My MPCNC is finally doing what it should.
But now that IT will do, I can’t
I’m slowly getting my head round Repetier and Estlcam, but its the initial design I’m having trouble with.
I’m using Inkscape to design.
So for example I would like to carve my logo on a piece of wood and inset this into a piece.
Lets say something simple, a round cutout, should be easy. Do I just draw a black disc?
Now the round logo, I just can’t find how to centralise or line things up, I’m going cross eyed counting squares in the grid.
Is there an easier way?
Inkscape is vector graphics software. What that means is that drawings are defined by paths or lines and then rendered. They can be rendered really big or really small. A path can be closed, in which case it can be filled with a color, or not. The point is that when you load your drawing into your CAM software is that the CAM doesn’t care how thick the lines are, or if closed shapes are filled or color, etc. It’ll read the coordinates of the path and you tell the CAM what paths to cut on, cut to the left of the path or the right of the path, or pocket out a closed path, etc.
If your logo is bmp, jpeg, gif, etc these are not vector drawing formats. But you can use inkscape to create a vector from it by selecting the image and going to Path -> Trace Bitmap… and playing with that.
In inkscape you can align drawings relative to each other, or the page by going to Object -> Align and Distribute… and playing with that dialog.
I’m all thumbs in inkscape. But if I am trying to center something on a board, I will move the origin (the 0,0,0) to the middle of the logo. Or whichever part of the logo I want centered. When I get to the machine, I move the bit to the center of the workpiece before setting zero.
To get the scale right (again, I use estlcam). I would set my “working area” to draw a box the size of the board I am cutting on. This gives me a visual clue for scale
