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Old 02-21-2021, 05:48 PM
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Default Computer software help needed

In the 1950's and 1960's, Stromberg Carburetor Company microfilmed their then existing drawings, parts listings, etc.

I have been converting these to digital for years.

The "A" drawings (8 1/2 x 11), "B" drawings (11 x 17), "C" drawings (18 x 24) presented no real difficulties other than time.

The "D" drawings (24 x 36) are an entirely different story. The individual doing the filming, rather than raising the camera to accommodate the extra dimension; folded the drawings, and took several shots. Generally, a left and a right, but sometimes more.

I have digitized the microfilm into JPEG files, but is there a stitching software available that is easy to use (I bring out the worst in any computer), and relatively inexpensive, that I can download on my computer and recreate these drawings by stitching the parts together. There are thousands, so do not wish to pay someone to do the conversion for me (there is little worth watching on the TV in the evening other than the western channel ). I also do not wish to use any of the online conversions, as uploading documents is time-consuming.

Anyone have any suggestions of a software product that fits the above? Oh, and my platform is Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, and will remain so. For those who think I should convert to Windows 10, we have 10's of thousands of documents created in Windows XP. Windows 7 Pro has an XP emulator, but 10 does not; and the data files are NOT upward compatible.

Along the same line as above. Carter used 80 column aperature cards. I have about 20,000 of them to convert to digital. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Jon.

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"Good carburetion is fuelish hot air".

"The most expensive carburetor is the wrong one given to you by your neighbor".

If you truly believe that "one size fits all" try walking a mile in your spouse's shoes!

Owner of The Carburetor Shop, LLC (of Missouri).

Current caretaker of the remains of Stromberg Caburetor, and custodian of the existing Carter and Kingston carburetor drawings.
  #2  
Old 02-21-2021, 06:38 PM
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Have you tried looking on YouTube, there's a lot of good instructional videos on there.

  #3  
Old 02-21-2021, 06:48 PM
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I use Irfanview for images on a PC. It's pretty basic and easy to use, and I believe it has the ability to stitch JPEG files together. It's a free download. https://www.irfanview.com

There's another free downloadable photo editing software called Gimp. I've used it a little and it seems easy enough to work with. I haven't tried stitching photos together with it, but I think it has the capability. https://www.gimp.org

Another thought is importing the individual JPEG files into a PDF document and stitching them together there. Again, I don't have experience but someone else may be able to help.

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Old 02-21-2021, 07:01 PM
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If you find the download that works,

A puter geek would write a Batch file to run through folders of you docs, and store the conversion in a new folder.

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Old 02-21-2021, 07:21 PM
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Asked this question on another forum, and a gentleman I have known since Noah landed the Ark suggested LView Pro. I have downloaded, and will try. The PDF sounds promising also. I have a relatively current version of Adobe Acrobat.

Thanks to all.

Jon.

__________________
"Good carburetion is fuelish hot air".

"The most expensive carburetor is the wrong one given to you by your neighbor".

If you truly believe that "one size fits all" try walking a mile in your spouse's shoes!

Owner of The Carburetor Shop, LLC (of Missouri).

Current caretaker of the remains of Stromberg Caburetor, and custodian of the existing Carter and Kingston carburetor drawings.
  #6  
Old 02-21-2021, 08:02 PM
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When you say that you want to "stitch the files together", what do you mean?

Do you want to have multiple JPGs in a single file but you're only seeing them one at a time, or do you want to paste them onto a larger background so that you can see more of the components, almost like an exploded diagram?

If it's neither, can you describe what you want your output to look like, how you think it would be viewed, etc.?

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Old 02-21-2021, 08:45 PM
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When the drawings were originally microfilmed, the operator could not film a 24 x 36 inch drawing.

So the drawings were folded, sometimes in the center, sometimes otherwise; and photos made of each of the folded pieces.

What I want to do is to take the photos and place them together, and then again have a single drawing.

Jon.

__________________
"Good carburetion is fuelish hot air".

"The most expensive carburetor is the wrong one given to you by your neighbor".

