Hello

I have just started learning Inkscape. It seems to be a really excellent program.
Could anyone tell me how to produce a line around the outside of a design so that it can be cut on a laser cutter?

I have a book "The Book of Inkscape" but there is nothing in there to help with laser cutting tips.
In CorelDraw you can make a boundary line around the design.

Thanks for any advice.

Hello

I have just started to learn Inkscape, and I am hoping to use it to produce designs which will be cut out on a laser cutter.
I need to make a cutting line around the design which can be used by the laser cutter.
I dont know how to do this. Can anyone offer any advice?
I have a book called the Book of Inkscape, but it does not mention laser cutting a design.
In CorelDraw you can make a boundary line around a design, but I dont know if that is possible in Inkscape. I am wondering what other designers who use Inkscape for laser cut designs do about this.
Grateful for any advice.

toymaker1 wrote:Could anyone tell me how to produce a line around the outside of a design so that it can be cut on a laser cutter?

Take some time and search e.g. the Inkscape tutorials from cuttingtime.blogspot.com - there seems to be a treasure trove of tips to use Inkscape for preparing files to be cut or plotted…

See for example the steps described (among others) in these two:

• Cutting Time: Changing a stencil type dingbat - Part 1
• Cutting Time: Changing a stencil style dingbat - Part 2

or

• Cutting Time: Offset is Now Even Easier
• …

For more technical usage, possibly a forum like the one from the gcodetools is better suited - you don't tell what type of drawing and plotter you plan to work with.

toymaker1 wrote:Could anyone tell me how to produce a line around the outside of a design so that it can be cut on a laser cutter?

See also e.g. this earlier topic here in the forum: Heavy stroke on outside lines of image
(just a quick pick - no doubts there are lots of others to be found ;) )

a few questions before i can yes it can

what operating system do you use?
what make and model is the laser cutter
does it use hpgl code to cut

2 topics merged and moved to Cutters/Plotters forum

I use inkscape and there are a couple of ways to do what I think you want to do. One is if your design is a bitmap not a vector you could do a bitmap trace by selecting the design go to path on the top toolbar and pick trace bitmap.
The other is to use the bezier tool to do a manual trace.
You could also use the path offset option.

I have a detailed guide for using Inkscape when laser cutting http://www.umake.ca/en/Resources_Inkscape_umake_Montreal_Canada.html.

If you have any trouble, you can email me your file and I can check to make sure it is laser cut ready.

I hope this helps you.

Luke Kirkwood
http://www.umake.ca
Umake Online Factory