lake tepography 3d

[timmyb199]

hi all

ok not copying a person here he does beutiful work, but anyway i would like to do my lake and am wondering what software to use to get a tepography map to g code with depths like maybe vcarve??

thanks all

[spalm]

Hey Timmy, welcome to the Zone.

I don’t have a lot of experience with pics -> Gcode (read none) but I will put in my $.02 worth. From what I have read there are two version of conversion. #1 will carver deeper with a dark color and less with a light color. This is the standard jpeg to Gcode converter that is included with Mach3 and others. You have to select your pictures carefully. Not sure the examples you have will produce what I think you want. #2 is PhotoCarve (from the Vcarve guys). It will carve thicker small lines for dark colors and thinner small lines for light colors. You do not end up with 3D but a 2D representation; kind of like a newspaper, but the result is quite unique. They usually rub stain into the end product to enhance the effect.

If you really want a 3D topographic result, you will have to find 3D wire models of the area you want to carve and then use a true 3D modeler (like MeshCam) to carve the model.

Don’t worry about copying someone else’s posts when you post. It might help explain what you are trying to accomplish.

This is an interesting project to me. My eldest son graduated with a degree in Cartography although he ended up selling advertising space for beer commercials. Funny how life goes. I’ll try to ask him about a source of 3D models of land space, but don’t count on it.

Steve

[timmyb199]

hmmm ok well i have a lake map and if u have seen one it has the lines on it for each depth i could color inbetween each line different shades of grey , what i think would be neat is instead of having it be a step down each it could be a gradual down but not like a drop off unless that is what the lake bottom looks like


any more input anyone

[thunterman]

I actually have created one routed lake map using Bobcad. The lake map that I routed had only three contours for depths so it was a matter of just assigning each depth a corresponding depth in the Bodcad. The process starts with downloading a lake map in "tif" format. I then clean up the image using CorelPaint. Then I converted the image to a vector image using Vextractor. WinTopo would also work here. After some more cleanup using Vextractor, I save the resulting dxf image. Bobcad is then used to create the g code. I don't know of any software that would directly convert a lake topography map into g code. For a look at an artist that creates these maps without using an CNC machines, check out this site http://www.lakecarvings.com/ .

Thunterman

[ger21]

http://eros.usgs.gov/guides/dem.html

this site has a conversion utility to create .dxf terrains from the DEM files.

http://www.vterrain.org/Elevation/dem.html

[timmyb199]

bummer i cant get the utilty to work

[Tony Mac]

Hi,

As Spalm pointed out PhotoVCarve will let you engrave the picture of the lake or, if you have the grayscale image of the lake that represents the various depths, then PhotoVCarve will also machine this as a 3D model.

If you could post the image or e-mail it to me I'll take a look at it.

Tony Mac

[ger21]

I only played around for a few minutes, but you can load DEM's into MicroDEM and export a .dxf (HUGE files, though)
http://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pgu...crodemdown.htm

Get DEMs here (you have to register, but they are free.
http://data.geocomm.com/dem/demdownload.html

Download the .gz file, unzip to get the tar, then unzip all the other files. CHoose any file when you open DEM with microdem.

[Switcher]

http://www.cnczone.com/gallery/showp...00/ppuser/1498

http://www.cnczone.com/gallery/showp...00/ppuser/1498

Might help?


.

[rweatherly]

Most DEMs for my area don't have anything under the surface of the water. (When you get to a body of water the elevation is constant at the normal water level)

[timmyb199]

wow wonder hwta software he used

thanks for the replys guys

[timmyb199]

hi tony, well i forked over the coin for your whole software set, it was hard but the software is so easy to use, i am thinking of even using it for my aluminum machining since i can see a 3d model of the part, well i am gonna try this lake different shade thing, i was thinking of using photo v carve with different shades i think this would create more even depth of the lake and not just steps, any input is great, thanks again

tim