If you truly believe that "one size fits all" try walking a mile in your spouse's shoes!

Owner of The Carburetor Shop, LLC (of Missouri).

Current caretaker of the remains of Stromberg Caburetor, and custodian of the existing Carter and Kingston carburetor drawings.
  #8  
Old 02-21-2021, 09:01 PM
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I've also used GIMP a little but when I searched for "stitching" in their "user forum", some recommended a program called "Hugin". I'm unfamiliar, but it appears to be a tool for doing exactly what you want (they call it a "Panorama photo stitcher"):

http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

I'm not sure it is "automatable" but might be worth investigating. I certainly wouldn't want to manually upload and process as many images as you have. "Batch" processing as HIS suggests is worth finding, especially if there are 4 images to be merged.

  #9  
Old 02-21-2021, 09:52 PM
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Here is a sample of the problem:

This drawing is photographed in 6 parts.

Unfortunately, they must be done manually; as one needs to look at the microfilmed digital representation to determine both the part number of the individual part, and the number of digital pictures that go with that part number.

I am still converting the smaller drawings at this time, maybe a hundred or so each evening at home; but trying to be prepared when I finish the smaller drawings.

I have the ability to convert the Carter aperature cards, and have had to do so to reproduce certain components; example, we put the correct step-up piston springs in the rebuilding kits for the AFB's. I have a scanner which will scan individually the aperature cards; but loading and centering is quite time consuming. If I had a method of running the cards through an automatic device to scan, then manually looking at each scanned file to correctly name the file would be exceptionally helpful.

Jon.

__________________
"Good carburetion is fuelish hot air".

"The most expensive carburetor is the wrong one given to you by your neighbor".

If you truly believe that "one size fits all" try walking a mile in your spouse's shoes!

Owner of The Carburetor Shop, LLC (of Missouri).

Current caretaker of the remains of Stromberg Caburetor, and custodian of the existing Carter and Kingston carburetor drawings.

Last edited by carbking; 02-21-2021 at 10:00 PM.
  #10  
Old 02-22-2021, 12:44 AM
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Too bad you don't have access to a larger scanner - some engineering and architectural firms have machines that can scan D size drawings in one swoop which would make life a lot easier, but it would be a matter of finding one who would agree to let you use it.

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Old 02-22-2021, 09:43 AM
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Stuart - I have access to a large scanner. We acquired a host of original drawings that had not been microfilmed by Stromberg, which we had scanned, and WAS much easier. The problem is the method used to do the microfilm back in the 1960's.

Jon.

__________________
"Good carburetion is fuelish hot air".

"The most expensive carburetor is the wrong one given to you by your neighbor".

If you truly believe that "one size fits all" try walking a mile in your spouse's shoes!

Owner of The Carburetor Shop, LLC (of Missouri).

Current caretaker of the remains of Stromberg Caburetor, and custodian of the existing Carter and Kingston carburetor drawings.
  #12  
Old 02-22-2021, 10:55 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carbking View Post
The problem is the method used to do the microfilm back in the 1960's.

Jon.
OK, I get it now. That is a pain in the butt.

  #13  
Old 02-22-2021, 12:09 PM
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Just to clarify... you have 4 to 6 digital files for each original print because the original prints were "folded" when microfilmed?

And either the microfilm images or the digital file nomenclature were not systematically named to allow "automated" processing of the digital images. Did I get this right? For example, you can't just look for files named PN123-1, PN123-2, PN123-3, etc.???

If I am following correctly, this means you have to open every file to identify the original drawing and the location on that drawing?

If so, I can only imagine the time you are putting into this!! Yikes!!

I understand your question about stitching the images but that part sounds easier to deal with than how to identify them.

Hopefully there is at least a sequence number on the digital image names so you aren't randomly looking for the matching files!

  #14  
Old 02-22-2021, 01:55 PM
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Shiny - yes. EVERY image MUST be individually processed, by someone who understands carburetor parts, to determine what image goes with which other image!

