INKSCAPE for Laser Engraving 101 | Vector Editing for Ezcad and Lightburn

[@BigHWorks]

I considered paying the Adobe toll but ultimately decided as a hobbyist the annual expense just doesn't make sense. This really did get me pointed in the right direction in learning and honing some skill with Inkscape. Alex, you are a great teacher. Thank you.

[@LaserEverything]

Thanks for sharing, so glad it's helping you! This episode was a challenge to make - Inkscape can be very quirky but it's also very powerful. Keep learning!

[@SheBaum324]

Hi! Im new to Inkscape and learning how to use it - when I select the text and click Path - Object to path - I click a letter and it selects ALL nodes/vectors, I cannot select a single letter.... what am I doing wrong? 😞

[@malcolmhodgson7540]

Try ungrouping

[@n1cc1s]

I have the same issue. Ungrouping does not help unfortunately. Any other ideas? 🙂

[@malcolmhodgson7540]

@@n1cc1s select all the text then ungroup

[@jellocity708]

Same for me

[@moovader9686]

I am also having this issue. Did anyone ever give a response to resolve this?

[@RDarka88]

Incredible tutorial! Thanks for posting, this was exactly what I needed.

[@LaserEverything]

👾 here to help

[@steinbierz]

Excellent video. I might have missed it in other videos but why exactly do you set your pages in all programs to 5” w x 3” h? Thank you.

[@LaserEverything]

Typically I'm working on 110 - 220 lenses and 5x3 ends up being a nice cover all that I've come accustomed to where I am pretty good at approximating sizes and scales for common things like font sizes, boxes, etc that import well for those workspaces. Personal habit!

[@fassy72]

Export as AutoCad DXF R12 works for me. You can import it directly into Ligthburn, RDworks and Ezcad

[@LaserEverything]

R12 does technically work but causes trouble in ezcad with complicated graphics as it imports polygons as individual line segments. Often crashes ezcad just trying to ungroup them, so I tend to stay away from it.

[@SmithAerosports1]

I work in outline view a lot. And make duplicates of each change as I start building my design. Sometimes I’ll have a 3 different ideas and making 3 duplicates that each can be modified independently is really helpful.

[@hiperkid411]

Wow, I've been using Inkscape for YEARS now and I always knew I was missing some things to make my life easier, but still felt like I had things down. Your video has taught me that I did not in fact learn enough of the features to make life easier. Thank you so much for showing things easily and so clearly! I've learned SOOOO much more in THIS ONE video! Hats off to you for doing this, you're a wonderful teacher!

[@LaserEverything]

Glad it helped you!! I had to TEACH myself to do literally everything in this video days before recording it haha. I use AI and Inkscape can feel like an alien planet coming from Adobe. We learn together. That's the whole point of our channel 🙂🙇

[@SmithAerosports1]

Also, Inkscape adds sometimes too many nodes. Good idea to “simply” to remove some of the excess nodes. Too many nodes will slow down ezcad.

[@JackInTheShop]

I like Inkscape I have used Inkscape for years. You show a thing or 2 I did not know. I have always used the break apart option and just fixed everything by hand. Thanks.

[@LaserEverything]

Thanks for watching, you got it!

[@armastat]

Questions: In page setup why not set the page size to the laser's working area as a default? Seems that would be an excellent idea?

[@LaserEverything]

No reason other than habit! Definitely a great idea!

[@armastat]

Okay after watching the whole thing I think I get it, saving all your work documents on 3" by 5" cards, lol, I get the old reference. haha cute.

[@ChippWalters]

Why did you choose exclusion versus difference for the building effect regarding the white graphic on the black circle? Wouldn't difference work just the same?

[@LaserEverything]

Is it bad if my answer is "because it worked" lolol - I'm definitely not a master at these vector editing programs. Just know enough to get the job done.

[@arkanglegeibriel]

51:22 watched for a while then came across this. I cringed. Scale everything you can in Inkscape first. GIMP works with Raster images which do not scale cleanly and pixelate images. Inkscape works with vectors which are infinitely and cleanly scalable. Do any and all scaling in inkscape then finishing touches in the Raster program.

[@carissa4110]

I'm new to all of this. I have been using Inkscape in addition to Photoshop, Illustrator, Cricut Design Space, and occasionally/rarely, Canva (soon to add Lightburn to the mix). When it comes to Inkscape and the Adobe apps, is there where a way to have the app do an automatic node reduction without having to go through the hundreds of thousands of nodes that appear on a rasterized PNG of a photo as doing an image trace to vectorize it? It takes FOREVER to delete all those nodes and then go back and curve all the lines myself, especially because I often work with stacked layers.

