couldn 't we hook this script to a Plotter dialog in inkscape?
On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 3:09 PM, Bruce Westfall <brucewestfall@...400...>wrote:
I am very glad this is being discussed!
Here are my opinions from what I've been able to do thus far using Inkscape and my vinyl cutters:
I would not bother with any format other than HPGL. It is a standard for desktop and large format cutting plotters - not just Graphtec. (Graphtec has some proprietary formats, as do others...)
I have a 15 year old 24" Roland plotter and a less than week old Graphtec 48" plotter ( vinyl cutters ).
The exact same file can be cut by both machines with no alterations other than the original setup. Graphtec defaults to it's own version - GP-GL, this needs changed on the control panel to standard HP-GL.
What I do right now is:
- Make the drawing in Inkscape
- Copy what needs cut to the clipboard
- Open a new file in Inkscape
- Paste clipboard data into new file
- SHIFT+CTRL+D to access properties of new file
- Click the "Fit page to selection" button
- Save file as "newplot.ps"
- in terminal, enter: ./graphtec.sh < newplot.ps
- plotter starts and cuts perfectly, absolutely ignorant it is being
controlled by open source software!
The file 'graphtec.sh' is a modified version of a script found at: http://www.3x6.nl/inkscape_hpgl/....html
It uses hpgl-distiller - a program that can be downloaded from: http://pldaniels.com/hpgl-distiller
This sounds complicated, but once it is set up, it isn't much worse than any other vinyl cutting software. I've used plenty of them!
I will gladly help actively work on and test this. I also have plenty of other ideas to help inkscape become a full featured vinyl cutting solution.
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