When I first designed the Tabbed Box Gluing Jig I quickly realized it was specific to the material I was using (Home Depot Underlayment)
Back then I tried to play around with Parametric SVG’s in Inkscape, but couldn’t really figure it out. After @markevans36301 posted his Corner clamps for all 1/8 materials I got inspired to revisit the idea and found a new Inkscape Extension that works pretty well!
I present to you…
Parametric Corner Clamps in Inkscape
This allows you to generate a SVG sized for your application and material - length, width, height and material thickness (as well as kerf) are all parameters you can set in millimeters.
Step 1 - install the inkscape-parametric extension found here: https://github.com/mnesarco/inkscape-parametric
Step 2 (optional) - install the SciTE Text Editor found here https://www.ebswift.com/scite-text-editor-installer.html - you might be able to use a different editor, but this one was recommended by the extension author and I found it works well.
If you use Windows like me, I had to edit line 44 of parametric-editor.py and change it from ‘scite’ to ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\SciTE\SciTE.exe’ if you use a Mac or Linux it might just work as-is…
If you did the optional Step 2 above, you can edit the design in Inkscape with SciTE. The file comes with settings to generate the original design (same dimensions) but the spacing has changed slightly. To generate your own, open the SVG in Inkscape, go to “Extensions” -> “Parametric SVG” - “External code editor” the editor should open and you should be able to change lines 5-35 with your settings, save and close the editor and you should have all the objects sized correctly.
If you didn’t install the SciTE Text Editor in Step 2 above, you can open the SVG in any text editor and edit lines 147-177, then open the SVG in Inkscape, go to “Extensions” -> “Parametric SVG” - “Run and Update” to resize the objects.
To combine the objects and make a “Plain SVG” for the Glowforge:
1 - Select the large square (with rounded corners) and the smaller red square (use the shift key to select multiple objects), and do a “Path” -> “Difference”, do the same with the red circle.
2 - Select the two rectangle/squares on the right and do a “Path” -> “Union”
3 - Select each of the blue text labels and do a “Path” -> “Object to Path” you may want to change the font or move the text to a different location
4 - Do a “File” -> “Save As…” and make sure you save as type “Plain SVG”
5 - When setting the order of engraves & cuts, do the blue text first (engrave), the green rectangles (cut) next, then the black objects (cut) last
parametricCornerClamps.zip (4.0 KB)
UPDATE: I’ve made the design more parametric!