[@armastat]

EPS file format has been the printing industry's Common exchange format for decades

[@armastat]

One cool thing about Vector programs (You pro guys can cover your ears now) is that you can resize the objects to be as small as u want without messing them up. think about it (tic tok tic tok, lol). Theoretically no matter if u had a million engineering vector drawings. u only need one page to hold them all/ u could open a file and see nothing but a page full of very small 'dots', so dense the page is black with them. but if u zoom in you could see each pixel holds a drawing of a mechanism with 1000 parts in it. Now the file size would be so huge n entire hard drive might not hold it, lol, but its possible. So make the elements of your drawing, and like here save the original object to a small area of the page and use a duplicate to apply effects to, this way you can always go back and edit it, OR see where you came from

[@vulekv93]

Dude you are doing Gods work! This video is amazing! Thank you!

[@LaserEverything]

Aw glad it helped you!

[@myElHoElHo]

Thank you for this! This is very helpful!

[@LaserEverything]

Glad it was helpful!

[@t1188-k9l]

Regarding the Inkscape export to Ezcad issue, Save as .HPGL from Inkscape and then change the file extension to .PLT. Hope this helps someone in the future.

[@deervalleyengravings3088]

I use both Inkscape and Gimp in my designs for my co2 and Fiber lasers

[@LaserEverything]

Nice, yeah they're pretty good when you get used to them.

[@joshuajackson3002]

How do you go about pathing a shaded area? I'm working with a multicolor logo that emphasizes the 4 elements through color. Even though the engraving won't have the color, I need to get the same message across with greyscale shading... Any input would be greatly appreciated as I have been scouring the internet for a couple days now - new to the software, new to this field.

[@laserfun4605]

Thank you! Great video. Will you make a video on how to engrave and cut using extensions with Inkscape?

[@LaserEverything]

I noticed that when I was messing around in there - definitely something I'll take a look at.

[@cybersechs1368]

Ok.. I just gotta say.. this episode is imho. your MAGNUM OPUS of this channel hahaha :D

[@LaserEverything]

Glad you enjoyed it lmao!

[@AllAroundTube50]

Just learning the very basics now. why is it that when I type a word and select PATH > OBJECT TO PATH, it does the entire word and I am not able to select individual letters?

[@droopyd14]

Select everything and hit ctrl+. You’re going around the world lol. Nice video

[@jeffhack6839]

Thank you for this. This has been the best tutorial for my grasp of the Inkscape advanced features. The membership fee has been very worthwhile. Thanks.

[@LaserEverything]

You're very welcome! Glad you got something out of it!

[@armastat]

Division 'Keeps the bottom most object but separates a portion of it determined by what is overlapping it'

[@bigpaul009]

Hi all, I have an ender 3 v2 and I am thinking of getting a lazer for my printer, can anyone help me with which program i would need to turn a sketch into a file that my 3d printer will understand, TIA.

[@CNC4XR7]

Is radius in percent not working because it's not locked in x and y

[@LaserEverything]

Didn't notice, nice catch!

[@armastat]

I was so looking forward to how u handled he landscape behind the bridge in the logo section, disappointed it was just deleted out without comment.

[@ab-shop]

This is a fantastic tutorial, a friend suggest me to use this software with my new laser reviews on my channel and your video will be me reference !! Thanks a bunch, maybe i will ask you something about, is it possible ? A big Ciao from Italy, Alberto.

[@ryanmattison2044]

After several re-watches and several several hours of tinkering, I believe I have finally got the functionality. 100% thanks to this video for the ezcad export method in this video. I still need to dial in the process, but at least I can see and hatch my logos now in ezcad.

[@LaserEverything]

Glad you got it figured out! Thanks for watching!

[@mouhannadabboud8937]

Hi I have a question please , when I wright a name on inkscape then I move it to EZ cad to engrave it I can't hatch it could you please help me to solve this problem

[@ays2013boss]

I haven't watched the full video yet but can you please for the love of God because nobody else has made a video showing you how to outline a pic of your gun with the bezzeir tool then fill the box with multiple images. I guess you would call it stacking vectors in the outlined box to create like a collage of images. Please do a video on this!

