Can I go from photo to gcode?

[SCCoupe]

I was wanting to know if there is a way for me to take a digital photo, run it into MS Paint or photoshop and outline a part on the picture leaving a simple 2D drawing (like taking a photo of a washer, then ending up with a white backgound and 2 black circles(the washer)), then size it properly, then convert it to g code? A run-on sentence I know, but I dont have any CAD experience and this SEEMS like to easiest way for me to make a flat 2D part.

Thanks all.

[lurch]

Instead of scanning, converting, editing, and possiblly translating into G Code, you might simply draw it in a simple CAD program, output it, and convert to G Code. TurboCad version 7, 8 or some equivalent can be found on ebay daily for a few dollars, for instance:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...134227069&rd=1

The learning curve isn't difficult. Start with simple skills and build on them. Ace converter converts .dxf output files to g code. Ace is free from DAKENG.com. You will be able to do this in no time. Much sooner I think than going through so many programs and processes to get the final result.

Found this link in a search, it is for a shareware program that converts bitmap images to G Code: http://www2.fwi.com/~kimble/scispec/scispec.htm

[ger21]

photoshop has a "trace contour" filter that will give you outlines. You'd then need to convert to a .dxf, then convert that to g-code. MeshCAM http://www.grzsoftware.com can take a photo and output g-code. There are others that will do this, as well. For best results you usually need to do quite a bit of editing, depending on the photo's contents.

[WMH]

In photoshop, you can also create a 'work path' from any selection which can be exported to Adobe Illustrator format (.ai) which can then be imported into programs like Rhino 3D as 2d curves.

-WMH