I want to create my own file for engraving.
I thought I understood from the tutorial that using Inkscape would allow me to prepare files for importing that could be used for engraving. I downloaded Inkscape.
My first problem is this…
I want to engrave a microwave oven cabinet front on a wall of a model home which I am making.
The image was created in AutoCad (.dwg)
I can export the file as an SVG (quick or advanced) or a PDF.
I have created this file in two sizes. One with the micro/oven combo full size and one with it scaled down.
When I try to open or import any of these files in Inkscape they do not appear. The files say they are 5 kB 28 px by 50 px. This seems way too small to me.
Please help me understand the steps needed to create a file foe engraving. This has me stumped. It should not be this hard. I’m likely doing something basic wrong or missing steps…
Sorry. I was simply giving you a history of the file creation. I understand AutoCad. I don’t yet understand Glowforge. I can make SVG and PDF files. I cannot seem to get these files imported into Glowforge in a format that allows me to etch. I can get the SVG files to cut great. I just cannot get images ready to etch.
I thought maybe they needed modified in Inkscape before loading them in Glowforge.
Thank you for offering to assist me in the matter of my SVG and PDF files not being vivible in Inkscape or Glowforge.
I am attempting to attach the files. There are three files. What I am seeing as attachments don’t look like file attachments I am used to. Sorry to be such a novice.
I don’t know anything about CAD, so I might not be able to tell you how to fix it… but I can tell you what’s going wrong.
Two things: (1) no strokes
Your paths are there, but there’s no stroke on them, and I think GF won’t do anything with paths with no stroke. (2) very small
Your artwork when opened in Illustrator shows up as 0.014" wide.
In theory if you fix the stroke issue, you’d at least see something in GFUI, which you could scale up. But if you can fix it to the size you want, or even just something bigger, it’ll be easier to work with.
It was very small. If you load it into Inkscape, go to view, and select Outline. You’ll see that everything is there.
You should select it, resize it, then, in order to do anything with it, ungroup everything and set a stroke to it at least so you can see it. I don’t know what you want engraved, but the way it is now, only the knobs and some rounded corner pieces would engrave and I don’t think the corners are supposed to be doing that.
I just resized it, ungrouped it, set a stroke I could see for all the pieces, then grouped it back together so you can work with it.
Vector files have no “substance” only points to define an infinitely thin line. Vector lines can cut in Glowforge but vector files cannot be used for etching. I need a raster image for the purpose of etching.
If this is true, I was hoping I could import the vector files into Inkscape and convert them to raster images. Maybe I need to simply draw my images I want to etch in a raster based draw program and not in a vector based drawing program.
The size issue I attempted to solve by having the Microwave/Oven combo in two different sizes. One was actual size and one was scaled to 1/2" = 1’-0". I’m thinking you loaded the smaller of the two files.
Your comments on my thoughts are appreciated.
I will get this figured out. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Your input is helpful!
You can engrave or score vectors. The files for engraving would be filled shapes. The scores would be strokes. Scoring is faster if you only want the lines.
I do not know any computer terminology, so no quoting me on anything.
Not quite.
GF can definitely engrave a vector file. You’re right that it does need to rasterize it under the hood, but it can do that for you.
The issue I’m pointing out is your file has paths defined, but they don’t have strokes (or fills), so effectively nothing that would render on a screen.
Without anything rendering, there’s nothing to engrave or cut
If you add strokes, you could then either use those paths to cut, or engrave the image created by stroking those lines.
No problem. The steps should be the same for the other one. While it’s ungrouped, say you wanted to fully engrave the knobs, select the knobs and add a fill, you can remove the stroke on them too, since it really won’t be necessary.
Also, you can right click my image, hit save as, and it will download the SVG for you, then you can mess around with it.
Thank you. I will be experimenting and learning. I needed a “push” and the information you and others have provided is definitely getting me moving again.
Also, if you want to engrave the door opening, none of these paths are connected. You will need to join the nodes to make one shape in order to engrave them.
You are quick. Sorry, no videos from me. I can barely take a picture and there isn’t enough coffee in the world for me to figure out how to do a video.
