T-SIM V4.5 Reference




Image distortion and pre-distortion using bitmap images (BMP, JPEG)


Images from plane, sphere or cylinder


This option allows projections of any bitmap image represented in the following formats:

BMP, JPEG, RGB, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EMF, WMF, ICO

Multiple images can be projected. For the projection, every bitmap having its resolution higher than 1024 * 1024 is scaled to have maximum resolution 1024 * 1024.

Remark: Exactly, the imported images, before displayed, have to be converted (resampled) to have resolution 2^m * 2^n, where m, n are in the range 0 ... 10.

 

This document contains information about


Projection of a new image (bitmap)

To project a new image, open a solved project for post-processing. From post-processing menu, select View / Image mode. Image manager bar appears on the right side. Click on the icon with tool tip "Add new texture" (the topmost icon with green rectangle and yellow small star):

 

Windows File Open dialog appears. Now, browse for the image (bitmap) to project. Currently, BMP, JPEG, RGB, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EMF, WMF, ICO formats are supported. Once the image is selected, click Open.

Depending on the projection method (from plane [default], sphere or cylinder), light red and yellow box, part of a sphere or part of a cylinder are displayed around the formed product.

Now, change the projection type which will be used (this can be changed anytime until you press Apply button):

Select rectangle, sphere or cylinder depending on the projection method to be used. Use the edit boxes on the Image manager bar to change position and rotation of the plane / sphere / cylinder, and specify the additional parameters:

 

Projection from plane

            

  1. When projecting from plane, specify the 3D position of the upper left point of the projected image.
  2. Using Rotation edit boxes, rotate the plane to the desired position.
  3. Specify image width and height (on the projection plane).
  4. Check Keep proportions to force the image to keep its aspect ratio.
  5. Use Browse button to change the image to be projected.
  6. Any change in the projection parameters is immediately displayed. The yellow rectangle represents the image position and proportions before projection.
  7. Once all is specified, click on Apply. The projection procedure starts and after some time the projected image is displayed.
  8. The projection time depends on the complexity of the simulated part, i.e. on the number of elements used on the FEM grid.

 

Projection from sphere

     

  1. When projecting from sphere, specify the 3D position of the center point of the sphere with the projected image.
  2. Using Rotation edit boxes, rotate the sphere to the desired position.
  3. Specify lower and upper, start and end angles.
  4. Enter sphere radius.
  5. Use Browse button to change the image to be projected.
  6. Any change in the projection parameters is immediately displayed. The yellow curved rectangle represents the image shape, position and proportions on the projection sphere before projection.
  7. Once all is specified, click on Apply. The projection procedure starts and after some time the projected image is displayed.
  8. The projection time depends on the complexity of the simulated part, i.e. on the number of elements used on the FEM grid.

 

Projection from cylinder

     

  1. When projecting from cylinder, specify the 3D position of the center point of the cylinder upper base
  2. Using Rotation edit boxes, rotate the cylinder to the desired position.
  3. Specify lower and upper radius. Check Identical values to keep there radii equal.
  4. Specify start and end angle.
  5. Enter cylinder height.
  6. Use Browse button to change the image to be projected.
  7. Any change in the projection parameters is immediately displayed. The yellow curved rectangle represents the image shape, position and proportions on the projection cylinder before projection.
  8. Once all is specified, click on Apply. The projection procedure starts and after some time the projected image is displayed.
  9. The projection time depends on the complexity of the simulated part, i.e. on the number of elements used on the FEM grid.

Editing projection definition of a projected image (bitmap)

Once an image is projected, its projection definition can be repeatedly edited.
Select an image in the image list of the Image manager bar

and click on Edit button. Now it is possible to modify type of projection, projection parameters and source image file name. For details see Projection of a new image. Once the projection definition is modified, click on Apply button. The projection procedure starts and after some time the modified projected image is displayed.

Removing and flipping projected image(s)

To remove image(s):
Select one or more images in the image list of the Image manager bar and click on the icon with toot tip "Remove selected texture(s)":

Message box with the following warning appears: Selected images will be removed. Click Yes to remove the images, click No or Cancel to leave the images projected.

To flip image(s) vertically / horizontally:
Select one or more images in the image list of the Image manager bar and click on the icon with tool tip "Flip selected texture(s) vertically" or "Flip selected texture(s) horizontally":

Selected image(s) will be automatically flipped. The flipping operation can be repeated in both directions (vertically and horizontally).

Saving and loading definitions of projections

To save definitions of all projections, click on the icon with tool tip "Save definitions...". Specify projection definition file name and click Save.
To load definitions of all projections, click on the icon with tool tip "Load definitions...". Specify projection definition file name and click Open. The projection definition file is loaded, all the projections stored in it are automatically re-projected and displayed on the screen.

 

Exporting pre-distortion

When images are projected, select the first record of the simulated project

and load it (enter 1 in the record bar edit box and click on Load button). The projected image(s) will be automatically pre-distorted. Now, to export the pre-distorted picture to bitmap, click on the icon with tool tip "Export high resolution image (BMP/JPEG/PNG/GIF)":

Remark: The exporting routine was completelly rewritten to provide high resolution images suitable for high quality printing. The new routine is implemented in T-SIM from version 4.45 release 3.

The following dialog appears:

First, click Browse button and in the Windows Save dialog, specify the image file name and select the required image file format. Currently, export to BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and GIF is supported:

Confirm you input in the Save dialog by clicking on Save button...

Now, in the Image export options dialog, specify the required final image width in pixels. A corresponding DPI value is calculated automatically:

Enter also the exported sheet area ( minimal and maximal x and y coordinatest). The initial values cover the whole sheet. However, it is possible to specify any sheet area. This enables export of high resolution images covering just small final product areas.

The maximal resolution of an image exported using this routine is 4096 * 4096 pixels. If you need higher resolution, use image subtivision. In both direction, every image cen be divided up to 10 subimages. This means that maximum resolution for the exported area is 40960 * 40960 pixel. If this is not enough, you would have to export sheet subareas manually.

Click Export to create image(s).

When you get a message saying "Please enter an integer between 100 and 4096.", increase the image subdivision to get higher upper limit for resolution. For example when Image width is 6000 and Image subdivision in X is 1, increase the image subdivision to 2. The upper resolution limit is now 8192.

After export, T-SIM gives a message about the result. If the image subdivision was 1 in both direction, just one image is created, having name as specified in the Image Export Options dialog. If the image subdivision is greated than 1, multiple images are created, each with an extension in its name in for _iii_jjj (_000_000, _000_001 ... ), in order to distinguish between subimages:

Remark: This export works also for images projected using VRML files.

 

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