Tracing an outline

[geoffk]

I’m trying to trace an outline I have made and then extrude it. The outline was made in Photoshop, see image. I have imported the image into Sketchup and am trying to figure out how to extrude it and give it some height - the border then becomes a container and a shape I can finish and then photo render as a gold container - its a jewelry mount for a piece of stone.
Is there a shortcut to doing this? obviously I can trace the object freehand but its very complex and the drawing tool in SU is crude. Ideally I’d like to trace it inside and out as you would in Photoshop, invert the selection then pull the selection up to the desired height. Compared with freehand drawing this would be very simple. Anyone out there got a suggestion? I have to do quite a few of these.

[colin]

If you have Creative Cloud, or access to Illustrator in some way, you can open your image, Trace Image, and export as DXF. That can be imported into SketchUp. You may have to repair the filled areas by redrawing a line segment.

I’ll upload an example.squiggle.skp (227.0 KB)

[geoffk]

Thanks for that, will get onto it and have the creative suite so no probs.

[Geo]

@geoffk

I’m trying to trace an outline I have made and then extrude it. The outline was made in Photoshop…

Why go to all the trouble?
You can model the shape in SketchUp with far greater precision that working with pixels in Photoshop.

[geoffk]

sketchups organic drawing tools are pretty crude and I’m working on a tracing from an object, has to be very accurate not an approximation so I can fit object to the shape. The original object outline is from a photoshop selection made directly from an image of the object. I’m looking for the easiest way as the form has to follow the profile of the object and then to fit into each other, the previous post looks to have nailed it.

[Box]

Tig’s Skmtools lets you trace an image.

[mrwmrutski]

[Geo]

@geoffk

has to be very accurate not an approximation so I can fit object to the shape.

Converting pixels to vector geometry is, by nature, inaccurate.

@geoffk

sketchups organic drawing tools are pretty crude

There’s little one might call ‘refined’ about jaggy square pixels.
Proficient use of SU’s native tools and Bezier extensions will yield far more accurate and smoother results.
See … Tweaking Tool Tips — SketchUp Sage Site

@Gully_Foyle

I have grown increasingly confident in my ability to trace intricate curves using SU’s limited drawing tools–primarily the Line and Arc tools–and you can exercise far greater control over segmentation. Additionally, there are various plugins to help with tracing curves and controlling their segment spacing. Perhaps you should consider importing the logos as traceable images and tracing them by hand in SU. You certainly have the greatest control over the outcome that way.

-Gully

[NCFatboy]

How did you do this with SKM Tools?