i am an old timer approaching 80 years of age and having great difficulty understanding Inkscape. I downloaded the app as A. it was free and B. it was suggested in the set up info that came with my Sculpfun S6 Laser Cutter, this was purchased for the sole purpose of accurately cutting parts from balsa wood and plywood for the construction of model aircraft, i thought this was going to be very straight forward, but with Inkscape there are so many variables that i am left totally confused. there are 1 or 2 things that i am fairly conversant with like the difference between vector and raster files and the use of Lasergrbl and i have managed to engrave an image from a photo, which i think might have been a bit of a fluke. Any help on these basics would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
If you don't mind throwing a few more dollars at your project, consider to purchase LightBurn after confirming that it will work with your laser. The software is many times easier to understand for laser work and there are plenty of videos showing the various features. It's the difference between night and day, in my opinion.
Thanks fred_dot_u, I did consider lightburn but as the use of a laser cutter was new to me I didn't want to plough to much cash into it at the start, but I may have to re consider my decision.
If you check out the LightBurn forum, and maybe post that you're considering to use LightBurn, you'll be deluged with posts from people who will encourage you to do so. I have seen very few users suggest that it was a mistake to move to LightBurn. Even though I'm comfortable creating vector work in Inkscape, I'll use LightBurn for most of the creations and export it to SVG if I need something that LightBurn can't provide. It's rare that it happens, though and unrelated to the laser work. For the laser LightBurn beats the competition.
Using Inkscape with Cutters/Plotters Old timer needing help.
Inkscape.org
i am an old timer approaching 80 years of age and having great difficulty understanding Inkscape. I downloaded the app as A. it was free and B. it was suggested in the set up info that came with my Sculpfun S6 Laser Cutter, this was purchased for the sole purpose of accurately cutting parts from balsa wood and plywood for the construction of model aircraft, i thought this was going to be very straight forward, but with Inkscape there are so many variables that i am left totally confused. there are 1 or 2 things that i am fairly conversant with like the difference between vector and raster files and the use of Lasergrbl and i have managed to engrave an image from a photo, which i think might have been a bit of a fluke. Any help on these basics would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Due to lack of information, try going on line to ( Inkscape & Laser Grbl) YouTube videos and see if this helps.
If you don't mind throwing a few more dollars at your project, consider to purchase LightBurn after confirming that it will work with your laser. The software is many times easier to understand for laser work and there are plenty of videos showing the various features. It's the difference between night and day, in my opinion.
Thanks CrashemMac, I have been down that road and picked up a few useful tips but so far nothing specific to my needs, but i will keep on looking.
Thanks fred_dot_u, I did consider lightburn but as the use of a laser cutter was new to me I didn't want to plough to much cash into it at the start, but I may have to re consider my decision.
If you check out the LightBurn forum, and maybe post that you're considering to use LightBurn, you'll be deluged with posts from people who will encourage you to do so. I have seen very few users suggest that it was a mistake to move to LightBurn. Even though I'm comfortable creating vector work in Inkscape, I'll use LightBurn for most of the creations and export it to SVG if I need something that LightBurn can't provide. It's rare that it happens, though and unrelated to the laser work. For the laser LightBurn beats the competition.