So I started to dig into the problem in the Inkscape bug database and sure enough there were two additional problems highlighted: Although figuring out these problems took quite a while because I (naively) thought all of this would simply work so I didn’t bother to research it very deeply from the start. It also doesn’t support objects other than paths (Inkscape treats rectangles and circles and such as objects other than basic paths) so my exported files were mostly blank. Oh that would have been too easy…įirst I discovered that the Inkscape DXF export doesn’t support layers. My first experiment with one simple path object was successful so I optimistically figured everything else would simply work. I’ve been using Inkscape for other projects for quite a while and I had noticed it would export to DXF so I thought I was all set: just draw my part outlines in Inkscape and export a file for SheetCam. I immediately thought of Inkscape, the free vector drawing program for Windows and Linux. Someday I’ll probably want to invest in a high-end CAD program but for now I really wanted something very simple and very cheap or even free. So I needed something that would generate DXF and I wanted something simple. SheetCam consumes DXF files – a vector format originated by AutoCad.
EXPORT FROM SHEETCAM SOFTWARE
It probably isn’t the top-of-the-line CAM software available but its (so far) doing the job for me.
I’ve been using SheetCam to generate g-code for my CNC mill and so far I’m pretty happy with it. I also corrected the list of dependencies in the better_dxf_output.inx file.įor anyone who is interested, visit this page to download all of the required files. I just create small rectangles the same size as my drill hole. It works best with small rectangles because it will compute the center point of the path bounding box as the location for the POINT. There really isn’t a way to turn this behavior off (other than not end your layer names with “drill” so if you end up using this extension, be aware of this).
SheetCam uses POINT objects for drilling and I didn’t have an easy way to create them. I also improved my own exporter and added a feature that creates POINT entities instead of LINE entities for objects on layers that end in the word “drill”. There is a bug in Inkscape’s simpletransform.py when it attempts to handle transformations of scale, rotate, etc.
EXPORT FROM SHEETCAM PLUS
I was using it again today for my upcoming CNC milling efforts and found a few bugs plus added another feature. I wrote a few days ago about my work on a better DXF export module for Inkscape.