Inkscape Gcodetools plug-in English support forum

**Nick** » 10 дек 2009, 10:28

: Generated Gcode in EMC2

Type	Extension of vector graphics editor Inkscape
Developer	Gcodetools develop team
Written in	Python
OS	Cross-Platform (Windows, Linux, MacOS)
Version	1.6.03
License	GNU GPL
Downloads	7800+

Gcodetools

Gcodetools is a plug-in for Inkscape. It prepares and converts paths from Inkscape to Gcode, using biarc interpolation.

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**Nick** » 27 янв 2010, 16:04

Manual
Gcode tools ver 1.0.0

Interface

1.,2. Output Filename and directory. If output directory contains 'header' and/or 'footer' file they will be used as header and footer for resulting Gcode.
Attention! you must specify directory in which you have rights to write! (For example my home directory '/home/nick/')

3. Z coordinate definitions.

Z safe - Z value of the safe distance used by G00 code to travel between different contours.
Z surface - Z value of the material surface
Z depth - depth of cutting
Z step for each cycle - Z step for multi-pass cutting

4. Unit selection. Inkscape's internal unit is px, all contours will be converted using px. This selection just put in Gcode G20 or G21 code. So if path has width equal 10 px and mm selected as unit result will be has width 10 mm, if in selected then result will be 10".

5. Tool diameter is used for area cutting.

6. Maximum area cutting curves is used to prevent infinite loop while computing area cutting.
Area "inkscape:radius" is used for computing area cutting curves using Incscape offset.

7. Function selection

Curve to Gcode - converts paths to Gcode
Area to Gcode - It's a quite slow method of computing Area cutting curves. Complexity of the algorithm is O(n^2) where n is the number of points. I would not recommend to use it with complex contours with more than 50 points.
Prepare Area using Inkscape - Creates a number of inkscape offset's which covers Path's area. This function can be applyed only to Inkscape Dynamic Offsets (Select path then Path -> Dynamyc Offset).

8. Minimum arc radius Important!. Defines minimal value or G02 and G03 arc radius. If the radius is realy small (less than 0.1 mm) EMC can raise "Zerro arc radius!" exception.
Attention! Default value = '0.05'. In some locales fraction delimiter differs to '.', if so Inkscape will consider '0.05' as '0'!

9. Scaling and offset values for X Y Z axis.
Be careful with that: if you define different values to X and Y scale G02 and G03 codes will be wrong and EMC will definitely raise an exception.

Usage Example
This picture shows main features of this plug-in:

: Gcode tools plug-in tutorial (2600*1300 px png ~ 700Kb)

Gcode from the example:

gnu.ngc: (27.14 Кб) Скачиваний: 6836

**Nick** » 04 фев 2010, 20:18

Bug with styles type mismatch fixed.

Inkscape ver 0.46, Ubuntu Linux Intrepid, Gnome causes exception:

Код: Выделить всё • Развернуть

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/gcode_tools.py", line 36, in <module>
'biarc0': simplestyle.formatStyle({ 'stroke': '#88f', 'fill': 'none', 'stroke-width':1 }),
File "/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/simplestyle.py", line 178, in formatStyle
return ";".join([":".join(i) for i in a.iteritems()])
TypeError: sequence item 1: expected string, int found

Bug with my English fixed:
"cicles" now "cycles"

.

Latest version is in the header.

Thanks Culturedropout for the feedback!

**Culturedropout** » 05 фев 2010, 02:07

Hi. Thanks for checking on that. I looked at the code and sort of guessed that it needed single quotes around the numbers you're passing to simplestyle, and went ahead and tried changing that. Now I get the message that "Gcode tools working - please wait..." briefly but still no output file. I noticed in the code that you appear to have the destination folder hard-coded to someone's (your?) home directory:

if os.path.isfile("/home/nick/output.txt")

s.remove("/home/nick/output.txt")
def print_(s=''):
f = open("/home/nick/output.txt","a")
f.write(str(s))
f.write("\n")
f.close()

So I went ahead and modified that to save the file in the current user's home directory in the "Desktop" folder, but it's still not producing any output. I tried creating a test file with the same name in the target location to see if it at least gets deleted, but that doesn't even seem to happen. Any suggestions?

**Culturedropout** » 05 фев 2010, 02:13

Oops - scratch that. I didn't have anything selected. :oops:

I can't tell if it's using the hard-coded name or the one from the configuration settings yet. It's "working" and my machine is at 100%, so _something_ is happening.

I'll get back to you.

