Do you have experience with 3D printers or CNC machines ? Essentially , a laser engraver/cutter just needs a 2D drawing like an SVG or DXF and it turns on the laser once it moves the laser head.
That’s very simplified, as designing for laser cutters has some “gotchas” (merging shapes to create connected outlines, cut vs etch, etch before cut, inside parts before outlines, etc etc), but it’s the general idea and can get you started.
I generally recommend starting with basic stuff like text in a simple shape that consists of a single cut line (keyring, nameplate on a door, Christmas bauble, etc). Etch the text, cut out the shape around it. Work your way up from there.
At our local makerspace the laser cutter has a microswitch attached in parallel with the laster tube, so it won't output anything if the lid isn't fully closed
That's good! But the bulk of the cheap laser cutters doesn't even have an enclosure of any kind. If you're lucky you might have some limit switches and an e-stop switch.
I had no idea it had been around so long. I only discovered it about 2 years ago when I wanted to convert some multiple-layer files from Illustrator to .STL for 3D Printing.
Those old pages tend to be a study in linkrot. Amazing the web works as well as it does over short time spans but in the long run it all falls apart. Thank you for all the good stuff over the years by the way, it is much appreciated!
I've also lasered lots of things from Inkscape drawings. I've always found it easier to use than proper CAD but still get good results.
I don't remember this much, but a previous me wrote a guide for lasering using Inkscape for Edinburgh Hacklab. I don't think the process has changed much... https://wiki.ehlab.uk/inkscape_for_lasering
I use Inkscape to create simple yet high-quality SVG images for technical presentations/talks. It's great and it integrates somewhat easily with LaTeX too.
Inkscape is fantastic. When I needed to quote a diagram in a paper, I could just import the quoted article's PDF into inkscape and just take the diagram. A quiet super powwr, frankly. Also when screwing around with d3.js, I could create elaborate SVGs in inkscape, name the nodes I cared about, and alter them programmatically in d3. Great tool
In the "Save as..." pop-up, you can set the file type to "Optimized SVG" (among other SVG output types, if I remember correctly). Picking optimized SVG pops up another dialog on save that can be used to configure the optimization passes.
I regularly use this to export small SVGs for the web.
On my 2019 MBP, the thank-you frame transition is choppy in Firefox and very choppy in Safari. In my brief attempt to use the browsers' performance profilers, it looks like 40ms per paint in Firefox and 300ms per paint in Safari. Chrome is less than 2ms per paint and only drops about 20% of rendered frames.
Can anyone with more browser perf debugging experience explain why this animation is so janky, especially on non-Chrome browsers?
Inkscape is getting a little old in the tooth. I've used it on Linux, Windows, and Mac. Even though the features and updates are much less frequent than in the old Sodipodi days, I still haven't found the a tool that works better for my needs.
I use it to generate images and graphics for my books. I wrote an extension that lets me create a layer where I create rectangles with ids that will correspond to PNG filenames. When I run the extension it makes the layer invisible and exports each rectangle.
Maybe there were other reasons for the fork, but most visible to me in the fork from Sodipodi was that each document needed it's own toolbars in Inkscape. And that made me really sad for a long time, because it was clear Inkscape was otherwise "winning," way more active. It just felt like such a wrongheaded move having 4-5 copies of toolbars open, each tied to a specific document. No other illustrator software works like that, and imo for a good reason.
Inkscape has been awesome, both as an editor for SVGs that leverages whatever SVG can support, and as a tool in automated processes. While I haven't used it much when I vectorized a lot of things on Wikimedia Commons (because handwriting the files was easier for some enough geometric shapes), I've been using it for a few years now as part of the pipeline to build a card game [1]. With the exception of the CMYK conversion at the end, I've managed to build everything with open source software and Inkscape has been invaluable.
35 comments
[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 82.3 ms ] threadOur local makerspace has a cutter and I've been intrigued about how to use it.
I've got experience in 3D modelling (beginner Fusion360 user) but have never worked with designing for a cutter.
Draw up a design, then assign toolpaths to:
- cut all the way through
- engrave making a light--dark mark
- Save as SVG
- Import into LightBurn
- Set your speeds and strengths
- Export to laser cutter
That’s very simplified, as designing for laser cutters has some “gotchas” (merging shapes to create connected outlines, cut vs etch, etch before cut, inside parts before outlines, etc etc), but it’s the general idea and can get you started.
I generally recommend starting with basic stuff like text in a simple shape that consists of a single cut line (keyring, nameplate on a door, Christmas bauble, etc). Etch the text, cut out the shape around it. Work your way up from there.
It's so easy it's deceptive.
Oh, and wear those safety glasses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodipodi
[1]: https://levien.com/svg/
https://inkstitch.org/
I don't remember this much, but a previous me wrote a guide for lasering using Inkscape for Edinburgh Hacklab. I don't think the process has changed much... https://wiki.ehlab.uk/inkscape_for_lasering
[1] https://twitter.com/inkscape/status/1721123809002917936
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkscape
Where did this come from?
Long live FOSS <3
I’ve used it professionally in industries dominated by Adobe crapware, and in pretty much all my hobbies, both physical and digital.
Is there some way to export pure base SVG, without any of that stuff in the "inkscape" namespace that carries around page size and such?
I regularly use this to export small SVGs for the web.
Can anyone with more browser perf debugging experience explain why this animation is so janky, especially on non-Chrome browsers?
I use it to generate images and graphics for my books. I wrote an extension that lets me create a layer where I create rectangles with ids that will correspond to PNG filenames. When I run the extension it makes the layer invisible and exports each rectangle.
[1] https://fallacygame.com/