How to reverse engineer a schematic from a circuit board

Step 12 AutoTrace

This is what all the work so far has been leading up to.  You are going to use AutoTrace to turn the collection of fixed lines, into a collection of moveable and connectible lines.  These will become the lines of your initial schematic.

If you are using Linux, or some other 'nix, for the files containing the tracks, run the following command:

autotrace -despeckle-level 5 -centerline -line-threshold 4 -output-format svg -output-file filename.svg filename.png

The important options are:
-centerline
-output-format
-output-filename

Note the American spelling, "center", of "centre"

I used the despeckle level setting for a file which hadn't been first traced in Inkscape. If you included this extra tracing, you probably won't need it (but it won't hurt, either)

Sorry I don't know how this will look for a Windows user.

I suggest you read the manual page for this program, it has quite a few options to play with, and you should try running it with various alternatives.  The important one to use, and the whole reason for using AutoTrace rather than the tracing tool in some gui program, is the centerline  option, which draws a single bezier line down the centre of each area, instead of tracing around it.

Open each attempt in Inkscape until you find something you are happy with.  Delete all the attempts which you are not happy with.  Record the version of the command you used, somewhere.  Add a layer to the drawing, and paste into it the holes picture. Select the image of the holes and scale it so the dots line up with the ends of the tracks. Save the file.  Use the break apart and snap together tools to fix any sections of track which have gone wrong.  Save the file.