Libre-Cad. I have a design on it and want to know if it can be understood by the laser cutter.

[shykitten55]

It is a  simple design (face plate) for my pot plant waterer - how ever it is spelt.

The project has come a way now and it is getting there!    Just a few things to get going.

So it (the file) is basically a drawing of the front panel and where the holes need to be.

Though what I would also like to add are descriptors on the panel for what each thing is/does.

I can't get Libre-CAD to do that, as the fonts are "weird" and don't seem to work/show text as I would expect.

(Or, as something else cut it out "flipped" - or: as seen from the back) and burn/score marks for where the things/components go.)

When would be a good time to come over with the file?

It is in .dxf format.


Thanks much in advance.

[Peter Hardy]

The problem with LibreCAD is that it doesn't support nice TrueType fonts. For a while I was working around that by creating my labels in inkscape, exporting those as DXF paths and then importing them in to LibreCAD by following this process (referring to notes from a couple years ago):

• Draw text in Inkscape.
• Scale to appropriate height, move to appropriate zero point - (0, 0) will be used as the origin in LibreCAD.
• Convert to Path: Path -> Object to Path
• Ungroup: Object -> Ungroup. Keep all letters selected.
• Create a union of all letters: Path -> Union
• Save as DXF.
• Import text in to LibreCAD as a block.
• Explode block, delete block.

Doing it that way... mostly works. But you'll probably find that the software for the laser also has a lot of trouble dealing loading DXF files exported directly from LibreCAD, frequently just freezing and crashing hard when it tries to load them. The way around that is to save a DXF from LibreCAD, open it in inkscape and then save a new DXF from inkscape, then the laser software will import and cut it just fine.

So I ended up cutting out the middleman. Save your panel design without text in LibreCAD. Load it up in inkscape. Add your text in inkscape. Save a new DXF, and transfer that to the laser cutter.

The only thing you need to be aware of there is that the laser still works with paths, so you need to add text with the text tool and convert that to a path with the same process as above:

• Add text to your diagram with the text tool.
• I like to draw it much larger than the final version, and then scale it down to the height you want.
• Select the text and convert it to a path: Path menu -> Object to Path
• Ungroup: Object -> Ungroup. Ensure all letters are still selected
• Create a union of all the letters: Path -> Union

You will probably still need to experiment with the combine and smoothing settings when you're loading this up in LaserCAD, to ensure that the letters are properly filled in when you're engraving them.

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[Cat]

Thanks.

I think I will skip the text then.

It can save in other formats too -  which may be better.

I am using this program only because it comes stock on the Rpi.

I am still unable to find a good/better on for the Rpi.

[Peter Hardy]

No idea if other formats work better, sorry. I stick to DXF because it's native to librecad and for the most part imports well in to the laser software.

I actually really like librecad for designing these sorts of parts. It's not perfect, but makes it really simple to design panels with precise measurements.