Calling RAY, New Tool for Layout - Inkscape

[Willabe]

I've been playing with this free program for a week or so, and came up with this.

It's not a bitmap, it's a vector program. Our forum friend Ray says he _LOVES_ this program, and I think he just might be right!

I found a very good (IMO) intro instruction for this program on youtube @ scroll saw goodies (lesson) L-1 through 8.

It's a graphic artist's program, but it can do way more for what we as amp builders need to do, layout's and then some!

I'm thinking we might have to start a new catorige for learning how to use this program?  


                   Brad      

[daveyajd]

+1

I have used Inkscape for the faceplate, backplate and chassis design of my new TOS build. It is really easy to figure out and works very well.

Aaron

[gmoon]

+++++

I've used Inkscape for some time. Vector / structured draw programs are great for tech as well as art. And Inkscape is easier to use IMO than either Adobe Illustrator or Freehand.

Work in progress--replacing the front panel of my Dano DM25, which is trashed. I haven't got beyond the logo yet, but I'm pleased with it. Inkscape has a powerful autotrace routine, so this logo was photographed, traced, then the path cleaned up.

Inkscape also has powerful macros for some Photoshop-style visual effect...

(anyone needs the Dano vector SVG file, I can post that)

[stingray_65]

I do LOVE inkscape!

Grate looking FP Brad!

I also use inkscape as a cad program for my CNC, in the page layout options, I set my grid to .0625 inches, 4 minor to a major grid line. and I also change my line weight to .001".

It gets a bit difficult to see sometimes, and it does have a few quirks that I've learned to deal with. but it gets to be second nature, most times it's not so critical that I be within .001".

I really like the Bezier curves, especially for designing guitar bodies.

I'm no "master" of inkscape, but I've used it quite a bit. I'll answer any questions anyone might have, best to my ability.

Ray

[Boots Deville]

I like Inkscape too.  I use it for all my schematics but can't get away from CorelDraw for layouts.

CorelDraw isn't free, though.  Here's the one thing I don't like about Inkscape, and Ray, maybe you've discovered a way to deal with this for your CNC work.

I do all my layouts to scale so I don't get any surprises when I start putting things in the chassis.  In CorelDraw I set the "nudge" to 1/8".  So if I want to move a pot, for esxample, 1/8" to the left, I select it and hit the left arrow.  CTRL-Arrow will mot it 1/16" and SHIFT-Arrow will move it 1/4".  Most of the time, 1/16" is fine enough for placement of components in a layout.

Now with Inkscape, the multiples of nudges are 10x.  With an English system of measurement, 10x doesn't give very useful results.  I'd like to find a way to get Inkscape to do "1/2 nudge" and "2x nudge", but so far Google hasn't been able to find me a way to do that.

Any ideas?

-John

[Willabe]

Thanks Ray.

I'm going to pick up the face plate tomorrow.

Boots, try holding down the Alt. key and using the arrows. They call it kerning.  

gmoon, very nice.


                      Brad      


Hey, I was just working with Inkscape and I clicked on a part and hit just the arrow key and it moved without holding the Alt. key. It was a grouped part though.

OK, it works both ways, with Alt. key very fine adjust, without Alt. key it moves the distance 4-5x as with the Alt. key held down while hitting the arrow keys. I have the grid set to 1/16" and these bumps are less than a 1/16".

[Willabe]

I think I figured out a way to make the cross hatch marks for the control knobs.

I was going for a 300deg. rotation, with a standard chicken head pointer knob.

So I made a 13 point star with the star tool. Then I placed it inside of a circle that was the diameter of the control knob and rotated it into position degree wise. Then I clicked on the nodes button, then while holding the ctrl. key down I pulled the center of the star all the way closed/as small as possible. Then I pulled the star points out, while holding down the ctrl. key, to 1/8" past the circle, which gave the star points a very thin point. (Holding the ctrl. key down while you resize a shape keeps the size ratio and angle/alignment the same.) Then while still working with the nodes, I deleted the node for 13'th point, which was pointing south at the bottom of the star leaving 12 points. Then I made another circle that was 1/16" smaller than the first and placed it in side of the larger circle and over the star. Last I colored the inner circle white which covered the bulk of the star leaving only the points at/where I wanted them at a total of 3/16" in length and grouped the whole thing.

I'm sure there's better/faster ways of doing this, but it worked out pretty good.

Here it is, what do you think?


                  Thanks,    Brad      

[drgonzonm]

does this program allow you to create a library? 

[Willabe]

I don't know yet. I havn't seen it listed in all the different buttons, but it might be called something else? I've only been working with this program for a week or so.  

But you can have many layers, so I was thinking at the very least you could stash parts on a layer some where if you had to?

There's a clip board and you can import/export.


                      Brad      

[Willabe]

Hey, I think I found it.

Second button from bottom right hand corner, click on Edit global Inkscape preferences (it's a picture of a wrench and screwdriver), then click on import/export from the drop down box, then you see clip art library.


                    
                            Brad                        

[Willabe]

Well I just picked up my face/back plates from the engraver and they look great to me anyway.     

Black field with white engraving. I think I'll go with blue knobs with the white line through the pointer, should look good.

