Inkscape import to Sheetcam problem

[429p]

If i import a .dxf drawing into sheetcam that contains a circle, the circle does not appear on the sheetcam screen. If I do a .dxf drawing in inscape with just a circle, there is no layer . The sheetcam error says "layer does not exist." I can import a .dxf drawing of a square into sheetcam and inscape with out a problem.

Any ideas on this problem?

Another problem is that if I import the same drawing in .svg format, I can import a circle, but the scale is way off- much larger than the original drawing in inkscape. I set up my inkscape in inches, and import into sheetcam in inches.

I have imported .dxf drawings into sheetcam with circles last week, and they displayed fine.

Any ideas? I know I have two problems here, and that I need to work on one at a time. Which one should I work on first?

Thank you for any suggestions. Carr

[Les Newell]

I'm not sure about the circle. Could you post a sample dxf file here. When you import the svg file a box will appear with a number of options. You can use the scaling option to scale your drawing back to the correct size. I'm guessing it is an inch/metric issue so try using a scale factor of 0.03937

Just so you don't get caught out the scale factor option is common to all file types so if you import a dxf file you will have to change it to something sensible for dxf.

[429p]

CIRCLE drawing w square.dxf

(4.54 KiB) Downloaded 82 times

CIRCLE drawing w square.dxf

(4.54 KiB) Downloaded 82 times

[attachment=0]

Les, here is the .dxf file with a square that will import and a circle that will not import. The .03937 factor did not work with the .svg file, the scale is closer, but not real close- maybe i need to keep working on it. i would prefer to be able to import in .dxf since the scale seems to be exact.

[Les Newell]

I took a look at the dxf and the circle isn't there. It just contains a square as a LWPOLYGON entity. I just ran some tests in Inkscape and it looks like an Inkscape bug.

What units are you using in Inkscape? If you hover your mouse over the rulers it should show you the units. The default units are SVG units (90 units/inch). You can change the units by pressing <ctrl><shift>D. On the 'Page' tab at the top you should see an option for the default units.

[429p]

Les, is there another way to scale .svg files without having to reload the drawing to get to the "scale" window? In other words, is it possible to "scale" after the .svg file is loaded in sheet am.

Thank you for responding to my post!

[Simko]

CIRCLE drawing w square.dxf

[attachment=0]

Les, here is the .dxf file with a square that will import and a circle that will not import. The .03937 factor did not work with the .svg file, the scale is closer, but not real close- maybe i need to keep working on it. i would prefer to be able to import in .dxf since the scale seems to be exact.

I opened this file in AutoCAD 2013 and there is no circle in the file... Only a square that measures exactly 2.875x2.875 on Layer_1

Not sure about the square/circle thing, but here is a topic where I delved fairly deep into the scaling between QCAD and Inkscape, maybe it will be of some help.

[429p]

Les, default units in Inkscape are in inches.

"Bug in Inscape?" Maybe you get what your pay for! Can/will you make a recommendation for a bugless drawing program?

Simko, I will look at the topic you suggested.

Thanks to both of you for the replies. Carr

[Les Newell]

Could you post one of your drawings so I can run some tests.

[429p]

Les, here are two drawings done in inkscape, one saved as an .svg, and one saved as a .dxf. The .dxf will not open with Sheetcam, the .svg will open w/sheetcam using a 1:1 ratio and be fairly close to the dimensioned drawing in inkscape.


thanks, Carr

circle in a square.svg

(2.11 KiB) Downloaded 84 times

circle in a square.svg

(2.11 KiB) Downloaded 84 times

circle in a square.dxf

(4.54 KiB) Downloaded 83 times

circle in a square.dxf

(4.54 KiB) Downloaded 83 times

[Les Newell]

The stroke width affects the dimensions of your part. SheetCam ignores line width so you need to draw your parts with very thin lines. There does seem to be some other issue with scaling as well. I will do some more tests on Monday to try to figure out what is going on.

[429p]

Thanks Les. I read a post about a user who uses the published kerf width from the manufacturer as the line width. I will try thatwidth or smaller for line width.

[Simko]

Use .001 inches for the stroke width to see the part with the correct dimensions. Changing the path to kerf width will help visualize cuts, but will make the dimensions seem incorrect in Inkscape.