has anyone tried vectorization for engraving?

[Rodney Gold]

You can use packages like Signlab which have a various methods of scanning that produce “photo” output from images , you could also redraw the image and use hatch patterns from AutoCad or use various densities of a dot pattern to simulate halftones.
It is possible , but it is not easy as you have to work out what spacing you need vs your bit width and considering that your bit would generally be at least .2-.5mm , your resolution would not be that great , IE the halftone pattern would be quite gross.
The thing is that you have “one colour” when engraving , engraved or not.
Thus to represent , lets say 16 shades of grey , you need a “cell” that is at least 4×4 the bit tip width , cos to represent black , you would engrave the whole 4×4 and all adjacent “cells” which will give a solid black
To represent the lightest shade , one would only engrave a single dot in the 4×4 cell as well as doing the same for adjacent ones. Much like how newspaper pictures work.

Prior to us using a laser to do this (a laser engraver acts like a printer in that it engraves “dots” as well as doing vector type stuff) I did a few pictures using AutoCad and various hatch patterns , they looked ok , but not fantastic and took a hell of a lot of design work.

[Paul Lowry]

THanks for the advice. I might have a play with this and see what happens. I’ll post the results