Cost a little more than he quoted me but that was cause I first sent him a PNG file before I was able to draw it up in Inkscape, which he scanned and touched it up a little. Plus he figured out the cross hatch marks for the control pots before I was able to draw it myself.

He even cut a tiny hole through the center of the cross hairs for the tip of the 1/8" brad point pilot bit I use. It's so small you can't even see it unless you hold the plate up to the light.

He said the next one will only be $15 to $20, so I'm happy. He told me where he gets the stock and it's not far from me, so next time I'll buy it myself and it will be even less.

I brought over an amp I built and a blank chassis/parts to show him what I doing and I think he gets it now. He has it on file and said to adjust/move/add anything would be a cake walk.

Well, there was 1 thing that was off a little. The first volume knob cross hair was 1/32" off to the left.              

Do you think anyone will see it?          


                      Brad        

 

[gmoon]

Here's how I save objects for import later. Note that there's gonna be more than one (good) way to do this...

First:

--In "Document Properties" -> "Grids", set the X and Y spacing to an even amount, like .00100 (rather than the default .00111) It's possible to set an "English" increment, like .125 or .0625...
-- Set inches as the default. I don't know how to do that globally, so it requires setting in more than one place (Doc Properties, etc).

-Turn on Grid.
-Draw the circle (edit the coordinates above if needed).
-Add the crosshairs. Grid is very helpful for both these steps.
-If there's any doubt about the symmetry--select everything (circle and xhairs) go to "Object" -> "Align and Distribute", then center everything on both the horizontal and vertical.
-Select all and make a group ("Object" -> "Group").
-Go to "Document Properties" and click on "Resize page to content", then "Resize page to drawing or selection", which will make the page the same size as the drawing.
-Save (as SVG vector file)

Then just "Import" the file when it's needed. The "Align and Distribute" tool is great for laying down multiple holes, assuming they are evenly distributed. Get the two ends correctly positioned and the tool does the rest...

Since Inkscape is a vector draw program (based on the PostScript language, not a CAD prog), the stroke widths can be a little confusing, but it's possible to select multiple objects and change the stroke. Tip: don't draw really tiny or really large objects. The stroke will change proportional to the resize.

There's really powerful scripting built into Inkscape, so that would be another way to create library objects.

Zip file 0.5'' hole with xhairs.

[Boots Deville]

The stroke will change proportional to the resize.

By default yes, but up at the top of the app, next to the "Affect:" label, clicking the left-most of the four buttons will disable the rescaling of the stroke width.

Another little tip - if you draw a 1" box, for example, using the grid as your guide the size of the resulting box will not be 1", but instead will be 1" plus the width of the stroke.  Selecting "Tools" under "Inkscape Preferences" will display the "Bounding box to use" option.  Selecting "Geometric bounding box" will fix this so stroke widths aren't included in object dimensions.

Also, gmoon doesn't mention "snapping" options, but the right side of the window has a bunch of buttons that effect snapping to nodes, grids, paths, etc.  These make it easier to connect objects.  Sometimes it snaps to things when you don't want it to, in which case holding down the shift key will disable snapping while you place an object.

John

[stingray_65]

Well, there was 1 thing that was off a little. The first volume knob cross hair was 1/32" off to the left.              

Do you think anyone will see it? 

I hate when that happens!
Once I find something like that on one of my projects, It draws my eyes to it every time!
I can over look, or not even see it in other persons work, but mine...
I terribly over critical of my own work, I have yet to build anything to what I feel is perfection :) but other I see(or because I don't see) do it often with great ease.

He even cut a tiny hole through the center of the cross hairs for the tip of the 1/8" brad point pilot bit I use. It's so small you can't even see it unless you hold the plate up to the light.

He said the next one will only be $15 to $20, so I'm happy. He told me where he gets the stock and it's not far from me, so next time I'll buy it myself and it will be even less.

I brought over an amp I built and a blank chassis/parts to show him what I doing and I think he gets it now. He has it on file and said to adjust/move/add anything would be a cake walk.

It's a great thing when you find a reliable vendor with reasonable costs for a quality product. It adds a level of attainable quality to your work.
Doug is a resource like that.

Need some pics of this FP Brad!

better yet a write up and a sound clip of the whole amp!

Ray

[andrew_k]

I use Inkscape for any valve circuit layout preparations (eg: eyelet/turret boards).

Here's my small collection of parts that I've drawn to scale, hope they're useful to you:
http://leftjustified.net/resources/parts.svg

[gmoon]

By default yes, but up at the top of the app, next to the "Affect:" label, clicking the left-most of the four buttons will disable the rescaling of the stroke width.

Another little tip - if you draw a 1" box, for example, using the grid as your guide the size of the resulting box will not be 1", but instead will be 1" plus the width of the stroke.  Selecting "Tools" under "Inkscape Preferences" will display the "Bounding box to use" option.  Selecting "Geometric bounding box" will fix this so stroke widths aren't included in object dimensions.

Excellent, John.

Entering the size manually works, too. The best approach probably depends on how "technical" the drawing is. For a faceplate, including the stroke width might be best. If it's CNC or laser cut/etched, I'd ask the shop...

Personally, I've done more "artsyfartsy" publishing things with Inkscape. It clearly continues to evolve into a professional-grade program (and I've used some commercial "draw" stuff). Not bad for a freebee.