New to the laser hobby, questions will ensue... my apologies :-)

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Hi Beerfaced!

I get it, watching a video at the moment ! :slight_smile:
Laserandlearn
Will check out logos by nick next.
Appreciate all the replies!
James

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If you are familiar with Gimp, I way prefer making my vectors there, as there is a lot more control and it makes more useful vectors. Every time you make a mask you can save it as a vector and even make minor changes (though that part is far clumsier than Inkscape) Then you can export all those vectors (called paths in Gimp) as an SVG. You then have to export the image seprately and put the two back together in Inkscape.

There is also a minor incompatability that I fix using Path>Union on each piece separetly and that clears them up.

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Thank you! I will check that out as well. I have alot to learn over the next few months. Should be fun though, can’t wait to start using the laser for something other than “let’s see what this looks like”

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As a person who purchased a Glowforge 6 months before they were actually available I spent some of those six months learning Inkscape. I had worked with Gimp for years but hand known only the name Inkscape and not a good idea of what it did. So I went through the pulldowns and tried each command to see what it did before even truying to get a particular shape, but when I did try I had a decent idea what command I needed to accomplish the next step.

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Don’t be too hard on yourself… lots to learn and as you’re finding the forum is really helpful. You’ll get it before too long!
Like you, I had a lot to learn when I got my GF. I have followed the ‘mash buttons until something works’ philosophy and eventually end up with results I am happy with. Be prepared to do test cuts and recalibrations until you are pleased.
I have found Inkscape and GIMP work for most of what I need. I use LightBurn for another laser and it’s a good interface for that, but I agree that it isn’t well suited for GF, unless you just want to prepare and export the file.
Since I am also a bit artistically-challenged, one cheat I have recently started using to create images is GenAI like CoPilot. You can quickly generate an image and copy it into InkScape, or save as a pdf and upload to the GF.
One other really important thing to remember when you are making svg files is to assign different layers with different colours. That lets you assign different settings in the GF interface (cut, score, engrave, ignore).
Have faith, and mash buttons!

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you will want to do a search like “inkscape trace bitmap” that way you will load up with the program you’re trying to use, AND the topic. trace bitmap for example will dump a ton of vids on you but few will be applicable.

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Hi, thank you for the info! I am getting better and like the AI idea (I use copilot alot) never thought of using it for anything else. That sounds really interesting. Appreciate the sentiment! frustration isnt the point here, we all have other things that frustrate us. :slight_smile:

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Hi and thank you for the reply. I was getting video overload so that search will be helpful. much appreciated!

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I hear ya. very frustrating when there are a bunch of totally unrelated videos thrown in just for “fun”

hope that helps a lot.

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