We’re currently homeschooling because one of the kids got corona. (nothing to worry about, everyone is at good moods, and the virus only caused a slight fever one afternoon)
They wanted me to print line drawings for coloring. The inkjet printer is out of ink (isn’t it ALWYAS?!), and I took it as a nice challenge to include them in some MPCNC tinkering.
Well - the first (and only) challenge was to get good vector files out of the line images for coloring that are plenty around the web. Normal bitmap to vector leaves two vectors on each side of the line. Sooo, I fell down the google-rabbit-hole and figured out I needed a centerline trace. And lo and behold, there was a inkscape plugin for it. But it needed python and pil, so I figured I could use my ubuntu VM, because all the python environments on win quickly gets messy.
Sooo, I fougth with ubuntu for a long time to get things working. And then I couldn’t make the shared folders work. And my onedrive didn’t work on the ubuntu side either. So I spent hours just messing around to get things running. I deleted the VM image and re-installed with 21.10 and things started to work well.
Then, when everything was figured out - I read the last line of the centerline trace-tool: “The new Inkscape v1 has the centerline tool included, so this plugin is now obsolete”
Thank you for your time!
(btw, why don’t they have this info on the TOP of the github page, in stead of at the bottom??)
Yes, I fell like many of us share a common tendency to overcomplicate things…but why make things easy when we can have fun?!
but honestly, the plotting gives of a very nice “feeling” to the medium, it seems somehow more handmade.
Agreed. I follow a few people who spend theit time making generative art, plotting it, and then selling it. It could be done on a flat printer, but it is so much more special on a CNC. Especially if it can be watched doing it.
Next level is, have it color it in too. Then the kids can just watch it instead.
Same here! I’ve got everything I need to make a simple plotter, but it’s difficult to force myself to build it when the MPCNC is so versatile. I actually want to try out some of the generative stuff, I really like how it’s very technical on one side, but has a very organic feel to it.
Arendal is an actual city way south in Norway. Not much permafrost, Northern lights or sunless winters down there! (Compared to us stupid people who lives next to the north pole…)
Oh no no, that hose has got 5.5mm ID. It’s air for the laser! Hooked up to a compressor in another room, and controlled by a relay and a 12v solenoid valve.
I’m going to a local maker festival next weekend! (first of its kind in our city) I’ll be showing off the MPCNC and give a lecture on building stuff with a 3d printer and plans from the internet. I also promised to show off an eggbot (since it’s easter time soon), but I’ve realized that the cnc shield v4 is super buggy. Time will show if I’m able to wire something on my own with some a4988s. I’m very excited, perhaps there are others in the region that are into these things, so far I’ve only made friends online - perhaps there are in the real world as well??
