Program measurement differences

I made a gasket on inkscape and tried to down load it to RDWorks for the Thunder Laser but it made it too large. Does anyone have a fix for this. My gaskets have to be exact. Thanks.

I don’t know the fix - but test cuts on paper are quite common so you don’t waste material if wrong.

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Too large as in slightly larger? Or too large as in just plain wrong?

If it’s just wrong (and many times it is for me), when importing a dxf from Inkscape into RDWorks, the units for the import need to be set correctly prior to importing.

http://www.thunderlaser.com/troubleshooting/why-does-the-graphic-size-that-imported-to-rdworks-different-from-its-original-size.html

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Its probably off by a factor of 2.54 or 25.4 or some other inch/meter factor.

There is a pair of boxes at the top with percentages you can use for scaling. I suggest trial and error on spare material or paper

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  1. Make sure your default units are the same as what rdworks is currently opening them in. Let’s say inches.

  2. Save as from inkscape to dxf. Make sure the window that pops up is using inches as well. I’ve seen it default to pixels.

  3. Import dxf into rdworks.

If this fails, you can always set the right size in rdworks by selecting all of it in inkscape to see the total dimensions, and then just typing them into rdworks in the upper left corner.

I’ll post some pics when I get to the space

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In addition to the suggestions others have made, remember to account for kerf if your gaskets have to be exact. Cut a 1" test piece of your material and measure the results to determine the kerf for the specific material / cut settings combination that you are using.

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Does laser provide offset? If so, does it take into account inside or outside. It’s nice feature on the plasmacam.

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I am not aware of this function. If it does, someone else will have to chime in. AFAIK, it cuts centered on the vector.

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