On Saturday 08 November 2014 07:05:15 linden did opine And Gene did reply: > I spent a week or so playing with inkscape and inkscape g code tools > last month. It is not the most intuitive software to use but i ll give > you the quick and dirty version > > - Open your file in what ever format it is and try and use from the > *Path* menu *Trace **Bitmap* . (I think you are getting this far and > your computer is hanging)
Correct. But not hanging or burning up the cpu's. > -If that is the case go to the *File Menu* and then *Export Bitmap* > instead. You can play with size and scale and all that jazz in the > window that pops up i don’t worry to much about it as long as it is > close. Save a bitmap version of your file. Which was saved as a .png. > > - Open the bitmap file you just made with inkscape chose imbed file at > the pop up Did that. Quit inkscape & restarted, loading the .png. > > - Now *Trace Bitmap* the default settings should work and we will get a > vector image over our bitmap image (if not you will have to read and > play a little). I am not seeing a change in the main display. But it says to select image to trace, so I draw a box around the objects. When I release the mouse, it clamps the box to exactly the size of the image. Then, when I edge detect trace, I get a short vertical line at the location of a gap between the two merged images, a very small marker where the holes are to be drilled, and at the rounded corners of the image where the curves are actually inside the selection box. The snap to edge function is removing most of the edge from the area of detection. And apparently uses the lower left as the anchor because no adjustment handle is shown there. IOW I can't include some blank space around the objects to be used as the edge detection border. Nothing I can do from the snap menu on the right side seems to effect this. No "undo snap" button to be seen. And when I tried to generate the gcode, it threw up an error warning box for every character I changed in the selection window, and when I had told it the filename to use, and where to put it, that errors, with quite a few fix hints displayed. Including export to a ps and reload that! Except that this time I get a different error. Select one of the action tabs - Path to Gcode, Area, Engraving, DXF points, Orientation, Offset, Lathe or Tools library. Current active tab id is "preferences" So what am I missing? > All being well you can move on to the fun stuff. > > - Add a layer*Layer**Menu* *Add Layer* > > - Drag the vector trace off the bitmap image. (any where just so we > can see the 2 separate images) > > - Now go to the *View Menu* -> *Display mode* -> *Outline* are original > image should now be a box with a red x through it and our vector trace > will just be lines with with no colour. > > - Select the box with the red x and deleet it we dont need it any more > we are only concerned with the vector tracing you may need to go back > to *View Menu* -> *Display mode* -> *Normal* for it to show up and let > you delete it > > - Now select the complete vector trace *control X *to cut select the > layer we made earler in the drop down menu on the bottom edge of the > screen directly below the Text Menu > > - Now *control v *to past wile we are here delete any other layers you > have makes life easer later > > - Drag the Vector trace to the middle of the worksheet or some where > easy to work > > - Now go to *extensions menu -> gcodetools* -> *orientation points *Set > Z zero (i just leave it as 0 and touch off the surface of my stock) > we need to set Z depth (total depth we need to cut 1 inch or what ever > the total depth will be we will set are depth for each pass latter > > - Select inches or mm (probably do this first ;-) > > - the other settings you can play with latter but the defaults should > work for now > > - click apply and we are done here > > *- extensions menu -> gcodetools* -> *tools library *select cylinder or > cone and click apply > > - this should put a square box with some defult settings on you work > sheet > > - select the box and drag it some where you can reed the settings we > will have to change some as the defaults are 2 fast if you are using > inches > > - to edit settings open *Text menu -> Text and Fonts* -> *text *tab now > click on the 400 in the feed rate and if you hold your tong just right > and click lots it will open and 400 will be displayed in the*text* tab > we can set it to 100 or what ever is needed for you machine click apply > and ajust the other settings as needed. > > Diameter of tool > Depth step = how deep we will cut with each pass > Tool Cange G code ie (M6 T1) > > Last steps open*extensions menu -> gcodetools* -> *path to gcode* then > *Preferences *tab: > -set file name > -place to save file > -z safe hight > -post possessor round to 4 digits (can play with other setting > next time) > > *options* tab > -leave defaults for now > > *Path to gecode* tab > - check preview box > - leave rest as default > > click apply and it will grind away for a wile and spit out a file with > relevant g code and put some arrows on your drawing to show you witch > way it desided to send the cutter round. > > Hope this helps never did figure out how to do pocket or area with G > code tools properly if some one has some scribble notes please share, > feel free to correct spelling typos and other blunders. I am using > inkscape 0.48 but think it should work for older versions to > > linden > I didn't get anywhere near the rest of this because of the selection snap to image edges function that apparently cannot be turned off. Another hidden menu item? I looked at all of them (I think) Thank you very much Linden. > > ** > > On 14-11-08 12:40 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: > > Greetings; > > > > The inkscape program can load and display this .eps file, looking > > about like the photographs of the parts it will make. > > > > However, any of the operations I would like it to, like edge > > detection as a first step toward the generation of the required > > gcode paths just sits there doing nothing for an hour or more after > > telling it to go do it. And while the buttons are ghosted, > > indicating its busy, the whole thing slowly falls off the front page > > of an htop session watching the system. > > > > Is there some preliminary operation I have to do to select the area > > to scan before the potrace like utility can do its thing? > > > > I also have all of gcodetools installed, so I have a fairly lengthy > > list of things that can be done under the extensions menu, but they > > also appear to be inoperable, but do tie the inkscape session up, > > requiring I do a sudo kill inkscape to stop that, but again it it > > using zero cpu when its hung. > > > > So I an puzzled. This is the inkscape V.48 in the 10.04.4 LTS > > repo's. > > > > Cheers, Gene Heskett > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > ------- _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
