[Lab] Laser

Thu Sep 1 23:48:55 EDT 2011

I don't think the machine minds but if you are using a system such as
Photoshop the problem will be more at your end.

For instance if you made a circle that was 1" and the .001" line width and
then changed it to a 3" circle by stretching it you'd have a couple of
issues. One is that you'd be scaling the line width. The second is that the
raster would scale up into a lower res circle.

With a vector based system you can change the size of the circle and the
line thickness more independently. .

On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 11:23 PM, Jonathan Edwards
<zigwhentheyzag at ymail.com>wrote:

> 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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>>>>
>>>
>>>
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