CamTrace

• The JC3 CamTrace camera attachment, mounted rigidly on the machine's Z axis
• A connected, homed machine with no program running
• A flat sheet of light paper with a clean, dark line
• Even lighting and a tracing surface that will not move during calibration or tracing

The camera attachment — camera, cable, mount and protection parts — will be available on the JetCad3 webstore and fits any JetCad3 machine with a Z axis. More camera-based features are in development on the same calibrated camera, including scanning a half-used sheet so the auto-nester packs new parts around the cutouts already in it, and setting your origin and plate squareness from the camera view.

CamTrace follows the center of a dark ink line. It does not discover the edge of a loose cardboard, wood or metal template. To reproduce a physical template, place it on paper, draw around it cleanly, remove it, and trace the resulting line.

The camera attachment carries a factory lens profile, so there is no lens-calibration board for the operator to photograph. The only machine-specific setup is Focus Height and motion calibration.

Setup establishes the exact plane where the drawing will be traced and teaches CamTrace how image movement maps to machine XY movement.

1. Open CamTrace from the GcodePilot toolbar.
2. Jog Z until the ink is sharply focused, then choose Set Focus Height.
3. Put a small, solid, round calibration dot near the center of the camera view. Use a dot, not a line—the camera needs motion it can measure in both directions.
4. Choose Calibrate Motion…. The machine makes a short pattern of X and Y moves at Focus Height and solves the camera's scale, rotation, skew and mirror.
5. Wait for the calibrated confirmation before moving the drawing.

Once Focus Height is stored, the button becomes Move to Focus. Its dropdown lets you replace the saved height if the tracing plane changes. Changing Focus Height, camera resolution, camera, or hardware focus invalidates the old motion calibration and requires a new one.

The calibrated camera view aligns to the machine axes automatically. There is no separate rotate, mirror or align-view setting.

1. Place the drawing flat and choose Move to Focus.
2. Click the contour in the live camera view. The machine jogs the clicked point under the crosshair.
3. Wait for the crosshair to turn green. Green means CamTrace has a usable local contour lock.
4. Choose the Speed ↔ Precision level that suits the size and detail of this contour.
5. Press Trace.
6. Let the machine finish the contour or stop honestly if the line becomes unreadable.
7. Repeat the click-and-Trace steps for every outside profile and hole you want in the part.

CamTrace uses a step–settle–shoot walk: move a short distance, prove the machine has stopped, wait for fresh camera frames, center the line under the crosshair, record the measured point, and advance again. It automatically shortens its steps around corners, tight curves and weaker evidence. Hard corners are measured from the image rather than replaced with the rounded path the gantry physically takes between the two legs.

The timer beside Trace shows the elapsed time for the current or most recent individual contour.

The five-notch slider changes sampling density, not the calibration or accuracy of each measured point.

Balanced is the proven default. Finest takes roughly twice as many nominal measurements as Balanced; Fastest takes roughly half as many. Actual time varies because CamTrace still slows whenever a corner, curve or weak section needs more evidence. No slider position weakens centering, fresh-frame proof, loss detection or motion safety.

The selected level is remembered locally. It is frozen when Trace begins, and changing it later does not alter contours already measured.

The right side of CamTrace shows the same measured vertices that will be sent out. It does not hide a second smoothed or reconstructed result.

• Undo Last removes the most recently completed contour.
• Click a contour in the preview to select it, then use Delete Selected to remove it.
• Fit View frames everything currently retained.
• The session line reports total, closed and open contours plus the overall width and height.
• Clear All is the explicit whole-session delete and asks for confirmation.

Closing CamTrace keeps the session. Sending it to another workspace keeps it too. Return to CamTrace to add a forgotten hole, delete a bad contour, or resend the same measurements with a different representation or arc-fitting tolerance. The traces remain until you choose Clear All.

Choose Send To… when the session contains the contours you want. Give the result a name, choose the destination, and select how the measured points should be represented.

• Use a dark, consistent line on clean light paper; avoid pencil, faint ink, glare and heavy shadows.
• Keep the paper flat and fixed. Camera calibration cannot compensate for a drawing that shifts.
• Set Focus Height on the same surface and paper thickness you will trace.
• Calibrate from a compact round dot. A line cannot prove motion in both image directions.
• Start with Balanced. Move toward Precision for small detail or toward Speed for large, simple work.
• Trace every hole and outside profile before sending the part.
• Use Fit arcs when the drawing represents machined lines, circles and radii; keep Raw Polyline for hand-drawn or deliberately irregular artwork.
• If the crosshair will not turn green, improve the line, focus or lighting instead of forcing a trace from weak evidence.