Raster and vector images are what we’ll be working with when trying to trace an image on Solidworks. Let’s try to cover the basics of these terms and file types first before diving into particulars. How Much Does Solidworks Cost? Pricing Explained

We’ll be going over all of these methods in this article. This is recommended for more complicated images or if manually tracing over seems too tedious of a job.

That way, you’ll be dealing with an imported and editable vector file rather than a raster image which you still have to trace over. For simpler geometry, this would be easy, but some challenges might arise when you’re working with machine-accurate objects or anything that has very little room for error.Įven though Solidworks’ own automatic tracing tool might not be able to handle them, there is third-party software, such as Scan2CAD, that can manage the raster-to-vector conversion process before importing the image into Solidworks. Luckily, you can use all the sketch tools in the program to just trace over the imported image manually. Automatic tracing would be harder to do for, say, full-blown technical images or physical photographs of objects. But this only usually works for images with solid edges and outlines. Just import your image file, a step that should be a breeze if your image file is in a format that Solidworks supports, and trace over the image.įor simpler images, Solidworks has an automatic tracing tool that should generate sketch lines that go over the outlines of the image. There’s a straightforward way of importing your image into Solidworks, and that’s through the Sketch function. With any imported image, the most important factor is the clarity of the image and the accuracy of the measurements as well as the dimensions, seeing as the end goal of a lot of these processes are workable 3D models that will sometimes be used to prototype certain machine parts using 3D printers or CNC machines. There could even be actual scans or photos of patterns or gaskets that need to be imported into the program for CNC work. Sometimes these reference images will be scanned copies of floor plans and details or hand-drawn sketches of details. With the top-down workflow incorporated into Solidworks, users will inevitably find themselves having to import 2D plans or sketches into the program to be used as references.

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