Learn/App & Interface/Files & data
SnapTrace
Updated v2.6.1At a glance
- Photograph a cardboard template, a cut part or a remnant skeleton and turn it into real lines and arcs
- Square the photo up at the sheet on your phone, or later at the computer
- Three ways to square up: tap a known rectangle, mark a big remnant with soapstone, or lay the printed SnapTrace board beside a small part
- Tap the part to trace it; tap again on anything it missed, or tap what should not be included — every tap sticks
- Outlines snap to the cut edges, come out smooth, and keep their holes
- Enter the material thickness and the trace is lifted from the cut wall the camera saw to the top edge of the sheet
- Add the trace as a Drafting sketch, a Design shape or a CAM part — or make it the plate shape so new parts nest around what is already cut
- Available in Drafting, Design, Plasma, Laser, OxyFuel, Router and Tube
SnapTrace turns a photo into geometry you can cut. It is made for the things you have in your hand rather than in a file: a cardboard template, a part someone already cut, or the skeleton of a sheet you want to nest more parts into.
SnapTrace is available on paid plans, and on Free/Hobby while signed in online.
Take the photo
- Stand as square to the surface as you can and fill the frame.
- Use good, even light without hard shadows.
- Take it with JC3 Mobile and it arrives on the computer by itself, or use any photo on the computer (JPEG, PNG or WebP).
Square it up
SnapTrace needs to know how big the thing in the photo really is. Pick one method:
- Rectangle — tap the four corners of anything rectangular in the photo and enter its width and height. A whole sheet is usually the easiest rectangle to use.
- Marks (big sheets) — for a large remnant, make four soapstone marks near the corners, measure the four sides and one diagonal with a tape, tap the marks in order and enter the measurements.
- SnapTrace board — for small parts and templates, print the board from the SnapTrace dialog (Print the SnapTrace board…), lay it flat beside the part, and JetCad3 finds it in the photo.
You can add reference dimensions — any two points you measured — for extra accuracy; each one shows how far the photo disagrees with your tape.
On the phone you can do this step right at the sheet, while the tape is in your hand: the photo opens at the computer already squared up.
Trace it
Open SnapTrace from the toolbar (next to the calculator) in Drafting, Design or a CAM workspace, pick the photo, check the square-up, and continue to the trace.
- Tap the part. SnapTrace separates it from the background by colour and brightness and snaps the outline to the cut edges.
- Tap again on anything it missed — a light patch of steel, a slug that reads like the floor. Each tap grows from that spot until it reaches a cut edge.
- Switch to Tap: not part and tap anything that should not be included — a cut-out sitting in a shadow, for instance, which can read like steel. A tap is final: the edge cleanup never undoes it.
- The brush paints part or not part where a photo is really messy.
- Holes keeps cut-outs and drops specks; raise the size limit to ignore small ones.
- Material thickness lifts the trace to the top edge of the sheet. A photo taken from the side sees down into every cut, and the far wall of a cut reads as steel, so holes come out a little small on the far side and the outer edge a little large on the near side. Enter the thickness and SnapTrace works out where the camera was from your square-up and corrects each edge by the right amount. The readout shows the camera height and angle it found.
- Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, double-click to fit.
Use it
- Drafting — adds a new sketch.
- Design — adds a shape.
- Plasma, Laser, OxyFuel, Router, Tube — Add as Part, or Use as Plate Shape to make the traced outline the current sheet's stock with every hole a void, so new parts nest around what is already cut.