by DrPR » Tue Jan 18, 2011 7:31 pm
I don't think you will ever be able to do everything in a single program.
The CAD program I use (DesignCAD) allows me to work with bitmaps to a limited degree - scale, rotate, autotrace, etc. - they are just drawing objects. However, some of my scanned blueprints are 800 Mbyte to 1.2 Gbyte in size. It takes ten minutes just to load these files, and the redraws drag the CAD program to a crawl.
I can open these in Photoshop (a bitmap program) and edit them MUCH faster. I don't need most of the information in the original files (revision notes, references, parts lists, etc.), so I cut out the parts I want and paste them into a MUCH smaller bitmap file to use in the CAD program. I can also erase unwanted clutter and scale the bitmap in Photoshop, and save the new bitmap file at lower pixel resolution to further reduce the file size. Some bitmap file formats work much better than others as file imports into the CAD program, and Photoshop allows me to translate the image into the best format. Then I import the small bitmap files into the CAD program.
It is best to use a bitmap editor program to prepare the image for import into the CAD program, and use the CAD program to create the 3D model without trying to mess with the bitmap image. 3D drawing programs just aren't good bitmap editors, and probably never will be.
I don't think you will ever be able to do everything in a single program.
The CAD program I use (DesignCAD) allows me to work with bitmaps to a limited degree - scale, rotate, autotrace, etc. - they are just drawing objects. However, some of my scanned blueprints are 800 Mbyte to 1.2 Gbyte in size. It takes ten minutes just to load these files, and the redraws drag the CAD program to a crawl.
I can open these in Photoshop (a bitmap program) and edit them MUCH faster. I don't need most of the information in the original files (revision notes, references, parts lists, etc.), so I cut out the parts I want and paste them into a MUCH smaller bitmap file to use in the CAD program. I can also erase unwanted clutter and scale the bitmap in Photoshop, and save the new bitmap file at lower pixel resolution to further reduce the file size. Some bitmap file formats work much better than others as file imports into the CAD program, and Photoshop allows me to translate the image into the best format. Then I import the small bitmap files into the CAD program.
It is best to use a bitmap editor program to prepare the image for import into the CAD program, and use the CAD program to create the 3D model without trying to mess with the bitmap image. 3D drawing programs just aren't good bitmap editors, and probably never will be.