I am trying to follow these instructions http://scuola.arduino.cc/en/content/prepare-file-milling

Inkscape stuff is about halfway down. Unfortunatly I cannot get it to work I think because it was originaly written in Italian.

Could someone offer any clues to make it more understandable.

Thanks

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

I might not be the best person to answer this, because I don't understand some of the technical terminology for the milling and circuits and stuff. But I think, after importing the image, the first step might be Ungrouping. Try Ctrl + A (which is Select All) then click Ungroup button on command bar until the status bar says "No more groups to ungroup". Status bar is bottom of window in the middle.

The he's saying that you need to change the solid black drawing (in Inkscape terms, a black fill with no stroke, needs to be black stroke with no fill). And then it seems the next few steps are to make that change. I think he says to select everything except the outer line which encloses the whole thing. You could do Ctrl + A again. Then hold Shift key and click on that outer line. That deselects that line, while leaving all the rest still selected.

It would help if he numbered the steps. Right below the 3rd Inkscape screenshot, where he talks about the "style contour", I'm not sure exactly. I think he is adjusting the thickness of the lines as they are at that point. Since I don't have the SVG file, I'm not sure if that will actually be possible. And I can't think of anything that would do that. If you get that far, or a little further along, and you realize you do need to do something about that, then maybe you could give us your SVG file, to help us understand.

So to continue, for now, then do Path menu > Combine. Next, I think he says Path menu > Stroke to Path (without deselecting after combining).

Then next, he removes the fill and adds a stroke. Continue not to deselect through these steps. There are often more than 1 way to do things with Inkscape. The tutorial author is using the Fill and Stroke dialog. I usually use the color palette along the bottom of he window. To give it a stroke, hold Shift, and click the black square (assuming you want it to be black). Then to remove the fill, release the Shift key, and click the little X at the far left end of the color palette (along bottom of canvas). In the end, you may need to use Fill and Stroke > Stroke Style tab to input a custom stroke width.

Now from there, I don't understand about the "overlapping paths", and "tab area of tracks". And I don't understand why he needs to do the Difference operation. It may be simply a quick way to get a bunch of unconnected but overlapping paths segment, all into a connected path. I''m not sure, again, because I can't follow along with an actual SVG file.

So someone else can pick up here where I've left off. And if my interpretation misses the mark, maybe they can correct it. I actually have to move on to do some chores right now. But I'll check back later and see how it's going. Maybe I'll figure out what he's doing in the last few steps, later. Good luck

Thanks for the reply I will have another go in the morning using your insights. I have tried to add the SVP file to this message but Iam not sure if it will work as I have onlyjust joined.

Thanks for all of your help I have it working now. Now to see how it works in my CNC mill.