Extracting dimensional data from pdfs?

[2Kamser]

if you know/have the bottom dimension and top dimension and the height, why no use sketchup and do the cone, with the unfold plugin it should be "pretty quick" (you sound used to cad pograms)

[looker]

Originally Posted by B-Manic

If the drawing in the pdf file is vector based Ghostscript/Ghostview can export it in vector format.

How do you get it to do that?

[lancer525]

Why are you "stuck" doing it that way? There is no reason whatsoever to reinvent the wheel here. OR the cone for that matter. You need a cone that is (just picked numbers from thin air) 25mm diameter at the top, 75mm diameter at the bottom, and 50mm in height, this is what Siatki-free did for me when I plugged those dimensions in:

Clicked "OK" and got this:

Which is the pattern for the cone at the dimensions I input. The program will save the pattern as a BMP image, which you can then open up in any graphics program so you can color or edit it to your heart's content. I designed and built this chess set:

Using only Siatki and PaintShop Pro.

It doesn't have to be so difficult. Use the tools that do the job.

[Mark Petersen]

Originally Posted by lancer525

Why are you "stuck" doing it that way? There is no reason whatsoever to reinvent the wheel here. OR the cone for that matter. You need a cone that is (just picked numbers from thin air) 25mm diameter at the top, 75mm diameter at the bottom, and 50mm in height, this is what Siatki-free did for me when I plugged those dimensions in:

I don't think you quite understand where I was going with this. What I was looking to do was reconstruct the conic sections from their unwrapped 2d surface. The reason is so I can make some fixturing similiar to what I have a picture of in the Laminating Curved Surfaces thread. The reason for the fixturing is for models that need multiple structures of the same parts. In this case enough F1 and J2 engines for the 1/48th Saturn V. Also the fixtures allow for building very repeatable assemblies that also allow more detail to be added.

[lancer525]

As a designer, I know very well how you can have something in your own head, and not be able to translate it where others can follow, especially if they aren't building the same thing you are. So, no harm, no foul. I hope.

[Mark Petersen]

none at all

[SCEtoAUX]

Maybe this will or maybe this won't be of some help. Here are a couple of calculators that will give you the slant angle of the frustum after you plug in a some other dimensions. Since you have the 2d rendering you should be able to grab the needed numbers to plug into the calculators. If they are not of any help, feel free to circular file them.

http://www.172.com/volcone.htm

ConeCalc


If someone knocks on the door and says 'It's not the chocolate cake', don't answer.

[B-Manic]

Originally Posted by B-Manic
If the drawing in the pdf file is vector based Ghostscript/Ghostview can export it in vector format.

Originally Posted by looker

How do you get it to do that?

You can convert a PostScript or PDF file to an editable vector format using the pstoedit plugin by Wolfgang Glunz. pstoedit is licensed with the GNU Public Licence and is not included with GSview. You will need to download it separately from the pstoedit homepage

pstoedit

or from

GSview with PStoEdit

To use pstoedit from within GSview, use Edit | Convert to vector format. Three dialog boxes will be shown.

The first dialog is for pstoedit settings.

Select an output Format and away you go. If there is an output error that usually mean the file is a bitmap i.e. contains no vector data. If the file is a combination bitmap (textures) and vector the bitmaps will be stripped out.

This works on single page pdfs. Use Ghostscript/Ghostview to save each page you need as a separate file.

[looker]

Excellent, thanks.

[sgoti]

Originally Posted by Mark Petersen

I don't think you quite understand where I was going with this. What I was looking to do was reconstruct the conic sections from their unwrapped 2d surface. The reason is so I can make some fixturing similiar to what I have a picture of in the Laminating Curved Surfaces thread. The reason for the fixturing is for models that need multiple structures of the same parts. In this case enough F1 and J2 engines for the 1/48th Saturn V. Also the fixtures allow for building very repeatable assemblies that also allow more detail to be added.

Aha! You were quite right, I didn't understand what you were trying to do. Sorry!

An outfit called Telegraphics makes a pathlength plugin (which I have) for Adobe Illustrator (which I also have), click on a path, select the pathlength filter, you get the measurements in points, mm, and inches.

What part(s)/page number(s) do you need path lengths for?

Glenn