Cut Calibration Template

Free Laser Designs
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A few folks have asked for this so here’s a cut calibration template to use on materials you’re looking to use in the GF.

The design is a series of boxes 1/2" square. You can use the cut out boxes as a way to measure your kerf as well. You can resize the whole thing to fit scraps if you’d rather and are less concerned with checking the kerf at the same time.

The templates has an outline cut that you’ll want to move to the bottom of the stack so you can cut it last to keep the distance between the material and the cuts for the boxes consistent. I set this to full power and 20% speed for my first attempt as that will handle most things fine.

The engraves can be first or next to last but that’s another I do at mid-level settings. I set it for 50% power and 335 IPM and 225LPI.

Each colored square should show up in the GFUI in the proper order for the engrave speed settings next to the box. That order is: 190, 175, 150, 125, 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 60, 40, 30, 20, 15, 10, 5 IPM. All use 100% power. Simply step through the boxes setting the power and the appropriate speed. These speeds will give you plenty of options so if you decide to tune your settings you can extrapolate between settings (for instance it cuts cleanly at 70IPM but there are some hanging fibers keeping the box from dropping out at 80IPM - a setting of 75IPM would likely cut through with the fastest speed).

Since the outer box groups the internals, the SVG shows up as black here but should download fine.

EDIT: Added the ZIP version just in case. Looks like the SVG works for some & not for others.
Cut Calibration Template .zip (5.2 KB)

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Thanks for sharing. File doesn’t download.

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Try zipping the SVG file before uploading. (Keeps it from corrupting.)

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This always confuses me when people claim the SVG doesn’t download for them. I’ve never had an SVG fail. Are people doing something else other than right clicking and selecting “download image”? If I can see it show in the original post, it never fails for me to save. I don’t understand.

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Worked for me just fine - thank you for the file. (MacOSX10.11.6, opened in IllustratorCC)

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If may be browser related, this one is corrupt for me. zip always works.

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Yep. May be browser related. So I’ve attached a ZIP version. That should work.

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that did it as usual. Thanx

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Thank you! Very helpful.

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Thanks for sharing!

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Thank you! A real time saver for us noobies, and the instructions are good, too.

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The svg version just shows a black box because all the style section is missing compared to the zipped version.

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No. The black box shows in the forum because there is a completely enclosing bounding box that is the final cut out. Discourse does that. As some folks who can save that link have shown, the SVG is fine. There’s no difference between the SVG in either the native version or the ZIP version.

I can get the SVG to show but I’d have to remove the outline cut box.

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Well I download both with Cyberfox. The zipped version opens in Inkscape and looks correct. The SVG just shows a black box in Inkscape. When I difference the files with WinMerge the style section is missing from the SVG version so all the stroke and fill styles are missing.

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Worked for Andrew in Mac OSX & Illustrator. It may be how Discourse saves the SVG or how different browsers deal with it on download - where the ZIP is left entirely alone since the browser & OS don’t know what’s inside nor do they have plug-ins to do stuff with them.

This should work because it’s the same file without the border:

Although it’s interesting to see all the boxes are solid in the preview. In Inkscape they show as having no fill, just a stroke.

623×801 27.2 KB

Let’s see if this works. I was using the default File|Save in Inkscape. Changed it to File|SaveAs|Plain SVG.


Still shows a black box when I include the cut object (black stroke, no fill).

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Are you saving as an “optimized SVG” or no? Whichever it is, try the other.

Another option is:
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=8599

Maybe the numbers you put in are “flowed text”?

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The original was created (as is almost everything I do) in Corel. X8 and saved as an SVG but not the Inkscape specific SVG. When Corel saves SVGs it converts the text to paths/strokes unless you specify differently (I didn’t).

The original files in the top post are a result of that process. One. Is the output SVG from Corel which the GF likes fine. The other is a ZIP of that file.

In my latest, I opened and saved it in Inkscape. Both with the default and the “Plain SVG” option Inkscape has. So I’ve saved it in both formats and from two different source programs.

The SVG from Corel works in the GFUI. The SVG from Inkscape works in the GFUI. The ZIP works for all folks getting it from Discourse here. The SVGs work for some & not others. No biggie, I’ll just include zips for uploaded files. Seems to be too many variables to figure out why the SVGs don’t work for everyone so it’s not likely worth the effort since zips work. :smiling_face:

I will look to see if there’s an empty flowed text box but it would seem that the rectangle tool in Corel would need to be interpreted as a flowed text box for that to be the problem. I may try saving in Corel as an Inkscape SVG if I’m bored later :grinning:

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Yeah, I get different results when I “Save as…” and download the ZIP files as well. Although the Save As version I could open in Affinity Designer and see all the outlines, it lost the style information… only the ZIP file kept all the fidelity.

I hate when web applications mangle text-based file formats. This sort of trashy behavior happens all the time when you least expect it.

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And this is my 300th Bookmark!

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You should bookmark that.

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