Routing bitmap contour.

Hello...

Does someone have idea how to solve this problem?
For example (I just grabbed 1'st cartoon from the net) I wan't to route contour from bitmap image.
I tried to trace image in inkscape. It's make nice path but it does all internals too (eys for example)
So I try to erase all that and leave just outer contour and then does bitmap trace. Now I have dxf and I convert it to Gcode with F engrave. I got correct path and machine run ok with that.
But the result is bad as cutter compensation isn't on. So I insert G41.1 D2 in the proper place in beginning of file. And got error few lines lower (something with convex shape problem) and can't run program at all.

So Is there some way to do this? (prefered are free software)
To convert image just to outline....
To convert that outline to Gcode and apply cutter compensation!
For compensation I prefer to have more material where cutting is to narow to be done with current tool. (for example narow space betwen leg should be cutted as one piece.

Any idea?

you have the right idea .. but once you have the dxf file , you will need to check the outline that it is complete with no broken lines and repair as required using draftsight for example
copying the raster to vector is only part of the process , it does not produce perfect results everytime unfortunately .

while you have the outline in dxf , try connecting the lines to a polyline first and use that to produce the gcode , this gives a cleaner line , and yes you may need to add additional gcode functions to the file afterwards.. theirs no way of producing the code fully automaticly , but you could modify the post processor later on to add others regularly needed .

whilst a commercial program vectric products are good vcarve .. cut2d etc ..

What I have done in the past is after you have created the path in your cad program (without compensation) combine that path to one continious path and have your cad program draw a line parallel by 1/2 the tool diameter to the existing path then erase the first path.

Rick G

For now I see that best result is if I change image to B/W and fill all internals. After that DXF seems nice.
But still the cutter tool offset problem is present...

(can be done manualy but it isn't only one part....)

as you can see the image has jagged edges , this needs to be clean line , if you zoom in on the dxf you can see the zagged lines and also a double image line etc , i find it best to redraw or trace in some cases to a new layer in draftsight , once the drawing is clean adding tool offset if required ( i sometimes then just scale up the dxf by the offset required ) gives you a better file to use .

i have yet to find software that actualy does this better than a Human eye ,

Now I managed how to do it.

1. Make image as black face (B/W image) in Gimp or similar
2. Import to Inkscape
3. Trace bitmap
4. Delete bitmap - leave traced image
5. Zoom to border and set grid or guide to cutter radius
6. Do multiple Outset (need step small enougth) and observe vhere is enougth.
7. Use GcodeTools Inkscape extension - Path_to_Gcode
That's all....

Step 6 is little tricky. I can't set proper step to do it in one Outset operation. So I set that step to small value and observe result when is right amount. It's easy if the grid is set to the cutter radius and image aligned to grid. Just apply Outset to reach next grid line.
I got good result with that.