I traced a black and white schematic with 8 passes. The result looks good, but it's too many nodes and I need to combine everything that is on top of each other to reduce size.
Is there some way I can do this? I tried to just select all nodes and use "combine" command, but it doesn't seem to do much?
Okay, I redid the scan as just a single scan, but I increased the threshold a bit so now it's darker and it looks okay. It's easier to work with now, but it still chugs like crazy and crashes sometimes when I'm trying to edit the nodes.
I think the problem I'm having is that I seem to have to first select all the nodes before I can select some subset of node to delete.
I could try to import it as is, but it would very much help if I could clean up the inside of the schematic before I put it in KiCAD because I don't want a bunch of extraneous dots and shading in the background while I'm trying to do layout work.
Is there some way to clean up the nodes I don't need more efficiently, or at least without Inkscape crashing each time?
No idea how complex your bitmap is - but sometimes it helps to blur the image a tiny bit before autotracing.
It's an electrical schematic, so there are lots of lines and text. It' pretty important for everything to stay pretty crisp looking, so I'm hesitant to blur anything. 🤷♂️
Fyi Polygon -- You can change the Simplification Threshold, to make the reduction of nodes more or less drastic. Preferences > Behavior.
For this use case, there is probably little that vol.2 can do with any automated or partially automated process. In my experience, this is usually better done manually (yes, the long way).
Okay - can you provide an example file or a part of it at least?
This is the file. It's a board that got very damaged and I am remaking it. I need to upload it to the PCB program to use as a template for the schematic to save time. The PCB program accepts SVG and DXF files, but if they have too many nodes then it really chugs and it's hard to do anything. Ideally I want to get this thing down to a minimum amount of nodes and still have all the lines intact.
I am only an amateur, but I tried several tracing approaches and they all seem to require a great deal of work to get anything that would be useful.
I suspect it will need to be re-created line by line, component by component, also a time consuming task. For what its worth (or not) attached is me partial result of several hours of experimental drawing.
I suspect it will need to be re-created line by line, component by component, also a time consuming task. For what its worth (or not) attached is me partial result of several hours of experimental drawing.
Thank you!
Yes, I see that I will have to brute force the process. Thanks again so much for your help! This will give me a good start. 😃
Beginners' Questions Combining nodes in Multiple traced paths
Inkscape.org
I traced a black and white schematic with 8 passes. The result looks good, but it's too many nodes and I need to combine everything that is on top of each other to reduce size.
Is there some way I can do this? I tried to just select all nodes and use "combine" command, but it doesn't seem to do much?
Thanks
Why 8 scans for just a black+white image? To reduce amount of nodes you can try Path-Simplify - but it‘s pretty drastically in its effort.
I agree with Polygon : you don't need 8 passes.
You can reduce the number of paths. Select them all and do path > union. Then use path > simplify, as suggested.
Thanks for the reply
Okay, I redid the scan as just a single scan, but I increased the threshold a bit so now it's darker and it looks okay. It's easier to work with now, but it still chugs like crazy and crashes sometimes when I'm trying to edit the nodes.
I think the problem I'm having is that I seem to have to first select all the nodes before I can select some subset of node to delete.
I could try to import it as is, but it would very much help if I could clean up the inside of the schematic before I put it in KiCAD because I don't want a bunch of extraneous dots and shading in the background while I'm trying to do layout work.
Is there some way to clean up the nodes I don't need more efficiently, or at least without Inkscape crashing each time?
No idea how complex your bitmap is - but sometimes it helps to blur the image a tiny bit before autotracing.
It's an electrical schematic, so there are lots of lines and text. It' pretty important for everything to stay pretty crisp looking, so I'm hesitant to blur anything. 🤷♂️
Okay - can you provide an example file or a part of it at least?
Fyi Polygon -- You can change the Simplification Threshold, to make the reduction of nodes more or less drastic. Preferences > Behavior.
For this use case, there is probably little that vol.2 can do with any automated or partially automated process. In my experience, this is usually better done manually (yes, the long way).
Yes, an example file would be helpful.
This is the file. It's a board that got very damaged and I am remaking it. I need to upload it to the PCB program to use as a template for the schematic to save time. The PCB program accepts SVG and DXF files, but if they have too many nodes then it really chugs and it's hard to do anything. Ideally I want to get this thing down to a minimum amount of nodes and still have all the lines intact.
This is the autotraced file - I meant the bitmap.
Whoops! Of course.
I am only an amateur, but I tried several tracing approaches and they all seem to require a great deal of work to get anything that would be useful.
I suspect it will need to be re-created line by line, component by component, also a time consuming task. For what its worth (or not) attached is me partial result of several hours of experimental drawing.
Thank you!
Yes, I see that I will have to brute force the process. Thanks again so much for your help! This will give me a good start. 😃