convert hull-drawing to dxf

[jonnyb]

hi there.
Im a novice with CAD, (I use Qcad) and wonder if there exist any program which can make splines from a drawing. This drawing is a 1905 Hull-drawing of a very late model of Colin Archer. (one of his last ones) I started to do the splines by hand but found out that it was not very accurate.
any clue?

[Magno]

I do not know if that can be done in Qcad, but in AutoCAD you can put the image file in the drawing, scale it to the correct units and then create the splines needed by following the lines in the image. A lot of people I know do that.

[Steve Baer]

Hi Johnnyb,
Rhino has a command called "BackgroundBitmap" that lets you place a scaled image on your viewport. You can then trace the curves from the image and save the result to a DXF if you want to move the model back into Qcad.
Thanks,
-Steve

[bhnautika]

jonnyb you can download a free programme called Wintopo, that is a raster to vector converter, that can then be saved in DXF. It’s not a 100% but it’s a pretty good starting point.

[wet feet]

Congratulations to Jonny for the work he did in Qcad.I spent no more than half an hour exploring Qcad and was very impressed with its capabilities.For those who have never encountered the program,it may be necessary to explain that it operates in Linux and may be of interest because of its cost-nothing.

[jonnyb]

Originally Posted by wet feet

Congratulations to Jonny for the work he did in Qcad.I spent no more than half an hour exploring Qcad and was very impressed with its capabilities.For those who have never encountered the program,it may be necessary to explain that it operates in Linux and may be of interest because of its cost-nothing.

thanks, correct. im a linux only guy :-) i try to use what i find in linux. At least qcad seems to work if you jump from 2d on computer to 3d model live instead :-)
but since my product will end up in real life 3d anyway it seems that 2d is enough for me. Mabye it takes longer time to work with plywood instead on 3d cad-software on computer but i rate my hourly salary to zero since its a hobby. :-)