You can do this from ' File->Document Properties.' then entering a custom size, remember to change units to mm. I find it easiest to get a sense of how big the piece is going to be if I set the page dimensions to those of the laser cutting bed, i.e. When snapping to path points it'll use the point closest to your mouse when you're dragging, so it matters where on the path you click! If you're not getting the snapping behaviour you expect play with turning these on. Click the icon second from the right, looks a bit like a heart with a hole in it.īy default Inkscape won't actually use the grid, the buttons on the far right allow you to enable snap (first button from the top), to bounding boxes (second from top and subsequent four) and path nodes (the next group down). This is closest to what a laser cutter will do. For shapes with holes, make it show self intersections as holes. Fill mode for shapes makes everything work better.
Stroke paths show the thick outline, and this confuses the sizing and bounding box for laser cut things. Use fill and don't use stroke (turn it off each time you create a shape). So if your circle is as 0.543 mm and you want to move it right 1mm you can edit it to 0.543+1 mm and it sorts it all out for you. Has newer image tracing options, but best of all, you can put formulae into its number boxes. It very occasionally crashes (PC) compared to previous version (rock steady). Inset/Outset I set to 0.075mm which matches half the laser cutter kerf.Ġ.91 is latest and greatest. With a 1mm grid and 0.5mm nudging I get a 1mm grid with optional 0.5mm positioning. This is a personal preference but I (Mat) prefer Arrow Keys Move By to 0.5mm. Set to origin 0, Spacing 1mm, major grid ever 10 (as above for the default document)īehaviour -> Steps. This is a (zipped) default inkscape document (mm as default and 1mm/1cm grid) File:DefaultInkscape01.zip Preferences setup
Now save your document as "MyDefaultInkscapeDocument" and use it to start every project you work on :) I change the colours so I can see the major grid lines even when zoomed in fully. These are preserved in dxf (choose mm as the units when saving) and you won't have to resize in the laser software.Īt the same point you can create a grid, I use a 1cm grid with 1mm minor lines - select the ' Grids' tab and click ' New' to create a new rectangular grid, for the one I use set units to mm, spacing to 1 and major grid line every 10. Set the default units (file->preferences) to mm. This applies to Inkscape 0.48.4.x and later, if you have an earlier version you should upgrade. A selection of hints to get the best out of Inkscape with our laser cutter.