[@arkadiychernikov]

Alex, another way: Inkscape Save As .dxf (14) >> ezcad Import vector. Thank you for another excellent video lesson.

[@LaserEverything]

The only reason I don't like saving as DXF is because it imports every line as individual line segments instead of paths and for complex graphics it can be a huge overload on ezcad trying to ungroup them all.

[@scalardev9089]

What I found is save as plain svg

[@hairounagems]

Really late to the party but I desperately need an Inkscape to lasergbrl tutorial 😭

[@700Junky]

Is there an easy way to take a shape, fill with an Inscape pattern, and get it into EZCad2?

[@basilwatson1]

would like to use but Extensions is broken in linux and no one will answer on the forums .. I note its been listed as a bug ,,, for quite a while

[@LaserEverything]

Aw that sucks... :/ part of the problem with open source I suppose unfortunately.

[@boyjoja]

Hi, your video is so lucid and helpful. Can you please show me how to convert from a halftone image to a vector and save it for Ezcad please...Tks

[@LaserEverything]

I'll add it to our video list.

[@ryanmattison2044]

I'm going to have to come back to this one. Currently using gimp and Corel draw x6 to get logos ready for ezcad. The issue I'm having is that I need a way to trace so it doesn't drag background in and so I can hatch properly. For some reason copying from anywhere and pasting into ezcad always brings a rectangle

[@LaserEverything]

Definitely can't cut and paste into ezcad. You'll have to do an export, we talk about it in this vid so def come back to it.

[@timt1346]

Aha! Finally, the info I've been looking for so I can advance out of XCS. Their program is great for what it's really limited without having gcode already set up for paths. I'm still drowning in all of this but it's so fun to learn.

[@LaserEverything]

Glad it was helpful!

[@KN-ix2xm]

Hey Alex! Just following your tutorial section by section and i was wondering how did you get your logo into Inkscape at 23:37? Did you manually create it via Inkscape/another software or did you import a picture and used a feature that captures the logo while removing the background? (is there even a feature like that? I would LOVE to know!) Thank you for the great videos. BIG FAN!

[@LaserEverything]

Hey KN I created the logo in AI a long time ago. Opened the AI file, copied and pasted it. You can also import AI into inkscape you just can't export AI out. The feature you're thinking of is called image trace, and we cover it in this tutorial. Look for the image trace chapter, it's towards the end.

[@StrongerByGraceDesigns]

I have searched high and low for an answer that maybe you have. Your video was very helpful, by the way. I have been using Inskape for a year now, and you taught me new things. I just bought the x-tool and learningto use it. So, I designed an image in Inkscape and used the set clip feature to trim my design. I followed all your steps after making my design. The only design I had an issue with was the one I used set clip feature. When I imported into light burn, it showed the parts I clipped out. I have been messing with it for 2 hours and can't figure it out! Do you know what I may be missing?

[@LaserEverything]

I'm a visual person lol providing support on graphics in KZbin comments is super hard for me. Mind posting in our Facebook group with a screenshot? I'm betting it's something super simple.

[@StrongerByGraceDesigns]

@@LaserEverything yes, I can. Is it the laser everything official that I join?

[@joetkeshub]

Great pedagogy. Thank you very much. I'm glad that Lightburn's users like me don't have to worry about inskape's outputs. Btw why don't you use layers more?

[@LaserEverything]

Thank you! We use layers, but if we don't have a need to break things into multiple layers for design needs on an engrave, we typically keep it simple.

[@jellocity708]

It’s not working correctly for me

[@BrianEZorn]

Excellent video loaded with useful tips! Thanks for your time and efforts to make this available for us.

[@LaserEverything]

My pleasure! Glad you got value out of it!

[@johnmessenger7292]

Great job Alex, that was chocked full of useful info. Thanks a bunch

[@LaserEverything]

Thanks for watching John!

[@seankelley6480]

Hey there hot shot! Great tutorial! Just. One. Thing- Remember! You’re “teaching” S L O W. IT. DOWN. Just a notch… We’re not sprinting!!! You are teaching…

[@jellocity708]

I don’t see the futura font or bold?

[@mitzinewman3238]

THANK YOU FOR THIS! I learned so much form this!❤❣

[@LaserEverything]

Glad it was helpful!

