Converting to DXF for Laser Cutting

32 views
Skip to first unread message

Jen Strover

unread,
May 22, 2017, 8:15:44 AM5/22/17
to Connected Community HackerSpace
Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone knows of a good, preferably free tool to convert SVGs to DXFs? I want to laser cut using an image from Wikipedia.

From what I can see, CamBam won't work with SVG files, is this correct?


Thanks,

Jen.

Robert Powers

unread,
May 22, 2017, 8:45:43 AM5/22/17
to connected-commu...@googlegroups.com
Hi Jen,

I've used Inkscape for this before. There's usually a little mucking about, usually with scaling and small artefacts, but it seems to work well enough. If you've got a simple design, it shouldn't be too hard to work it out through trial-and-error.

Cheers,
Bob

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Connected Community HackerSpace" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to connected-community-hackerspace+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to connected-community-hacke...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/connected-community-hackerspace/5bce673c-97d6-4a98-bf71-8b085053d38e%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Lemming

unread,
May 22, 2017, 10:57:51 PM5/22/17
to Connected Community HackerSpace
There's a couple of websites around that do it for free. Just Google "SVG to DXF" and you'll likely find one.

There's a box generator I've used a few times (boxes.py) that only outputs to SVG and I've had good results with said websites.

Luke Weston

unread,
Jun 7, 2017, 12:52:05 PM6/7/17
to connected-commu...@googlegroups.com
Here's an Inkscape extension for DXF output.

http://tim.cexx.org/?p=590

I haven't tested it but it looks very promising for what you want.

I believe Adobe Illustrator can also export DXF, if you have
Illustrator and prefer to use that.

Inkscape can export EPS, starting from an SVG file etc.
Then pstoedit can convert the EPS into DXF.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSCAD_User_Manual/Other_2D_formats

As an aside, you can then open the DXF in OpenSCAD, and take that 2D
drawing and extrude this cross-sectional profile up into positive
Z-space. You then have a STL file of a 3D object that you can use for
3D printing, using Cura or whatever standard 3D printer toolpath
generator. You could probably even call command line OpenSCAD to
perform that extrusion operation, after converting the 2D image with
Inkscape at the CLI as shown above, and you could use make or a bash
script etc to take a batch of SVG drawings and spit them out as
printable 3D objects.

I've used this successfully for basic G-code generation from SVG.

https://github.com/avwuff/SVG-to-GCode

Of course this is not strictly what you asked for - this is not
exporting a DXF, it's direct to G-code and the G-code may require some
hacking depending on the particular machine and process.
Getting the DXF file, then separate toolpath generation with something
like CamBam would probably be better if you need more detailed control
of the toolpath generation and the G-code output.

Any software that generates the toolpath G-code, whether it's this or
an Inkscape extension or whatever is still going to need to know the
machining parameters for the material and process you're working with
- like the feed rate, the cutter radius or laser kerf compensation,
laser power or spindle speed etc. If you don't have control over all
these things then getting G-code that comes out optimally on any given
machine won't be as easy.

The GCodeTools extension for Inkscape is also probably generally of interest.

https://github.com/cnc-club/gcodetools

This page has a good overview.

https://www.norwegiancreations.com/2015/08/an-intro-to-g-code-and-how-to-generate-it-using-inkscape/

and: http://www.keerbot.com/generating-gcode-using-inkscape/

Inkscape also has support for vectorisation. You've already got an
SVG, but more generally here's some handy stuff for people who might
be interested. This is probably a common case, where somebody has a
picture in a raster format and they want to make it into some sort of
fabrication, to realize the design using a laser, milling, 3D
printing, waterjet or whatever. Here's a tutorial on how that works.

https://inkscape.org/en/doc/tutorials/tracing/tutorial-tracing.en.html

Here's another good page on vectorisation (tracing over a bitmap) in Inkscape.

https://www.norwegiancreations.com/2015/08/how-to-trace-bitmaps-in-inkscape/

Here's a great little project which does a cute job with the full
stack straight from paper to machine.
From a sketch literally on paper to a copy of that drawing
"photocopied" into etched plastic.
Looks fun for public outreach, working with kids, Mini Maker Faire
style things etc.

http://msraynsford.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/drawing-to-engraving.html

And here's BlenderCAM - obviously it's what it says on the packet, a
Blender extension for CAM applications for Blender users out there.
Probably good for 3D printing or milling relief artworks.

http://blendercam.blogspot.com.au/p/blender-cam-description.html

This also looks interesting.
https://github.com/xcoder123/SvgToGcode

It's an SVG-to-Gcode CAM toolpath generator all in one, like the other
one above, but I haven't tried this.
Looks like you have to compile from source yourself.

Cheers,
Luke


On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 12:57 PM, Lemming <iner...@gmail.com> wrote:
> There's a couple of websites around that do it for free. Just Google "SVG to DXF" and you'll likely find one.
>
> There's a box generator I've used a few times (boxes.py) that only outputs to SVG and I've had good results with said websites.
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Connected Community HackerSpace" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to connected-community-h...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send an email to connected-commu...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/connected-community-hackerspace/f53efd03-f226-4826-9f4f-c30703a2c108%40googlegroups.com.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages