a registered trademark of Softcover International Ltd. Scanning Checklist ... Continued If your drawing is clean and Resolution Saving raster files sharp this is not normally a problem. However if your It is not true that the higher If you’re not scanning directly drawing has faint lines or a dirty the scanner resolution, the into Scan2CAD, save scanned or tinted background you will better the vectorization results. drawings as BMP or, better, as have to experiment with your For most drawings 200 or 300 packbits, Fax Group 3 or Fax scanner’s settings until you get dpi is adequate. Group 4 TIFF files. TIFF files a raster image where, as far as make more economic use of possible, the parts of the raster However, if a drawing is small hard disk space than BMP files. image that are supposed to be (e.g. a logo) or has fine detail, black are black and the parts you may need a higher scanner DO NOT save your files as that are supposed to be white resolution (see Using Scan2CAD multi layer/page TIFF which are white. to convert logos included with Scan2CAD does not support or these Hints and Tips). On some as JPEG or GIF, which are color If your scanner or scanning drawings you may need a lower only formats. software sets too much of the resolution. Ideally, aim for drawing to white, it may scanned lines that are about 5 contain breaks and holes. Faint Filling the gray area on pixels thick. parts may be lost. the screen ... Scanning physical items If your scanner or scanning When you select an area to software sets too much of the zoom into (e.g. the area Scanning a physical part like a drawing to black, text enclosed by the red rectangle characters may “bleed” so that gasket or similar for profiling below) ... white spaces within them or can be problematic. Because between them become filled parts have a thickness they and speckles and dirt may produce shadows when you appear in the background. scan them. Once in Scan2CAD it can be hard to tell where the Too much Too much part ends and the shadow white black begins. Here are two suggestions to help get around the problem. Only the exact area you have Suggestion 1 chosen is displayed on the 1.Lay the part on a piece of screen: white paper. 2. Carefully trace around it with Optimal a fine, sharp pen to get a tight fitting profile. 3. Scan and vectorize the trace. Suggestion 2 To reduce shadowing, put a To expand the displayed area black sheet of paper or card so it fills the screen, press F over the part in the scanner. for Fill: Rather than experiment with You may also want to try spray your scanner settings until you painting the part white. When get optimal levels of black and you scan, the shadows will white you may find it easier to simply become part of the black scan your drawing in grayscale. background. You can then use Scan2CAD’s Threshold functions to create a This will give you a reversed black and white image after image with a white part on a If you press F again, the view scanning. This will allow you to black background. In Scan2CAD, will zoom out slightly so you experiment with different levels click to switch the image so can see more of the image of black and white without you end up with a black part on the screen. having to rescan the drawing. on a white background. Stuck? Questions? Email us at [email protected]. Web: www.softcover.com Page 2 © Softcover International Ltd 2002-2006. Scan2CAD is a registered trademark of Softcover International Ltd. How to use Scan2CAD Create a color DXF file from a color raster image This page assumes you are using Scan2CAD v7.5 or later and that you have not turned off the Warning:Color Image dialog that 1.Click to load a BMP, TIFF appears if you load an image that contains more than two colors. etc. raster file, or scan a If you have turned the dialog off, reinstall Scan2CAD to reactivate it. drawing using File>Acquire. This page outlines basic steps only. You may prefer to use Andrea’s The Warning: Color Image Real World Guide, which tells you how to handle imperfect scans dialog appears. Select the and tweak vectorization settings. You can get a copy by going to fourth option and click OK. www.softcover.com and clicking the Hints and Tips button. 2.Go to Palette>Reduce Colors Convert a black and white image Auto. Select a manageable number of colors, e.g. 32. Without OCR With OCR OCR (text recognition) is Use this method if your drawing 3.Go to Palette > View/Edit optional. Use this method if has clear sharp text characters Palette and group together your drawing has no text or the that you want to vectorize. similar colors: text is poor quality. Follow Steps 1 to 5 of a)Select all shades of a color 1.Click to load a BMP, TIFF Without OCR. Then: (e.g. all shades of red) - click etc. raster file, or scan a 6.Scan2CAD’s text recognition on the shades in the palette drawing using File>Acquire. recognizes raster text when: (right), in the Preview Window (left), or both. (You The Warning: Color Image • The text is easily legible. may find this easier if you dialog may appear. If it does: • Characters do not touch each select Hue in the dialog.) a)Select the second option. other or other drawing elements. b)Click . b)Click OK. If a warning appears, • Characters are not at c) Click on one of the colors you click Yes. You will enter the different orientations. selected in (a). Simple Threshold dialog. • Characters are in a font that d)Click Preview Change. The c) Move the slider to a position Scan2CAD can recognize. colors you selected in (a) are where the lines on your Work through the Raster changed to the color you image are as solid as possible Text Quality Checklist selected in (c).

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