Problem with importing a JPG

[bmpp]

Hi Guys,

I’ve imported a JPG into ‘Solidworks 2008’ in order to use it as a guide to trace. This was done as per Tygerdawg instructions thread559-208988 but the image resolution drops considerably, and becomes very pixelated. Is there any way to rectify this problem as the degraded image makes it difficult to trace accurately?


Tygerdawg instructions:
Open new part
Open new Sketch1
Sketch Tools / Sketch Picture
Select & insert JPG
Scale & stretch JPG to suit your needs
Save Sketch1
Open new Sketch2
Use (viewable) Sketch1 as tracing pattern to draw elements on Sketch2


Thanks in advance.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Use an image tracing program on the original image before importing the vectorized result to SW.

There's a few listed at

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/bi...version_Tracing_Software_Raster_to_Vector.htm

I've used the last one WinTopo with some degree of success, but you may still have to do some massaging in SW.

 

[bmpp]

Thanks CorBlimeyLimey but I need to view the photo in Solidworks.
Surely there is a way to import a JPEG into Solidworks without it becoming degraded or pixelated???

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Are you stretching (enlarging) the image much in SW? If so, you will need to start with a higher resolution image.

I don't notice any degradation when I insert a sketch-picture ... unless I enlarge it.

 

[josephv]

Hi bmpp,

Not sure what is causing the problem here, but in general it is not a good idea to embed a JPEG into SolidWorks (and for that matter Word, Excel or PowerPoint). This is because JPEG uses lossy compression to have a high quality image with a relatively low file size. However, when you embed a JPEG into SolidWorks or Word these programs do not understand lossy compression so they actually end up decompressing the JPEG. This results in very large file sizes and performance issues. This is why SolidWorks drawings with JPEG logos tend to be too large in file size. The same thing goes for PowePoint presentations with many JPEGS.

My advice, try TIF, GIF or PNG.

Hope this helps,

Joseph

 

[Theophilus]

Just scale it back down. By default, the image comes in ultra-huge--like the size of a car. That's why you see the pixels. Knock it back down so you see the entire image on your screen and it will look like the original again.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.

 

[uGlay]

Use TIFF instead.

SW2008 Office Pro SP4.0
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
2.2GHz, 2.00GB RAM
QuadroFX 3700
SpacePilot

 

[Theophilus]

I use JPEGs in SolidWorks all the time and don't see degradation of the image. The loss-less image formats will guarantee no losses, but the pixel problem (in my experience) is a result of the image coming into the sketch (by default) so huge it goes far off the screen.

If there really are quality loss problems being seen, I'd guess there may be something wrong with your installation or image file--particularly if the problem is so bad the image cannot be seen properly to trace. Generally, if the image looks like bad pixels when zoomed to the extent you need for good tracing, the problem is the image resolution--not SolidWorks.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.

 

[bmpp]

Hi guys, I’ve now tried importing from BMP, TIFF and at different resolutions (72dpi, 150dpi) but still having the same problem with degradation. I even created a simple BMP image in PAINT and imported it into Solidworks, but the same issue is still being experienced.

There must be something I am doing wrong. Can anyone please advise?

Thanks.

 

[Theophilus]

Can you post your file for us to look at? Hard to see what's going on there. You should also post the image file. If you don't want to post the actual file, do what you're doing with a similar file and post those.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.

 

[bmpp]

I even experience the problem when creating a file with Microsoft PAINT - draw some shapes, then save as default BMP file. I have attached a higher dpi file though - 150dpi.