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First navigate to the bin folder inside the AutoDrawer folder.
Then open up the folder named Debug under bin and inside you will find some files along with the AutoDrawer.exe file.
Go ahead and run it or save a shortcut somewhere convenient.
The directory path should be AutoDrawer\bin\Debug\AutoDrawer.exe
Click the upload button to open up a file dialog.
You can search through the directories and change the file type filter to find the image you want. (jpg, png, bmp)
Click OK and the image will load as a preview in the AutoDrawer.
Click the clear button to clear the current image. (note it sets the image to null but is still in use in program)
Your input in the textbox must be an integer, otherwise the interval will be set to 0.
Each interval unit should theoretically be 100 nanoseconds though that is not realistic since background processes and processing speed add delay to the interval.
It is important to realize that the shorter the interval, the faster it draws but at the cost of some quality and accuracy. The longer the interval, the slower it draws but with greater quality and accuracy. 1000 (100,000 nanoseconds) is the default recommended interval setting for a balance between speed and quality, though you should tweak it to your liking.
A short interval of 100 results in a speedy drawing prone to errors
A longer interval of 600 results in a slower drawing with better quality and precision
The black threshold setting follows the RGB values for grayscale from 0-255 where 0 is black and 255 is white.
The setting you give will tell AutoDrawer how gray a pixel should be for it to be considered black in processing.
In the example, a 200 setting tells AutoDrawer that if either a pixel's R, G, or B value is less than 200 and it corresponds with the transparency threshold setting, it is considered black. A 200 setting resulted in the loss of detail due to the surrounding shade being considered as black. The change to a 50 setting resulted in the preservation of detail because a stricter setting of 50 for black was implied.
The transparency threshold setting follows the RGBA alpha values for opacity from 0-255 where 0 is transparent and 255 is opaque.
The setting you give will tell AutoDrawer at what opacity a pixel is considered coloured and in return, black in correspondence to the black threshold setting.
In the example, a 200 setting tells AutoDrawer that if a pixel's RGBA alpha value is greater than 200 and it corresponds with the black threshold setting, it is considered black. A 200 setting resulted in the loss of more transparent shades while the change to a 50 settings gave more leeway for more transparent shades to be considered black.
The AutoDrawer draws by scanning each pixel and drawing areas around it following a path set by a sequence of eight integers.
The picture below is a visual representation of the drawing areas labeled by integers 1-8
The AutoDrawer comes with three presets of drawing patterns each listing their own path sequence and a custom option for custom paths. The presets are horizontal, vertical and diagonal. The diagonal pattern is selected by default because I found it to work the best and fastest.
Here is a demonstration of the horizontal drawing pattern
Here is a demonstration of the vertical drawing pattern
Here is a demonstration of the diagonal drawing pattern
To set a custom path, first click the custom button to open up a tool window.
It has an input field for you to enter a sequence of eight integers and a diagram just like the representation above to aid you in creating your custom path.
Once done, just click enter and your custom path will be set until changed again.
Resizing an image is simple. When you load a picture into AutoDrawer, its width and height dimensions are listed at the bottom. To change width and/or height, just change their values which represent the number of pixels in that dimension.
After you finish tweaking the settings, you'll want to process the image before drawing. This converts the image into a black and white array of pixels and prepares it for drawing.
Every time you process the image, it will refresh the image preview in the program.
Now go ahead and click the start button to bring up a new image preview window that roughly shows how big the drawing is going to be. This window will follow your mouse cursor because you can determine where the image is drawn.
To draw, press SHIFT and to cancel or halt drawing, press ALT. Instructions are also listed at the top of the preview window.