**Culturedropout** » 05 фев 2010, 06:55

Well, I don't seem to be getting anything to work. When I set things up as follows and click "Apply" sometimes I get the "working" message for a few seconds, and sometimes I get no action at all. It rarely creates a file, and when it does, I get something like:

%
(Generated by gcode_tools from inkscape.)
M3
G20 (All units in inches)
#4 = 9.000000 (Feed)
#5 = 1.000000 (Scale x)
#6 = 1.000000 (Scale y)
#7 = 1.000000 (Scale z)
#8 = 0.000000 (Offset x)
#9 = 0.000000 (Offset y)
#10 = 0.000000 (Offset z)
#11 = 0.200000 (Safe distanse)
M5
G00 X0.0000 Y0.0000
M2
(end)
%

Am I doing something wrong, or is there a problem with the extension? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

**Culturedropout** » 05 фев 2010, 07:51

A bit more information: Using "strace -f -eopen inkscape" from a command line to start inkscape, we see a bunch of "No such file or directory" errors when it appears to be looking for cmath and cmathmodule. Is there some package I need to install to provide these files?

[pid 28782] open("/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/cmath.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/cmathmodule.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/cmath.py", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/cmath.pyc", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/cmath.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/cmathmodule.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/cmath.py", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/cmath.pyc", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/plat-linux2/cmath.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/plat-linux2/cmathmodule.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/plat-linux2/cmath.py", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/plat-linux2/cmath.pyc", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-tk/cmath.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-tk/cmathmodule.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-tk/cmath.py", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-tk/cmath.pyc", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/cmath.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 4
[pid 28782] open("/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/cmath.so", O_RDONLY) = 5
[pid 28782] open("/tmp/ink_ext_XXXXXX.svg6SOI7U", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 3
Process 28782 detached
open("/tmp/ink_ext_XXXXXX.svg5PIR7U", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC|O_LARGEFILE, 0666) = 9
open("/usr/lib/gnome-vfs-2.0/modules/libfile.so", O_RDONLY) = 9
open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 9
open("/lib/libacl.so.1", O_RDONLY) = 9
open("/usr/lib/libfam.so.0", O_RDONLY) = 9
open("/lib/libattr.so.1", O_RDONLY) = 9
open("/etc/mtab", O_RDONLY) = 9
open("/tmp/ink_ext_XXXXXX.svg5PIR7U", O_RDONLY) = 9

** (inkscape:28753): CRITICAL **: void Inkscape::GC::Anchored::release() const: assertion `_anchor' failed

**Nick** » 05 фев 2010, 10:53

Culturedropout писал(а):
Screenshot.png

Am I doing something wrong, or is there a problem with the extension? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

May be you are

. What object type has that star? Is it a "Star" or "Path"? I can see that you've selected 2 objects, one of them "path" and another not! (It's written at the bottom of the window.)

About next post...
From the python manual:

10.3. cmath — Mathematical functions for complex numbers
This module is always available. It provides access to mathematical functions for complex numbers. The functions in this module accept integers, floating-point numbers or complex numbers as arguments. They will also accept any Python object that has either a __complex__() or a __float__() method: these methods are used to convert the object to a complex or floating-point number, respectively, and the function is then applied to the result of the conversion.

It seems that your python standard library might been damaged. Try to reinstall python.
When do you get this errors? At start of Inkscape or when you try to execute extension? My extension does not use complex numbers, so it should work with out cmath...

About the directory... Yes it is my home dir. But this function was made for debugging purposes. So it's never used in yours version.
One more thing unfortunately "~/" does not work, you should choose /home/<your home dir> instead of it. That could cause your problems. I've made a fix that raises exception instead of doing nothing if file can not been created.

Ok, I think I've done that, corrected version is in the header.

**Culturedropout** » 05 фев 2010, 17:29

I tried reinstalling all of the basic Python libraries, but I'm still seeing those error messages about cmath in the trace. They appear to start showing up right after simplestyle, simplestylemodule, and/or simplepath are called. Could one or more of those be looking for the math functions? I'm not sure why it said "2 objects" in the screencap; I thought I'd done all the steps correctly to convert the object, but maybe I missed one. At any rate, I also fixed the path setting to say "/home/bill/Desktop" and tried it again, making sure that it said "Path (10 nodes)" when I selected the star, and it produced what appears to be correct G-Code output.

I _did_ notice that when I click "Apply" in your plugin, a light-red "ghost" image of the star appears in Inkscape a little to the left of the original (see attached screencap). Is this supposed to happen? Maybe it did this before and I selected both without noticing the new object? I don't know. I'm probably not going to have a lot of time to work on this today, but I wanted to let you know that despite my best efforts, it's starting to do what it's supposed to. :lol:

Thanks for your help. I'll try it shortly on some more complex shapes and see what happens. (I'm trying to generate g-code to engrave the symbols for a custom-made Mah Jong tile set from a modified version of a Mah Jong TrueType font I downloaded.) Hope you're having a good day.

**Nick** » 05 фев 2010, 17:53

I _did_ notice that when I click "Apply" in your plugin, a light-red "ghost" image of the star appears in Inkscape a little to the left of the original (see attached screencap). Is this supposed to happen?

