centerline conversion menu

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This menu lets you create a centerline file from the objects in your image. The idea here is to automatically detect lines and curves in the image and produce a vector file that best approximates the original image. The produced vectors do not wrap around each object in the normal way; they go down the centers of the objects, hence the name centerline.

There are two parameters that control the centerline processing:

Vectorization error
This parameter determines how accurately the objects' outlines are vectorized in an initial processing step. A typical value for this parameter would be 2 or 3. Increasing it may speed up the processing considerably, at the expense of accuracy in the final result.
Maximum segment length
This parameter affects the way the system deals with line intersections, and its best value depends both on the types of line intersections and the thickness of the lines. A good starting value would be 20 or 30. Using a lower value will slow the processing but may improve the algorithm's performance near line intersections.

The procedure for creating centerline files is as follows:

  1. Enter the name you want the centerline file to have in the Centerline file menu field.
  2. Set the Vectorization error and Maximum segment length menu fields.
  3. Click on CREATE CENTERLINE IMAGE.