[@abusam1]

Thank you Alex for the great tutorial, I am using inkscape and laser GRBL on my LM2 pro 10A, I am tiring to create a grid wasteboard on MDF, my question is what should be the the stroke width of the line (I should say the minimum). also is it better to create the grid with individual lines and maybe GROUP them together, or should I use path effect (construct a grid). not sure which method is more efficient for laser engrave time and not over-lapping (extra burn) when the horizontal cross the vertical line)

[@BsrlinMAZ]

Brand new to laser cutting/etching -- laser cutter has been delivered, but I have yet to do anything with it. My question: can I create files with Inkscape which I can then send to my machine to cut or etch, or do I use Inkscape just for editing and then need another piece of software such as EZCad or Lightburn which you have listed in the video title? Thank you for your time and assistance. Liked/subscribed.

[@bertouweneel7723]

Hi there. Looks all vèy helpful. Just wondering which version of Inkscape you are using in your tutorial. Lots of tools show up different in my version Inscape 0.92.4

[@a5ync]

Excellent tutorial. I needed a refresher and an introduction to the new Inkscape features (it's been a while). This comes from an engineer who worked on building lasers and CAD software for these. Thank you!

[@philbaker29]

I tried converting .eps to .svg with no luck. The file will not populate in EZCAD2. This isn't a complex file I'm creating either, so I'm not sure what is going wrong? Ideas?

[@LaserEverything]

I'd want to take a look at the files. Either check out Discord Server or Facebook group - links in the description - or you can check out our new forum over at www.lasereverything.net/forum and I'm sure we can get you pointed in the right direction.

[@philbaker29]

@Laser Everything thanks for the support! I ended up purchasing Lightburn, and it's been much more forgiving with my files from Inkscape. I might give EzCAD another go, but so far I'm satisfied with Lightburn.

[@LaserEverything]

@@philbaker29 LightBurn is a significant improvement. If you've got it installed and everythings running you should really only have to go back to ezcad when performing lens corrections. Glad to hear you picked it up.

[@longrangesweden]

Huge thanks man! iv had so mouch trouble with getting this to work.

[@LaserEverything]

No problem! Hope it helped! :D

[@birdmun]

@17:29 Had you held the Ctrl key the rotation would have been in 15* increments. Also, when you typed your text, it was set to center rather than left or right justify. That was a good thing as all you would have had to do was hold Ctrl and rotate 6 steps. Fill and Stroke can also be adjusted quickly via the X and the colors at the bottom of the window. Shift and click the X will delete the stroke and just clicking the X will delete the fill. For EZCAD did you try dxf or one of the other svg types in inkscape?

[@jffqnn]

I'm brand new to Inkscape and have been watching a ton of videos just to do simple scroll saw designs. I even broke into Leather Carving recently too. KZbin is an Awesome Medium to begin learning New Things to make Loved One's just to show how much They mean to me. I'm Extremely Grateful to have found Your Channel as well as This Video. I don't have a laser engraver but I think I'm going to learn a plethora of information watching Your KZbin channel!! Thank You Always for Your Time and Help with Inkscape!! Who knows, I might even purchase a laser engraver one day (if I can actually afford one.. LoL) Thanks Again for Everything and keep up the Great Work!! ☺️

[@ledzep331]

I've been an ad hoc user of Inkscape for years for various projects. I've also spent hours pondering why my designs didn't translate to the real world, via various different bits of hardware proprietary software. Thanks to you, in an hour I've learned more than years of cursing and googling. Thankyou!

[@owatagi]

Thanks so much for your work. I’ve used Inkscape exclusively, but I also own, Silhouette Business. I’ve not found a good course for laser exclusively. Would you consider doing one?

[@a7xfanben]

Nice vid!

[@LaserEverything]

Thank you!

[@Xray2j]

So I am trying to follow along but I guess a lot has changed in 7 months. My Inkscape about says 0.92?

[@byronwatkins2565]

Logos by Nick has several demonstrations of using Inkscape and GIMP. GIMP also allows you to select regions and move them into layers for independent thresholding.

[@shannonmarie6227]

49:47 is exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

[@LaserEverything]

Thanks for watching 🙂

[@custampin]

What a great tutorial! Thanks so much!

[@LaserEverything]

Glad it was helpful!

[@ivandrazic9805]

Nice tutorial my friend, but how is your canvas on x=0 and y=0 I cannot find instructions anywhere?

[@LegacyHardDrive]

If you add some extra nodes to the circles in Inskscape then EZcad will display them properly so you wont have to jump around with converting file types. It only happens with perfect complete circles with no intersections as far as i can tell.

