Setting Up Inkscape

Inkscape is a free vector drawing program similar to Adobe Ilustrator. We can use it to draw lines and shapes that can be turned into gcode. It is important to understand the diffence between vector art and raster art.

Raster artwork is any digital art composed of horizontal and vertical rows of pixels. … Vector artwork is digital art composed of mathematical lines and curves. As a result, vector images can be reduced or enlarged in size indefinitely, without any loss in image quality.

Vector, think math…Raster, think pixels.

When you need to draw or paint a free-style line or shape, we can draw it in Inkscape and turn it into gcode to be run on our painting machine. 

This page takes you through the entire process of creating a free-style curve and drawing it on our painting machine. 

Step 1: Set up Inkscape for our Machine

This assumes you have some understanding of how to draw in Inkscape. If not, here are a series of videos by TJ Free. Before we start we need to setup a custom document that represents the size and orientation of your canvas. 

Document Setup

Open Inkscape:

  1. Go to File > Document Properties
  2. Select the Landscape radio button.
  3. In Units choose mm
  4. In Custom size use:
    1. Width: 1480
    2. Height: 870
  5. Make the Background color: white, ffffffff
  6. Make the Border color: red, ff0000ff
  7. Close Document Properties dialogue box.

Note: the last two FFs set the transparancy to none or opague.

Note: there is not save, it automatically saves when you close the box.

In Zoom mode, click Zoom to fit page in window (5).

Your Inkscape window should look something like the image below.

Important Machine Measurements:
(all in millimeters)

  • Actual size of the bed: 1664 x 1248
  • Drawing limit size: 1480 x 870
  • Offset to Canvas: X-74, Y148
    (from DOT-corner to closest canvas corner)

Step 2: Draw a Freestyle Bezier Curve in Inkscape

Drawing Bezier curves is an issential skill you will need to operate this machine. Even if you take a raster image and turn it into a vector file, you will still need to clean it up using Bezier curves. Here is a TJ Free video on Bezier Tools and Nodes

In Inkscape:

  1. Select the Bezier tool.
  2. Draw a simple curve with just two nodes about 100mm apart.
  3. Give it a small arc.
  4. Give it a stroke weight of 2mm.
  5. With the color black.

The Bezier tool is in the left column and it looks like this:

Step 3: TALK ABOUT OBJECTS AND PATHS

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