Hello!

I'm brand new to Inkscape (previously was using Illustrator CS5 on my decade-old macbook, but it finally died, and I turned to Inkscape 1.0 as a replacement on my new macbook, running Catalina)

I have a laser engraver/cutter that runs LaserDRW (I use it on my fiance's Windows laptop -- it wouldn't install on a mac) and what I've been doing (for about a year now) is just exporting all my files as PNGs (one file for engraving, one file for cutting) and they've worked just fine, if a little wonky on the cuts (I realize AS I TYPE THIS that it sees my cut strokes as just very thin shapes, that it's trying to cut outter and inner)

But the latest ones have been importing super pixelated, and I figure I should really be cutting with vectors anyway. The problem is: I have no idea how to bring vectors into LaserDRW. I did find this:

http://www.scorchworks.com/LaserDRW_extension/laserdrw_extension.html

but I've never used extensions before, and I've been googling and googling and can't figure anything out. I'm assuming the extensions from that site won't work on 1.0 anyway, and that's probably my issue? Does anyone know any other way to bring vectors into LaserDRW? I took a pic of the file types it will open (sorry it's a photo and not a screenshot, ha)

so I guess TL;DR, any tips on bringing vector files into confusing chinese laser cutting software?

Welcome to the forum!

Most of us probably can't help with any specific hardware.  And for software, such as the extension you found, you would need to communicate with the author, if you have problems with it.

However, we can help you troubleshoot installing the extension, if you think that's where the problem might be.  The only way to find out if that extension works with 1.0 (unless you know someone who knows) is to install 1.0 beta, install the extension, and try it.

From the list of file formats you gave, EMF and WMF are the vector formats, and Inkscape can save in both formats.

When you say you've been sending PNG files to your cutter, but you notice that it's cutting both an inside and an outside line, that would imply to me that your cutting software must be automatically tracing them to create vector cutting paths.  That's often how trace engines work.  I do find it a bit surprising, if that is in fact what your cutter is doing!

Well anyway, you would basically draw your paths using the Pen tool (or Pencil tool), or construct a drawing using shapes and convert to paths.  Then save as WMF or EMF, and send to the machine.  If you have existing images that you want to use, you could either trace over them manually with the Pen tool, or if the image has the proper quality for it, use Inkscape's Trace Bitmap to auto trace it.  Personally, I would do the drawing myself, rather than auto trace.  That would give the best quality of cutting path, for the machine.

I've written some tutorials for manually creating cutting paths from existing images.  But I would need to see an example of exactly what kind of work you're doing, before I know which one to show you. I would need to see an image, and hear what you want for a result

I installed LaserDRW and tried the extension on my setup*. Seems to work, but I'm unfamiliar with LaserDRW and cannot say if the files it opens from the extension are useful... the shapes look correct.

Catalina is new and 1.0 is beta, so if the extension won't run on the mac you might consider getting a cheap Win machine or try running Linux on your old mac hardware .

As Brynn notes, WMF and EMF files can be generated by Inkscape and they do open in LD, but I cannot say if they are useful there.

*WIn 8.1 64bit, Inkscape 0.92.2 (5c3e80d, 2017-08-06)

@brynn & @TylerDurden : Ah, you may have just fixed it all with the EMF/WMF info -- I'd never heard of those extensions before, so I'll try saving from Inkscape in those, and see if the cutter will read thopse vectors. I'll update here if it does work, though I don't see why it wouldn't, so fingers crossed!

Thanks!

Welp, saving it as an EMF definitely worked for what I needed!! It doesn't look any different than before, except that now it's working instead of trying to cut every individual pixel it decoded it saw! Thank you so much!

Good news!

Now you can have some fun  😀