Epilog Legend 24 TT can't vector with Inkscape

[Allan Wright]

Hello all. Sorry if this is a duplicate post, but I've done extensive searching with Google and here and didnt' find a similar topic. I have an Epilog Legend 24 TT. I can vector fine with the vector only driver in Autocad, and vector & engrave with the normal driver in Corel and Illustrator. A customer has sent me an SVG he created with Inkscape, that will only load in Inkscape. I can engrave all of the engrave portions of it, but I cannot get the cut lines to vector.

I've tried all the suggested settings from the Epilog help documents with line widths from .001 through .008. All of them raster. I've tried both at 600 DPI and 300 DPI. The former was the majority of my tests.

I've updated my Epilog drivers to the latest available and I'm running the latest Inkscape.

Has anyone had success vector cutting with Inkscape on older Epilog machines?

thanks,
Al

[Bill George]

You have to realize that Inkscape is a free program and what is created in it may not always work. I had a lot of issues trying to use it with a GRBL controller. Frankly I gave up and dumped the entire project. Use Corel Draw or AutoCAD even Fusion 360 should work. There will be people jumping in here telling that they use Inkscape just fine, go for it.

[Kev Williams]

This may work--I'm downloading inkscape as I type this, but--

--this trick has worked MANY times for me:

FIRST- google then download CC PDF Creator... this is a simple program that, once installed, becomes one of your 'printers'. It will take anything on your screen that you can print- including vector art- and change it into a PDF. Once changed to a PDF, save it, then import it into Corel or any other program that will import PDF's...

This program has saved me countless hours in phone calls and emails asking for art I can use-- and it's great if you just need to make a PDF of anything!

--I've never used inkscape, going to try it and see what happens :)

[Kev Williams]

Wow, Inkscape is pretty barbaric ;) (might not be so bad if I got used to it)--

Anyway, once again my trusty CC PDF creator works!

Here's what I did after running Inkscape-

I drew 2 rectangles- I ran the eraser thru the bottom one a couple of times,
interesting how it worked, as the program outlined the missing sections within, cool...
387060

--I figured out how to remove the color, and see the rectangles in 'outline' view.
From there I tried to print to my laser, but my laser's driver didn't show up and I got an error message to do with the spooler-
--the laser did take the 'send' command, but got a weird message on the laser's screen, and of course it wouldn't run--
On further review, I found the outlines don't actually exist unless the graphic is painted.
Found this out when I tried to create the first PDF with no color, which is exactly what the PDF got :)
But once I colored the squares black again, voila!
387061
--this is the resulting PDF!

So I went into Corel, and imported it, and voila! :D
387062
-- I colored them different just to see if I could, then made a copy in red-outline only...

-- and these I CAN send to the laser! http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/thumbsup.gif

Hope this helps!

[Bill George]

Kev like I said it worked sort of, but you have to factor in all those extra steps and what's your time worth?

[Kev Williams]

I'm not suggesting Allan use the PDF converter instead of a decent program, I'm suggesting it for when customers- like his did- send you files you can't use as-is... I use the PDF converter probably a half dozen times a day-- I'd say at least 1 in 3 PDF's, DXF's, DWG's or AI files I try to import into Corel won't because 'file is corrupted' or 'file is compressed' or some other BS... it takes about 30 seconds to make the PDF and import it, and I'm ready to go, much faster than phone calls or waiting on new files via email! :)

[Allan Wright]

Thanks for the 'trick'.

Strange, I found several on-line help documents from schools and maker spaces that use inkscape with the newer model epilogs just fine.

I will try the PDF conversion and import trick though- sounds the treat.

[Kev Williams]

My problem with Inkscape was something to do with my laser's driver; my laser was listed as a printer as usual, but got some initialization error- not sure what, it was in French ;)

and while the PDF thing works, I just now, by accident, found out I can copy from Inkscape and paste into Corel, and vice versa-- which is lots faster than the PDF conversion! (didn't even think to try that the first time)

[Bill George]

Really Inkscape is a decent program If it fits your needs. My real issue was the origin was fixed at Lower Left and my controller needed to have Top Left. No way to change, support said why would you need to change?