[@rosembergmartins2551]

Really good video❤ thank you very much ❤

[@LaserEverything]

Thanks for watching!

[@oninachi]

Very useful video. Thank you so much.

[@LaserEverything]

Glad it was helpful! :D

[@ironranger1]

around 28:41 you seleted the paths then combined them.. how do u get them selected?

[@ironranger1]

ok figured it out... Ill write it here for myself, when i forget again. click on path then go all way to top or bottom of said paths, hold shift then click on the path you want to combine with...

[@Haven4092]

Do you have a link to your photoshop tutorial?

[@LaserEverything]

The original AI/PS version of this tutorial can be found here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hp6ZoYqKrKmShLs

[@ginachu3654]

taking a shot whenever he says "path"

[@LaserEverything]

I don't recommend that

[@squidskunk]

more inkscape for laser/cnc please..?

[@LaserEverything]

For sure :)

[@darrellfox4117]

What version of inkscape are you using cause mine doesn't have the same options as you are showing

[@chuckscustomammunition2393]

As always an awesome video, thank you

[@LaserEverything]

Glad you enjoyed it thanks for watching!

[@YoungNino2017]

Is the text in Inkscape actually vector? It doesn't look like it is... so what's the point?

[@bobgustafson3990]

which version of Inkscape are you using?

[@LaserEverything]

Most recent stable release 1.2 off their website.

[@bobgustafson3990]

@@LaserEverything any known issues with it or problems when converting to an ezcad2 file format?

[@Stakespecialty]

Alt 6 is an easy way to see if text has been converted to a path

[@LaserEverything]

Alt 6 is insanely useful. Wish I had known about that one, thank you!

[@Stakespecialty]

@@LaserEverything also if you use a drawing tablet with inkscape Ctrl and click and drag with middle mouse will rotate the whole canvas....I mainly use inkscape for all my vectoring stuff..... But am learning a lot from your videos

[@slowburnwoodworks7626]

Man, you absolutely crushed this! I'm another woodworker getting into laser engraving, so of course I'm deep diving into the appropriate software. This is hands down the best inkscape video I've found. Thank you for all the work you put into this🙏 You certainly got a like and sub from me. Nice work 🤘Thank you, again!

[@LaserEverything]

Glad you got value from and enjoyed the video, happy we could help! Thank you for the support, and rock on with your laser journey!

[@SuperOpinion8ed]

so good! I watch videos at 1.5x usually and this was perfect for that. Paused and took some notes but otherwise it was so well produced, clear, and focused. Excellent training video.

[@LaserEverything]

Thank you, Glad you enjoyed it!

[@solar_baby1392]

Really good video. Thanks for it. I've had a sculpfun s9 and was doing great, but just purchased an Algo Delta and wanted to really use it to its potential. This is going to help me a lot.

[@LaserEverything]

Thank you, and awesome! Glad it offered some help, and hope you're enjoying your S9!

[@frostcbr]

Fantastic tutorial

[@LaserEverything]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@Sank1982]

This software is WAY TO Complicated

[@LaserEverything]

Yep.

[@armastat]

unfortunately all software designed to allow human creativity is this way. its a result of its organic growth in capabilities while trying to avoid u having to relearn everything on using the program as it evolves.

[@wantafastz28]

Thank you for this content.

[@LaserEverything]

Thank you for watching, glad you enjoyed! :)

[@nams37]

Thank you sir

[@LaserEverything]

All the best :D

[@anderslagerqvist2642]

Great overview tutorial 🥰

[@LaserEverything]

Thank you 🤗

[@vickyakhoyan802]

Thank you :)

[@LaserEverything]

You're welcome!

[@MisterReltec]

I can appreciate the time you took on this and looking at all of the comments, I can see others do as well. But for a 101, in my opinion, you go too fast and jump around with explaining things. I have never touched Inkscape or Ai and was hoping to get a beginner class. I'm not trying to degrade you or your video, but I just wanted to put this out there for you in case you were looking for feedback. Again, you took your time to do a free video and I can appreciate that.

[@pussbust7073]

Dude!!! Thank you!!

[@LaserEverything]

You bet!

[@pussbust7073]

@@LaserEverything can you please break it up into time stamps of some sort? I'll be viewing this video several times!

[@pussbust7073]

@@LaserEverything I am grateful!