[Lab] Laser

[Jonathan Edwards]

That was the reason for my initial inquiry. Wasn't sure whether it had to be vector based or not. 

Illustrator could handle it. Personally, I would still opt for Photoshop to do any quick sizing, as it can work with vectors, and the guides, canvas/image sizing, and measuring tools are quite handy at the scale of a desktop laser cutter. Again, though, I've never toyed with Inkscape. Can't say I've ever tried to export anything other than 3D models from SketchUp either, though. I'll have to look into that. 

Jonathan



On 2011-09-01, at 9:49 PM, Darcy Whyte <darcy at siteware.com> wrote:

> Gimp and Photoshop are not vector based so I think it's more towards Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator if you want to use traditional graphics packages. 
> 
> I'm looking at Inkscape but I want to try and do the bulk of the work in Sketchup since I've been down that road (and laser cutting is 2D so it's a good fit). 
> 
> Given that it seems the machine uses a souped up printer driver, I think it hardly matters. Except you want to be able to make your parts to measure quickly.
> 
> I've always been an Inkscape fan but I'm finding that when it comes to making parts that are specific sizes I either need to learn much more about it or the project might lack some of the features of Sketchup. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 9:44 PM, Jonathan Edwards <zigwhentheyzag at ymail.com> wrote:
> My weapon of choice would be Photoshop then, as well. Although, it's not free, like SketchUp, and would involve a learning curve if you haven't used it before. Gimp is a fairly powerful, opensource alternative, however, the learning curve there, I would imagine, is even greater than Inkscape. 
> 
> The nice thing about both Photoshop and Gimp, in a case like this, is that they're both honed for relative  micrometer accuracy when it comes to printing and the measuring tools within each are useful. Not as powerful as 2D CAD software, but they do the job. 
> 
> I have never used Inkscape, however, so can't draw any comparisons that way. 
> 
> Best,
> Jonathan
> 
> 
> On 2011-09-01, at 8:49 PM, bentfork at gmail.com wrote:
> 
>> Getting a good greyscale scale images take a lot of playing around to get correct.  It is hard to adjust the contrast to make the image show up correctly depending on the material.  I tend to use photoshop filters to create a high b/w image with my own dithering applied.
>> 
>> When I'm testing new materials I have a checker board test pattern that I use when I'm testing new materials.  (I'll have to remember to copy it and some of my other cool patterns the next time I'm over at the lab.)
>> 
>> The basic pattern I use is a 2x10 cm grid, going from 100 black to 5% black in 5 percent increments.   
>> 
>> 100, 90, 80, ... 20, 10
>>   95, 85, 75, ...15,   5
>> 
>> This works well when trying to find the right power/speed for rastering images.
>> 
>> 
>> On 1 September 2011 19:50, Darcy Whyte <darcy at siteware.com> wrote:
>> It does it all...
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 7:39 PM, Jonathan Edwards <zigwhentheyzag at ymail.com> wrote:
>> Does the print driver for the laser just need vector images in black and white? Or does it work with greyscale, as well?
>> 
>> And how about bitmaps?
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Jonathan
>> 
>> On 2011-09-01, at 2:55 PM, Darcy Whyte <darcy at siteware.com> wrote:
>> 
>> > I've been using Sketchup for CAD work since it works well for CNC milling with Mach 3 software controlling the mill.
>> >
>> > It seems the printer driver type control for the ArtEngine Laser.... (we should come up with a name for it come think of it)...
>> >
>> > It seems the printer driver is theoretically independent of the software being used to make shapes for vector cutting.
>> >
>> > I was just drawing up something to cut from hardboard in InkScape. I like InkScape but there's another learning curve to get through on how to get things to fit.
>> >
>> > Before I went to far with Inkscape I wanted to see what opinion there was out there on what tool to use.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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