User Interface-Anomalous Background

Iā€™m very much a newbie with inkscape(version .92 in my case), but why do you have a 'background ā€™ ?
And why is it set to transparent ?

All documents have a background. Setting it to transparent, in my case, allows me to see the vectors. Many people do design work with Inkscape and related software, so for instance if you were making a big poster of the sky at night, you would want the background to be black so you could see the bright stars you design and place on the background. Or, maybe you want a blue sky on a nice day.

Have fun with Inkscape!!! Its good entertainment!!!

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Wow! Really? This is fascinating. No one ever came up with this beforeā€¦at least to me. There should be a way to do it in AD, thoughā€¦thatā€™s a PITA to have to do it the long way like that. I will try it out. Thanks!

Hrmā€¦ Not sure when Iā€™ll have time to work on this, but it shouldnā€™t be too hard to write an Automator script for OSX that you could drop an SVG into that would programmatically strip out those tags and save it out.

Iā€™ll be sure to share it here when/if I get it working. Iā€™ll be pretty motivated in March ā€“ work isnā€™t renewing my Adobe CC subscription, so Iā€™ll be dependent on AD and [shudder] Inkscape. :flushed:

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When my Glowforge first arrived (August 2017), I had to do this pretty regularly, but I honestly canā€™t remember the last time I needed to. Something must have changed in my AD workflow, but Iā€™m not sure what it is.

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There are a few ways to end up with clipping paths. Some of them have easy ways to get rid of the clipping path and others donā€™t. Some of the clipping paths are only created on export to SVG; theyā€™re not actually there while the file is open in AD. In some of those cases you can then re-open the SVG in AD and delete the clipping path, but it may well re-appear when you re-export to SVG.

In experimenting with this I ran across a few bugs in AD where sometimes it doesnā€™t import clipping paths correctly from SVG files, even SVG files that were created in AD. (It looks like theyā€™re aware of this though, so hopefully they fix it soon.)

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Perhaps it will come back to you and you can share it! I know Iā€™m not the only one using AD that would like to know this. I also got my machine in Aug.'17. I had a PRU before that. I do know one thing for certain, it used to be that anytime a ā€˜clipping pathā€™ error would show up in the UI, you couldnā€™t proceed any further. At least now, you can just ignore it and move forward.

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Oh yeah! That would be deluxeā€¦and you would be my knight in shining, lasered armor!

I even searched the Affinity website and used the *ahemā€¦help feature in app. and there were no results at all for clip path or clipping pathā€¦like it didnā€™t even recognize the term.

Hi Tim,
it took me a few minutes to wake up enough to realise why I found your description of your workspace so different to mine.
I think it comes down to how we approach our work.
Having got the laser before I started to use inkscape, I tend to think only in cutting lines, because I havenā€™t yet thought about what I might do with engraves.
My prime need is to concentrate on controlling the shape of the components of my fans, both sticks and inlays.
When Iā€™ve got that under control, I can start thinking about surface decoration !
Consequently, I havenā€™t yet started using layers/gradients/filters etc so Iā€™m still very much a flatlander.
John
:upside_down_face:

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OK, I have been reading in the forums for the last month, and I have no idea what the software requirements are for using my Glowforge, when it comes. (Later this month? I just got my proofgrade shipment.) Can someone point me to the place where software is discussed for the new user? Or is there a wonderful manual that comes with the printer that makes everything clear?!

Suggested order of study is outlined below :wink::

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Whatā€™s ā€œthe Matrixā€?

At the top of the forum page, under All Categories, youā€™ll find Glowforge Tips and Tricks.

Regarding what software, basically youā€™ll need a photoediting program to convert pictures into something the GF can accept, as engraves, and a drawing program (think lines not pictures) that it will accept as cuts.

:upside_down_face:

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The links in that writeup take you directly to it. Basically itā€™s a series of spreadsheets that list links to all the tutorials, by category.

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Very nice compilation of information and tutorials.

I have a question about the ornament project you demonstrated in the ā€œHow to get Perfect Alignmentā€ tutorial:

The raster graphic you used appears to have a white fill background, and in other places people talk about fills causing engraving. If the entire graphic is a rectangle, is white being identified as ā€œignoredā€ before creation? Otherwise the entire rectangle shape would be engraved?

Am I misunderstanding something about how raster graphics file get handled, or is the topic of ā€œfillsā€ limited to vector SVGs and PDFs?

Last questions for tonight:

Raster graphics can contain a huge number of colors, caused by blending from one color to another. Do bitmap (raster) files uploaded to the GF app need to be a certain color depth (shallowness?) in order to select colors for sequencing by the Glowforge? Otherwise there can be an awful lot of ā€œgreenā€ colors or ā€œredā€ colors, et ceteraā€¦

Thanks for all your work,

I hope I can contribute meaningfully once I get started, too.

(Eyeing that UI webdesign job for the interface on the GF website, from afar)

Robert

Great question! Raster graphics are treated differently from vector engraves. (Those are rasterized versions of a vector image that I created a few years ago for a party. It was all I had handy and didnā€™t want to troll the internet for images.)

In raster images, white is always ignored. Itā€™s only white vector fill that is treated as any other fill color. :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks @Xabbess and @bdm1! Iā€™m seeing this too, and Iā€™ll pass on the feedback.

Since thereā€™s great conversation here, Iā€™m going to leave this thread open for now. For future reference, itā€™s most effective to create a new post for each new question.

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Guilty as Charged, Rita.

Iā€™ll try to try to do better. I canā€™t promise Iā€™ll try, but Iā€™ll try to tryā€¦

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