I need some help getting from Inkscape (.svg or .png) to RDWorks. I am not able to find good information on the steps to get from A to B. I have played around with it and got lucky a couple of times but can’t seem to consistently produce a workable file.
Can anyone point me in the directions of a good tutorial?
I’ve had success using DXF as the intermediate format.
Will you be cutting or rastering?
At the space, we have Adobe Illustrator available. Open your .svg in Illustrator and simply save as an .ai. RDWorks will read the .ai file.
So I tried that this evening and it seemed to work… mostly.
I ran two very similar projects, Project A said it woudl take 1 minute 30 seconds when I ran the preview in RDworks and Project B said 5 minutes. Project A actually took 1 minute 30 seconds while project B took over an hour? Project A was low quality project B was noticibly better quality.
I went through the same process with both and they both had the same text size and image shape. Both projects had the same settings for power and speed. Project B was substantially deeper than A was and both used the same type of wood? This has me totally lost.
Save both projects out to member drive and either post or PM me the location. I’ll take a look and see if anything I can tell. If both are similar with same settings, you shouldn’t see this varied of change.
Were they raster jobs? May be an interval setting or directional setting.
Note that if you are using an older Inkscape you might have some scaling issues: Inkscape changed the pixels/inch ratio and importing an old Inkscape into AI May cause a 25% increase in size.
Recommendation: include a 1” square in your file and check its dimensions in AI after import. If it shows as 1.25”, Select All and scale to 80%. 1.25 X 0.80 = 1.0 so this’ll correct the scaling.
The preview generally provides a reasonable estimate. But the laser can provide an exact time if you download the file, the select the file (File>Filename), right arrow over, and select “Work Time Preview”, Enter.
@agvet is right. Times taking so long are Raster Scan jobs. the biggest factor is the “Scan Interval”, which specifies the travel distance of each pass. It is measured in millimeters. Usually 0.06mm to 0.1mm is acceptable. The laser tends to default to 0.02mm, which takes forever.
Aaron’s other point is X-Swing vs X-Unilaterism. the first raster scans in both directions, the second only left to right, taking 2x as long, but generating less heat (important for intricate detail sections).
@HankCowdog technique is good for scaling issues. @maxk68 taught me a better one. Put a box of known size around your work. Makes it easy to scale everything at once to the proper size. Say a 10" square measures in at 9.2". Select everything and set the size to 10".
Yes both were raster jobs