Intersecting lines or lines that cross each will yield unwanted results in the laser cutter, creating more cuts in the material than you want. In addition to disconnected lines, you need to make sure your design does not have any intersecting lines. This will connect your nodes and close your contour. They will turn blue when they are selected.Ĭlick the “ join selected endpoints with a new segment” button that appears in the top left corner when you have two endpoints selected. To do this, use the “ edit paths by nodes” tool (F2 or N.) The nodes are the gray boxes you see around the outline of your object. If you do find open contours, you should join or close the nodes. An easy way to find these openings is to view your design in Outline display mode.
In other words, all shapes should have a fully connected outline.
#Using inkscape for laser cutting how to
Check out our tutorial on Preparing Text for Laser Cutting in Inkscape to learn how to do this.īe sure that none of your objects have open contours or non-continuous geometry. If the font you want to use isn’t stencilized, you can easily add bridges inside the type to make sure nothing gets lost in the laser cutter. If you’re cutting type or fonts out of your design, like a stencil, be sure to use a font with stencil properties. Again, using material thickness as a minimum size for details is a good rule of thumb. Details and small features should never be smaller than the laser beam width (.008″-.015″). Common issues when designing for laser cutting in InkscapeĪvoid sharp angles and extreme detail in smaller objects. For example, in 0.100” thick aluminum, the smallest hole, cutout, or “web” should be at least 0.050”. Cutouts any smaller than that will not be accurate or possible to cut. Keep all holes and cut-out areas (including text) a minimum width of. Object sizingīe aware of the material thickness you want when designing parts for laser cutting in Inkscape. This will make it easier to find empty objects and stray points. Before you beginīefore you begin, make sure that your display and document units are set to inches, and your document size is a little larger than your final part size.Īs you are designing, we recommend periodically viewing your document in the Outline display mode. In this tutorial we’ll cover all the basics for designing for laser cutting in Inkscape.
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