ContourTrace 2022

ContourTrace is a professional tool that can be handy for engineers and users who deal with model creation and inspection, manufacturing, etc. Its direct purpose is to extract object contours and convert them to the DXF format, in order to be used with CAD utilities.

When you load in your first image, you can notice the vertical ribbon from under the Image combo menu. From there you can pick the contour type you want to apply, and then extract it.The ribbon options can be dismissed or added, depending on your needs. To find all the available items, go to View and check the boxes you deem useful.

If you click on the focused lens symbol from the toolbar, you gain access to a so-called Camera Calibration tab. This feature should help you create calibration files for future projects, calibrations that should fix camera errors or distortion effects. However, this menu is bugged, as the ? function that is supposed to offer detailed information freezes when clicked on, and the file creation button (Create Calibration file...) causes the app to crash.

The DXF format (Drawing Exchange Format) was developed to help users easily import/export documents between CAD-related programs. As mentioned above, ContourTrace is more of a professional tool, as the image contours you export can be uploaded into a CAD app to be subjected to measurements, design changes or improvements, inspection and also manufacturing.

ContourTrace looks and feels like a professional tool that can serve a well-determined purpose, but it still requires some polishing, especially to the camera calibration system. Besides these somehow small issues, there were no other functionality problems discovered during the testing process, so the main job of extracting contours is not affected.