I wanted to explore using our Makerspace Laser (A Chinese Turnkey Cheap $300 version) for doing some marquetry. The software that is installed on the computer is Inkscape. This is new to me. However, my initial experience with it was that when I create a bitmap, the path for my outline actually had 2 lines.
one for each side of the original line in my drawing. So I had to "break apart" these 2 paths and delete one path. So, depending on which side of the line one deletes, one can get a pretty close inlay image. This problem becomes more complex once I tried to do marquetry with several tangent lines such as the petals in a daisy flower. I have played around with these images, paths, centerline-trace, etc... for close to 100 hours now and I finally gave up. There must be a better way to cut parts out on a laser for marquetry. I then found your forum, thank-you for that.
It seems from what I can read here, that Coral Draw is the program of choice. If I can get my local makerspace BOD to spring for this software, will it interface pretty easy to my laser. Currently I am using inkscape with an extension that generates G-code for the laser. I would appreciate your thoughts on this.
Also, for all of you that may have been down my path, is there any possible solution for using Inkscape that I am not aware of, that will generate accurate G-code suitable for marquetry work?
I thank-you in advance and look forward to your replies!