Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:
On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 10:56 PM, stuart <stuart@...1754...> wrote:
Alexandre Prokoudine wrote: ...<cut>...
Where is the inkscape "blog"?
Stuart, please follow the URL at the wiki page ;-)
Alexandre
A search on the inkscape wiki page for "blog":
No no no :))))
http://vidar.gimp.org/graphtecprint/ is a blog entry. You want comment #3 from Ulisses
Ohhh, ok - but my patch file is 279 lines long (and growing). Yes, a patch just to make Vidar's code work with a blue wishblade would be short. But I wanted new features - and I'm still trying to figure out why python is sooo difficult to work w/. I resorted to "fake" global variables just to get it working. That can't be right. Python must offer a better way of passing data across, what are they called?, methods? functions?
- There is a testing version of an HPGL exporter written by Aaron Spike
Is this the inkscape plug in printer approach?
No, it's just an exporter.
And by "exporter" you mean reads in an HPGL file and outputs a GDS file?
Maybe there's more things in a GDS file than I know of, but w/Vidar's python scripts (pen up/down move to here type commands) my cutter is working fine.
...<cut>...
How well is this developed?
It was written just once and not quite well tested.
What needs work?
I guess we need more people with cutters that can read HPGL files to test and tell us what needs work.
Alexandre
Hummm, does inkscape read HPGL files? If so, then the user could just plot them indirectly from inkscape using Vidar's script.
I'm not sure what Aaron's means when he talks about "NURB curves found in GSD files" (more on NURB curves:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS). This could be interesting to understand. However, and correct me if I'm wrong, it would appear that inkscape has a NURB tool for drawing. But when it comes to rendering the cut, inkscape does the conversion to simple X/Y points for you. Or am I wrong?
This conversion (to X/Y points) is arguably very universal. There are probably (very) high end plotters out there using servo motors which can render a NURB curve "natively" (sort of). But these cutters most people have (sub $500) use stepping motors. Even if they understood a NURB curve I can't imagine they would do any better job then if inkscape did the translation.
...thanks for the response.