Stuart - YES, it is a pain in the "you pick the anatomy part"!

But the good news is: they actually preserved the information, albeit in less than ideal fashion.

So much automotive data has just been thrown away. I am happy that both Stromberg and Carter DID think ahead to archive their data.

This is less intense than was the conversion of the Pontiac sales filmstrip/record combinations to digital. We averaged 5 hours per filmstrip/record combination, and have converted approximately 325 of them, beginning in the 1930's. Below is a sample from 1955:

https://www.thecarburetorshop.com/55-1.wmv

Jon.

__________________
"Good carburetion is fuelish hot air".

"The most expensive carburetor is the wrong one given to you by your neighbor".

If you truly believe that "one size fits all" try walking a mile in your spouse's shoes!

Owner of The Carburetor Shop, LLC (of Missouri).

Current caretaker of the remains of Stromberg Caburetor, and custodian of the existing Carter and Kingston carburetor drawings.
  #15  
Old 02-22-2021, 03:19 PM
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Thanks for clarifying. Seems you could still save some labor by "pre-processing" the files manually, assuming the actual stitching (file merging) could be automated.

In this case, pre-processing would be manually previewing and renaming (or rename copies ) to a structured file naming system that would enable automatic file merge..

Easy to speculate for me as I don't have the full solution either but hopefully you will find image stitching (merging) software that enables this approach.


Last edited by Shiny; 02-22-2021 at 03:20 PM. Reason: minor edit
  #16  
Old 02-22-2021, 03:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carbking View Post
Here is a sample of the problem:

This drawing is photographed in 6 parts.

Unfortunately, they must be done manually; as one needs to look at the microfilmed digital representation to determine both the part number of the individual part, and the number of digital pictures that go with that part number.

I am still converting the smaller drawings at this time, maybe a hundred or so each evening at home; but trying to be prepared when I finish the smaller drawings...

Jon.
I would think that using the example as an example, you'd want to be able to rotate the photo so it was "square" and that you'd want to be able to drop it onto a palette in a relative position so that you could drop the other pieces into place and line everything up so that parts of the diagram that cross the fold are actually aligned properly. Essentially it's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, and to get that kind of result you'd need to do each one individually.

Paint.net is a free program that will allow you to paste multiple images onto a palette and align them so that they appear to be a single picture, then save them as a new image file, but you'd be doing that manually. The website is www.getpaint.net

  #17  
Old 02-22-2021, 04:11 PM
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You are correct about rotating to "true" the image; I use Adobe Photoshop to accomplish this.

The image posted is just how it came off of the microfilm, without editing.

Jon

__________________
"Good carburetion is fuelish hot air".

"The most expensive carburetor is the wrong one given to you by your neighbor".

If you truly believe that "one size fits all" try walking a mile in your spouse's shoes!

Owner of The Carburetor Shop, LLC (of Missouri).

Current caretaker of the remains of Stromberg Caburetor, and custodian of the existing Carter and Kingston carburetor drawings.
  #18  
Old 02-22-2021, 04:46 PM
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If you have Photoshop I don't know whether Paint.net would do anything for you that Photoshop won't. I don't know of any product that could true/square the photos, crop them and align them, and create a single file using an algorithm or "intelligence" of some type.

  #19  
Old 02-23-2021, 12:45 PM
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Would this work?

https://www.fotor.com/features/photo-stitch

  #20  
Old 02-23-2021, 03:15 PM
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From the website information, it appears that fotor uses the "cloud", and I don't, so don't think this one will work.

I have downloaded LView Pro, and will try it, when I have the time to learn it.

Thanks to all who have responded.

Jon.

__________________
"Good carburetion is fuelish hot air".

"The most expensive carburetor is the wrong one given to you by your neighbor".

If you truly believe that "one size fits all" try walking a mile in your spouse's shoes!

Owner of The Carburetor Shop, LLC (of Missouri).

Current caretaker of the remains of Stromberg Caburetor, and custodian of the existing Carter and Kingston carburetor drawings.
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