How to Trace image to Drawing easily, accurately and quickly.

[Yogesh.T]

My AutoCAD human resource is taking 50hrs to trace the outline of something vehicle as seen in attached file. Our client has tons of vehicle images to be converted to .drg, bypassing 3D model. I was wondering if someone has a software that can convert image to as if drawn by a engineering drafting pen. .2mm / .4mm / 1mm sharpie.

Thanks for all your brainstorming. This may save us a tons. Thanks in ADVANCE!

So much of Creo.. So little time.!

[StephenW]

Is that a Stewart and Stevenson FMTV/LMTV?

[Yogesh.T]

This is not a confidential. So YES! They are solid old Provens, getting facelift and work for upgrades.

[StephenW]

I worked on a few projects on that truck and some other variants. I have a lot of buddies who worked a good portion of their career on that truck

[Yogesh.T]

Sweet!

[StephenW]

I've never seen anything that will take an actual product image and make a drawing from the image.

I have used a few programs to take an old paper drawing and generate a somewhat decent vector file from a scan of the drawing.

[Yogesh.T]

Exactly. Me neither. The reason I ask. Want to see how advanced the AI boys are out there. ANYONE, Anybody with some thoughts?

[Michael · Accepted solution]

black-and-white technical line drawing

Task

Convert the attached photo into a black-and-white technical line drawing suitable for a USPTO patent figure.

Framing & scale

• Present a wide shot of the entire object, centered on a pure-white background.

• The object must occupy no more than 60 % of the canvas in both width and height, leaving at least 20 % blank white margin on every side for future annotations.

• Keep the object’s flat front view orthographic and proportions exactly as in the photo—do not rotate, skew, or alter its geometry.

Style & execution

• Clean, minimal, vector-style line art only.

• Uniform stroke weight; high-contrast black lines on white; absolutely no shading, color, textures, or background elements.

Detail fidelity

• Reproduce every visible mechanical or structural feature: edges, contours, holes, fasteners, seams, surface transitions, etc.

• If any portion is obscured or out of frame, terminate the geometry cleanly—do not invent or infer unseen details.

Negative constraints

• No close-ups, cropping, zoom-ins, or artistic reinterpretation.

• No added features, embellishments, or background objects.

Output requirement

A single high-resolution image that reads like a traditional cad drawing view: crisp lines, consistent stroke thickness, generous white space, ready for annotation.

[Yogesh.T]

Interestingly this is close. Can you guide step-by-step to get to this?

Is this the note as an instruction to a program or done by someone with sketch with bringing image?

Need more clarity.

Thanks

[Michael]

Use ChatGPT with this prompt and your photo. 

[Yogesh.T]

Hi Michael,

First, thanks for the PROMPT. It works well and very interesting to dive deep..

Your prompt is close but not producing exactly as it will generate from .prt to .drw CAD . 

I would want you to play/try-error-try with this prompt and with multiple Ai's . For me Gemini the best yet. 

Pl provide your findings on this. 

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From the attached image, create a high-quality engineering technical line drawing in pure black and white.

Requirements:

Line thickness to be between 0.25 mm to 0.8 mm in proportion.

Each element of Draw line to start and stop sharp.

Fit the object in 6” × 6” frame with maximum resolution.

Maintain the exact view angle profile of the object in the source image. Do not skew, rotate, or alter geometry.

Edges and corners must be rendered as cleanly rounded transitions.

Avoid sharp corners.

No artistic, No hatching, shading, textures, or sketch effects.

Exclude anything obscured or not present in the image.

No annotation, title blocks, symbols, arrows, dimensions or notes.

Remove any background elements.

Background to be white.

Output to be crisp, high-contrast, vector-style technical engineering drawing suitable for patent submission or mechanical documentation.

--CREO! So much to learn.. So much fun!!

[Yogesh.T]

I did some deep dive into your prompt. Now it can create some serious line engineering data directly from PIC. One sample attached. 

What would be the best way to bring it in my creo drawing? Any ideas. There are two ways I think of . 

1. Bring directly as image 

2. Convert to dxf and import in to drw

.......

Any other better options? Thx in adv..

more Creo...more to learn...!!

[Dale_Rosema]

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