Xref: utzoo comp.sources.wanted:12291 alt.graphics.pixutils:123 comp.graphics:12202
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ee.rochester.edu!deke
From: deke@ee.rochester.edu (Dikran Kassabian)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.graphics.pixutils,comp.graphics
Subject: Re: anything to DXF format as used by AutoCad
Keywords: conversion DXF AutoCad raster format
Message-ID: <1990Jun29.135040.7333@ee.rochester.edu>
Date: 29 Jun 90 13:50:40 GMT
References: <417@keele.keele.ac.uk> <1990Jun28.143847.9013@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Reply-To: deke@ee.rochester.edu (Dikran Kassabian)
Organization: University of Rochester Department of Electrical Engineering
Lines: 28


  I was tempted to specify a Followup-To:. but couldn't figure out exactly
  what would be appropriate.  Those who followup to this message may want
  to do so.

In article <1990Jun28.143847.9013@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> tj@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Terry Jones) writes:
>Well Corel Draw 1.2 will take bitmap files and convert them to 
>object oriented files with their CorelTrace program. [...]
>
>DXF files are object oriented. Group 3 FAX and PBM are bitmap formats.
>There is more to it than just a conversion such as from tiff to group 3 or
>whatever. First you have to decide which groups of dots make an object, then
>you can write an object form of things. This is NO EASY TASK!

No easy task, indeed.  In fact, I'm convinced that it can't be done in many
cases without imposing heuristics that will be situationally appropriate.
I'm interested in any published works that address these issues, and especially
those that discuss algorithms.

BTW, its my impression that the Adobe product "Streamline" does much the
same thing, in that it takes bitmaps as input, and generates postscript
line, curve, fill, and point instructions as output.  I may well be wrong
about that, so I'm hoping that someone who has used this product can comment,
and I invite those with insight into this general topic to enlighten me, and
tell me that the problem isn't as intractable as I now believe. :-)

      ^Deke Kassabian,   deke@ee.rochester.edu   or   ur-valhalla!deke
   Univ of Rochester, Dept of EE, Rochester, NY 14627     (+1 716-275-3106)