What program to stitch plans together?

[Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach]

Hi everyone.  Is there a free program out there that I could use to stitch plans together.  By this I mean: I have scanned a plan on an 8 1/2"x11" scanner and now want to put all the little peices together.  I need a free program if possible, simply because I can't afford anything.  Can it be done useing Windows Paint?  If so, how.  Any help would be appreciated.

ps.  I also have Google Sketchup 8 and a copy of InteliCad 2001.

[M Spencer]

The ' programe ' is get a roll of tape and a straight edge .
And a window . big ones are better  .

Stick a bit on with a few little bits of tape .
Use the straight edge to line up the next one.
Again use little bits of tape.
And dont puttem down hard.

Keep going.

Then put a little bit of tape at the end of a long bit.
Get it straight. NOW you can push the tape down hard.
Or put a long bit on and then put IT down hard.

You use the light on the other side of the window to line the little bits up nicely.
And dont press the tape down hard till you have . AND checked their STRAIGHT . 

[Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach]

Thank you very much Mathew....but I do that already! LOL  Only I use my wifes good glass top table, but don't tell her! LOL  Actually I want to do this for another project I'm working on over on Hip Pocket Builders Forum.

[PerttiMe]

Elsewhere, people have been recommending a free software called Gimp. I have not tried it.
http://www.gimp.org/

Paint may be too limited if you need to get something aligned that is not straight in your scans.

[Tim Wescott]

Gimp works well, and truly seems to be pro-quality.  But it takes a while to use, and it's not easy to use for a beginner.  I wish I could recommend a book on it, because that would mean that I _had_ a book on it.  I can make things work by fumbling around and looking for on-line "how-to" documents.

[Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach]

Yeah, its going to have to be fairly easy, cause I can barely get Paint to work! LOL

[Dave Adamisin]

I use a free program from Microsoft called I.C.E. "Image Composite Edititor" to put panarama scenes together from multiple photos. It might do it. Go to microsoft.com and search on Image Composite Edititor. If you want to send me a few of the images to my private email, I'll give it a try.

[John Hammonds]

I've used Rasterbator with some success. Don't know what it means but always thought it would make a good name for a model. 

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

Alternatively I also use "Cutepdf" http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp which is a virtual printer driver (free)which instead of printing on paper prints to a pdf file. If you open the resultant pdf file and select print there should be an option to "Tile all pages", you specify how much they overlap and then hit print, you end up with a jigsaw puzzle which you can tape together into a full size plan. A bit more long winded but much more reliable that the "Rasterbator" program mentioned above.. 

TTFN
John.

[John Hammonds]

Hmm, Just re read your question in the cold light of day, I think I misunderstood, (That will teach me to wade in after a few pints of the hard stuff).... I thought you had scanned and already assembled your plan on your PC into a large image, and wanted to print it off on separate A4 sheets to glue back together.  But obviously not....

I have used PSP to do what you want (Old versions can be had pretty cheaply). Also as mentioned above "Gimp" will also do it, but I found Gimp about as user friendly as a cornered rat! I just created a blank page big enough to hold the plan and copied "Floating selections" (Each scanned page) into the image, then merged the layers each time I got one positioned. But if it's a large plan I found I ran into memory errors frequently on my old steam driven PC.

We have a "Copy shop" locally that has the option of scanning/printing to a file (Onto a memory stick for instance) in lots of formats. This can then be printed out as I referred to earlier. I usually just take any plans to them along with a memory stick and for the equivalent of less than a $ per plan if I want a few done I end up with a pdf file. If I subsequently want the plan printed out I either use the method outlined above or take it back to the copy shop and they print from the memory stick back onto paper.

Hopefully I have got it right this time. 

TTFN
John.

 

[qaz049]

Hmm, Just re read your question in the cold light of day, I think I misunderstood, (That will teach me to wade in after a few pints of the hard stuff).... I thought you had scanned and already assembled your plan on your PC into a large image, and wanted to print it off on separate A4 sheets to glue back together.  But obviously not....

I have used PSP to do what you want (Old versions can be had pretty cheaply). Also as mentioned above "Gimp" will also do it, but I found Gimp about as user friendly as a cornered rat! I just created a blank page big enough to hold the plan and copied "Floating selections" (Each scanned page) into the image, then merged the layers each time I got one positioned. But if it's a large plan I found I ran into memory errors frequently on my old steam driven PC.

We have a "Copy shop" locally that has the option of scanning/printing to a file (Onto a memory stick for instance) in lots of formats. This can then be printed out as I referred to earlier. I usually just take any plans to them along with a memory stick and for the equivalent of less than a $ per plan if I want a few done I end up with a pdf file. If I subsequently want the plan printed out I either use the method outlined above or take it back to the copy shop and they print from the memory stick back onto paper.

Hopefully I have got it right this time. 

TTFN
John.

 

It's best to get your plans scanned as pdf fullsize at 100%. This takes care of any scaling problem.

Otherwise if your plan is in a magazine then scan it into a pdf file at as high a resolution as you can manage. When you print out you will have to sort out the scale.

You can download Adobe X pdf Reader from Adobe. It allows "tile printing" on your printer. You can even adjust the overlap on each sheet.

Magic!

Regards

[ChrisSarnowski]

I'm interested in this, too. I have an old set of plans that I'm reluctant to hand over to the people at the copy shop.

GIMP is a good tool for photo editing and so has many many more features than you could possibly use for stitching scanned plan sections together. It also has a user interface suited for the expert user and is hard on the new user. However there are tutorials and documents on-line.

Basically you have to rotate the images and then move them around to line up the edges. Rotation is necessary because it is hard to scan each section perfectly aligned with the previous scanned section.

A scanner may also add some distortions to the image due to variations in the motor speed / mechanical issues. If you find you have a section that you can't line up successfully, you might want to try rescanning the section and see if that fixes the problem.

I have also played around with another free program called "Hugin". Once again, it is an expert level tool that is pretty baffling to the new user. The latest version refuses to process my grayscale images. I suggest trying something else.

-Chris

[ChrisSarnowski]

Hi Glenn,

If you haven't found a good program yet for stitching plans together, try Inkscape. (http://inkscape.org/)

It is basically a drawing program but seems easy to use.

My plan sections are in JPG format and I could open them in Inkscape.

Basic procedure was to do this:

1) Start Inkscape
2) Create a new drawing
3) Edit the sheet size to be big as you need. (File Menu / Document Properties)
3) Open JPG file in Inkscape.
4) Select All then Copy.
5) Switch to big sheet then Paste.
6) Move the pasted image around until you like where it is.
7) Use the Transform function to Rotate the image if needed. (Object menu)
8) If not done go back to step 3.
9) Save (Or Export if you want bitmap)

You probably want to use a different program to clean up the bitmap (dust spots etc).

Good Luck!
Chris