The 'ghost' image is a kind of preview of generated Gcode. If you try to convert curves with not straight you'll see plug-ins major function - biarc interpolation. In that preview straight elements (G01) are drawn in red - that's what you've got, and two arcs from biarc (G02 or G03) are drawn in green and blue. If something goes wrong or mistake of the interpolation is to big you can see it in preview.

The only strange thin is that it appears a little to the left, instead of same place of the source path. But still I'm happy "it's starting to do what it's supposed to." :lol:

**Nick** » 08 фев 2010, 11:19

A new option has been implemented. See check box at Params tab.

Generation of not parametric Gcode (not using predefined parameters in Gcode, but calculate all offsets and scaling inside plug-in). This option is needed if machine controlling software does not support defining parameters inside Gcode file.
Look at the header for the latest version!

extensions.tar.gz: (11.25 Кб) Скачиваний: 4010

**Nick** » 09 фев 2010, 11:16

A bug with non parametric Gcode fixed.
Raise exception when due to calculation tolerances arc has different radius at the beginning and at the end.
Line 701 change "r*self.options.Xscale" to "(r*self.options.Xscale)".
Header contains corrected version.

**rene** » 12 фев 2010, 18:43

I just upgraded to the latest version, and very nice it the generator outputs circles.But Is it possible to output straight line segments as the older version?.I want to generate code for a hot wire cutter and as far as i know in emc2 g2 g3 is not supported when using a x1z1 x2z2 set-up.

regards,rene

**Nick** » 12 фев 2010, 23:06

Just convert all knots of your path to straight lines: select path press F2 to edit knots, than press Ctrl+a, to select all knots, then press button "Make selected segments lines".
This plug-in converts straight lines and curves that are really close to straight lines to G01 code.

**admin** » 14 фев 2010, 03:24

Here is ordinary zip archived files for windows users who has problems with unpacking tar.gz.
Just unzip this and copy this files to: \Program Files\Inkscape\share\extensions\.

**Nick** » 15 фев 2010, 11:02

Due to my bad English I do not know how to call function that now is called Pattern engraving.
The meaning of this function is to convert curves which have differential stroke width to Gcode with depth that depends on stroke width and tool shape.

If somebody can correct me please do so!

**Nick** » 15 фев 2010, 18:46

First screen shot of new feature Loft:

How it's done in two words:
Plug-in takes a number of paths, distances between them along (y axis) and some additional parameters. Then it generates interpolation from one curve to another in given order.
There are some hidden features:
For example the step between two interpolated paths is calculated depending on interpolation function and position of control points, so this step distance is not static. It prevents big stairs on ending model.

What is needed to be done to release this function:
Add interpolation functions.
Do the bug fix.

This version probably has a lot of bugs, I wont recommend you using it right now.

extensions.tar.gz: (13.61 Кб) Скачиваний: 2706

**Nick** » 16 фев 2010, 22:31

A bug with non parametric code have been fixed.
Due to this bug some G00 and G01 codes could be in one string which is an error and G00 code was used instead of G01.

Corrected version is in the first post of the thread.

Thanks Cyclestart from cnczone.com for the bug report!

**Nick** » 18 фев 2010, 17:10

New version of Gcode tools is almost ready!
I think it will be released at this weekend.
What's new:

Curve to Gcode is Path to Gcode now according to Inkscape's naming
- Automatic Path subdivision added.
- Biarc interpolation tolerance added. It defines maximum distance between path and it approximation.
  If distance between path's segment and it's approximation is greater than biarc interpolation tolerance the segment will be split into two segments.
- Maximum splitting depth added. It defines how many times path's segment can be split to reach interpolation tolerance.
Area to Gcode removed.
- This function was buggy, it worked to slow and it's results are not editable.
Area inkscape is Calculate area curves now. I think this name represents the function better.
- It becomes much more easier to work with this function: no need to convert path to dynamic offset or do additional things. Just fill in tool diameter and offset width and press apply.

Also Loft and Engraving functions are being developed.

**Nick** » 22 фев 2010, 19:33

New version of Gcode tools is ready!

extensions.tar.gz: (8.96 Кб) Скачиваний: 6622

What's new:

Curve to Gcode is Path to Gcode now according to Inkscape's naming
- Automatic Path subdivision added.
- Biarc interpolation tolerance added. It defines maximum distance between path and it approximation.
  If distance between path's segment and it's approximation is greater than biarc interpolation tolerance the segment will be split into two segments.
- Maximum splitting depth added. It defines how many times path's segment can be split to reach interpolation tolerance.
- A small [b]optimization of traverse added.[/b]
Area to Gcode removed.
- This function was buggy, it worked to slow and it's results are not editable.
Area inkscape is Calculate area curves now. I think this name represents the function better.
- It becomes much more easier to work with this function: no need to convert path to dynamic offset or do additional things. Just fill in tool diameter and offset width and press apply.

Also Loft and Engraving functions are being developed.

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