Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
On the error: Did you replace wcb.py, or did you put it in the main extensions folder? From the error, it looks like you put it in the main extensions folder, so that it can’t find the dependencies.
I’ve updated the template document with a newer one. I have tested this, and when I draw a 10 cm square, it plots as 10 cm.
> Do you know a better way to control the scale of the drawing?
Yes, try the template *without* changing the scale values.
Is the AxiDraw software working?
That’s not what’s on line 395 of wcb.py version in the AxiDraw branch, so it looks like you have some other version.
We now have a branch of the WCB software configured to use with the AxiDraw: https://github.com/evil-mad/wcb-ink/tree/V1_axidraw
The time constant is the “RC” in your equation, and the “C” in that RC is the “size” of the capacitor, at least as measured in Farads. The physical size of the capacitor depends on other things including the voltage tolerance and the type of the capacitor that you are using.
This hasn’t been on our radar much; improving support for different types of fills has been one of the very rarest feature requests.
In Illustrator, the basic command is Object > Expand, to convert a pattern into a set “real” paths. But, as you have noted, there are some asterisks that can make this hard to use.
Our usual advice would be to minimize direct use of fill patterns, because they are challenging (in Inkscape, Illustrator, and elsewhere), and instead to use tiled (real) objects as the starting point.
Some possible approaches that you might consider:
- There’s a PDF with a very detailed workflow for creating tiled paths (for use with a laser cutter), here. I didn’t have great luck with it; maybe your Illustrator skills are better than mine.
- The “Hatches Rough” path effect in Inkscape can produce some very organic types of hatch fill lines. We usually *de-emphasize* this because most users are interested in uniform fills, when they want to fill something.
- We have some notes including additional methods of constructing fills in Inkscape, here.
- You may be able to tile and clip your pattern in Inkscape, following the method shown here
- It appears that it may be possible in some circumstances to print to a PDF and re-import to convert patterns into paths.
We have seen a few 3D printed tools like this, and have made our own laser-cut rectangles for the purpose, but we ultimately have found them to be kind of useless because any two pens give different positions for the Home position (as do any two sessions with even the same pen, if you’re using the diagonal position). The idea of the magnetic easels is that they should stay put once positioned, so you shouldn’t need to fuss with it more than once.
No, AxiDraw Merge does not yet have support for plotting to multiple machines.
It is something that we are working on for a future version, but it is quite a different situation to plot several different documents at the same time (rather than one document several times). We are still trying to determine a good user interface mode for doing so.
It looks like it plotted at approximately the right scale, and it did plot. Can you say what it is that failed? Was there some kind of an error?
If you are not sure that the scale is coming through correctly, I would suggest to try plotting a square of (say) 10 cm square, which you can measure and verify with the ruler.
With respect to the centering, it looks most like the initial pen position was not set correctly.
It looks like you have emailed tech support about this as well; since that’s a better place for asking back and forth questions, we’ll follow up there.
That’s an old news item; we’ll take care of it. They are not in production right now.
I’m afraid that I don’t have access to this older version of AI; I’m not sure what entirely is in the SVG that it is exporting.
I would have guessed that the options that you show selected would work, since you don’t have the “preserve illustrator” setting checked (this is the most important one to keep disabled), but again without seeing the file it’s a little hard to guess.
You can potentially clean up the file, perhaps by editing the file in Inkscape, perhaps by saving it from Inkscape, perhaps by editing the SVG file directly in a text editor. It depends what’s in the file.
The “Switch” object is essentially additional AI data that is within the file. No matter what objects are in the file — printable or not — you will always get this message when saving SVG this way.
Try the following method for exporting SVG:
Use File > Export > Export As…
* Check the “Use Artboards” option
* Select the SVG format option and click Export
* Styling: Presentation attributes
* Object IDs: Layer names
* Minify, Responsive: Both off@Hiro The XY travel limits are set by both the paper size and the machine travel. You should be able to set the travel limits with the selection of AxiDraw Model in the Config tab, or with a config file if necessary.
Great; glad to hear it!
