Hum, my other sourceforge mailings have made it to their lists -
something must be stopping this one from making it to the inkscape
sourceforce list. I'm dropping all the Cc's and trying again...
stuart wrote:
Interesting!...
I believe Pam copied my posting from the wishblade group (original "tip"
in this thread). No one followed me up there - I think. (Yahoo groups &
e-mail are difficult to use w/the large (enormous!) amount of traffic
the wishblade group produces.) So I never checked back, thinking this
to be a bit beyond the group.
I'm not sure where you guys (Bryce, Tom & Patrick) are headed. I got to
think, inkscape developers are not going to be interested in embedding
specialized support (print drivers) into the application. I think
Vidars solution (link is in original "tip" below) works great. But I
have not heard from Vidar for months (hope everything is all right) and
his Python script does not support the wishblade machine.
However, a simple fix (patch) and you can be off plotting (cutting) from
inkscape -> Vidar's patched python script -> wishblade.
Which is all great for me (I love this setup). But how many people are
going to have the knowhow to install a Python interpreter and Glade
graphic libraries in order to support the GUI that pops up when you hit
print from the inkscape menus (after you configured inkscape according
to Vidar's instructions)?
I was thinking not many - but now I see the inkscape wiki catering to
these type of people:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/BlueprintCutterControl
..ok, tell me where to post the patch and I'll alter the wiki accordingly.
Tom Davidson wrote:
> Since this looks like it might depend on piping postscript to an
> external command let me point to a discussion in the bug tracker that
> discusses how to get this working with the new (for 0.46) GTK+ print
> dialog under Linux... (you may need to modify your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file)
>
>
https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/189813
> "no 'pipe print output to command' option by default in new gtk+ print
> dialog "
>
> -Tom
>
> On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 12:43 PM, Bryce Harrington
> <bryce@...1798...> wrote:
>> Hi Patrick,
>>
>> Understood about the commitments issue... Perhaps if you could simply
>> outline the approach to take in a blueprint
>> (
blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape), then someone interested in
>> learning
>> how to do this sort of work could pick it up from there?
>>
>> Bryce
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 03:30:05PM -0500, Patrick wrote:
>> > I might be able to offer a little bit of help here. I have spent
>> quite a
>> > bit if time trying to figure out how to reverse engineer different
>> ports
>> > and buses. There is a program found here:
>> >
>> >
http://benoit.papillault.free.fr/usbsnoop/
>> >
>> > that can log USB communication. We could use this to write our own
>> > cutter control program.
>> >
>> > I would love to be a part of this but I feel that I am already
>> letting
>> > people down by not following through on promises. I am quite
>> overloaded
>> > right now and I can't do it alone. If others want to work on this
>> too I
>> > would love to be a part of it.
>> >
>> > I also want to help write a scaling widget for the DXF export
>> option. I
>> > just have not had time to tackle it.
>> >
>> > -Patrick
>> >
>> > bulia byak wrote:
>> > > ...forwarding this to the devel list...
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> > > From: Pam B. <pamely@...329...>
>> > > Date: Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 2:26 PM
>> > > Subject: Programming for Inkscape.
>> > > To: buliabyak@...400...
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Hi,
>> > > I have been told to contact you by Bibi Morris. I understand
>> that in the
>> > > past some wonderful people have made changes in Inkscape that
>> made it an
>> > > incredibly useful program for owners of Wishblade and CraftRobo
>> personal
>> > > media cutters.
>> > >
>> > > I have now been provided a tip that would allow users of Linux
>> to drive
>> > > their machines directly from Inkscape. The "tip" suggested
>> that Windows
>> > > users might be able to do the same if someone was able to do
>> something
>> > > with the windows binary for Inkscape. As is probably already
>> obvious, I
>> > > know nothing about Operating Systems, nor do I know anything about
>> > > coding and software programming.
>> > >
>> > > Actually, I no longer even own a Wishblade, (I have moved on to
>> a bigger
>> > > machine.) but I do run a support group for over 1,000 personal
>> cutter
>> > > owners. This has the potential of being a very powerful tool to
>> owners
>> > > of these types of cutters and could save them hundreds of
>> dollars in
>> > > software upgrades. Would you please check into this and see if
>> it is
>> > > something that can be done for us?
>> > >
>> > > Thank you,
>> > > Pam Beard and the 1,000+ in the yahoo group: EasyWishbladers
>> > >
>> > > The "tip" is pasted below:
>> > >
>> > > If the words Linux, RedHat, Debian, Inkscape and / or Python
>> mean
>> > > anything to you read on (warning, getting technical here...).
>> > > How would you like to cut from inkscape? all in Linux?
>> > >
>> > > I have been lurking in Linux Printer Driver land and was
>> very happy
>> > > to find an early copy of a Python script designed to provide
>> the
>> > > necessary "linkage" between Inkscape and a craftrobo
cutter.
>> With a
>> > > little change to the code, we verified it works with a
>> wishblade as
>> > > well. But you might have to wait until there is support in
>> the down
>> > > loadable python script.
>> > >
>> > > Basically, you print from Inkscape "using PostScript
>> operators" (not
>> > > as a bitmap). And, instead of sending the output to a
>> printer, you
>> > > "pipe" it to the python application. This operation is
actually
>> > > described in the Inkscape print popup menu. When you click
>> on print,
>> > > the python GUI pops up giving you more options. This GUI
>> interface
>> > > is *much* simpler than the actual graphtec software. Most
>> anything
>> > > to do with the image needs to be done in Inkscape. The only
>> real
>> > > control on the GUI are the paper size, the cutting speed and
>> the
>> > > cutting pressure.
>> > >
>> > > I suppose this can also be done in windows. My *assumptions*
>> are
>> > > that there is a windows binary for inkscape as well as
>> python and
>> > > python related software. If that's the case, then you may be
>> able to
>> > > skip setting up a Linux box.
>> > >
>> > > I know I am hitting only about 1% of you, but if you want to
>> try the
>> > > script you can get it here:
>>
http://vidar.gimp.org/graphtecprint/
>> > > ....I am sure feed back at this stage of development would
>> influence
>> > > what features are fixed, enhanced and / or added.
>> > >