Any Tips in the creation of svgs in Inkscape?

[Paul Di Biase]

Hello,

I am trying to use jscut for some cam to use our CNC router to do some cutting.

We have a dxf that I imported and 'cleaned' up in Inkscape then saved as an svg.
To clean up, we did the following:

• Imported the dxf
• Ungrouped everything until no groups existed
• Converted everything to a path
• Combined all of the paths.

When I save this svg and try to load it in jscut, I'm unable to select any sections.
Do the svgs need to have fill? Are there any guidelines to follow in prepping svgs for jscut?


BTW, love that you added the engrave feature so quickly!

Attached are the two files (original dxf and my resulting svg) if they are of any help in trying to explain the proper way to load them.

[Paul Di Biase]

I was able to get something that loaded in jscut by adding some fill to the different pieces. It took a little bit of fiddling but I believe I have something useful...

Thanks

[Todd Fleming]

Sorry, I hit the wrong reply button.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, Jun 29, 2014 at 5:42 PM
Subject: Re: Any Tips in the creation of svgs in Inkscape?
To: Paul Di Biase <paul.a....@gmail.com>

Your conversion has fill, but it's tiny. Here's a close-up of one of the drill holes (zoomed using Inkscape):

This has an inner path subtracted from an outer path. It becomes more obvious when I drag one of the points:

The whole drawing ended up like this, including the text. The fill (black) area is the clickable area. It's also the area that the pocket and outline operations pay attention to. The new engrave operation pays attention to the edges; it would circle twice.

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[Todd Fleming]

Glad to hear it!

[Todd Fleming]

I just tried using Inkscape to convert the DXF file from scratch. It starts out by creating a bunch of disconnected open paths (1 per line segment) and grouping (randomly?) some together. jscut needs closed paths. I tried a bunch of different commands, but none appear to make this case easy.

I've used a commercial CAM package which requires you to manually select individual line segments then use a "close path" command. I've been avoiding adding something similar to jscut because that method's a pain to use and loaded with border cases (bugs). There's got to be a way to make this easier.

[Paul Di Biase]

Hey Todd, Thanks for going through all of this trouble. I've essentially be able to do what I need with intelligently filling the pieces I wanted in different colors. Basically I filled in the wholes with a color, then the main blocks in another color (using inkspaces fill/bucket tool). This created closed paths that I was then able to do outline and pocket on (depending on the cut wanted). The engraving is something that I will want to do but for this specific piece, what is done will suffice.