Mother's Day Plaque

That was great. Love how that turned out. Thank you for the video as well. I will try to do that tonight.

Love the video…(jealous)…I can haz GF now pleezzzzzzzz ?..lol

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great work on the video. Start to finish is nice to see.

That’s a really nice design. Well done. Hope your mother, or a mother, likes it!

I used your video and made this for my wife.

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I like it :slight_smile:

I can belt out another video real quick later on how to add your own tabs to preserve floating pieces (like what should be the middle of the R). I had to learn that for a sandblasted window I did up as a wedding present for some friends.

Your sub-letters have the loop on the bottom of the “L” and the dot for the “i” (in caring, but not in Loving) cut out instead of just engraved. On purpose?

Oh, and what is the font for Mother? I am kinda digging on the M having the center tip go below the line of the side bars.

Funny thing was, I had done both words the same, but for some reason the laser engraved one and cut out the other. I’ll have to check on that font when I get home. I did like the way your “R” stayed together. I didn’t think about it until after the laser cut it out.

You may have had a double loop that wasn’t obvious when looking on the software. I assume you raster engraved, then vector traced to sharpen the details?

Doesn’t seem from the image like your engrave/cut was halfway through the material… but if it was a half cut, and got doubled, that would do it.

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I’m new to all this so I’m not sure what I had done. I had to save it all as a DXF file in order for that laser software to read my files. I think DXF is for cutting but I used it to engrave also.

If you ever cut another one, or can remember from watching this one:

The raster engrave it is moving the laser head back and forth. Doing one line at a time. The vector cut it is sweeping along the individual lines (moving in both X and Y as needed).

I suspect you will see it raster for all of the small letters, then trace their outlines as well. And for those two holes, it will trace that area two times (possibly one right after the other, but more likely coming back much later for the second pass)

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I downloaded VSDC as @Christopher suggested. Certainly an improvement.

While trying this one out, as well as a new microphone to cut out background static, I recorded a quick guide on how to edit letters so you can avoid leaving gaping holes in “R, D, A” and other such letters.

As previously, I didn’t bother to re-record and get an error free approach, nor cut it into something more easily consumed for viewing.

Not sure if people like that approach, as it shows that a novice stumbling through can still accomplish things, or if people will see it as being lazy and making the video less useful. So feedback appreciated. I am going to try and do videos semi-frequently, as it is enjoyable to get random “XXX has subscribed” notices in my email :smiley:

(First few moments are blurred out because I accidentally had a Facebook chat open on screen at the start)

EDIT: Watching my own little video… I didn’t mention when doing a CTRL+Z to undo my mistakes. So, personally I would prefer a video that is more staged and just does the right thing. But only because I know the software already. If I had no clue what Inkscape was at all, I would enjoy seeing a few mistakes here and there.

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Thanks for doing that it was very helpful. I like Inkscape and I am enjoying learning all the cool stuff you can do with it. I am going to make another sign with my last name and both mine and my wife’s name going across the front.

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I like that idea. Could be a cute mailbox sign.

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I do have a question for you. When saving files in Inkscape to DXF, I often end up with extra lines when i reopen the file. Do you get that or am I skipping a step or something? I’m always having to go back and delete lines or dots or even recreate parts that are connected to things they shouldn’t be.

I save as SVG. DXF has all kinds of things screwy with it. So I avoid that format whenever possible (which for my laser cutter is always. For the machine shop mill… I have not yet found the right format of freakin DXF to use that thing)

Ok. Then it’s not just me. The laser I use can’t read SVG so I’m forced to use DXF and it sucks.

Yeah, I feel for you. DXF is the devil IMO. I am sure it is amazing once you have a program set up to save just right for your machine. But getting to that point is a serious nuisance so far.

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