MS-L Drawing for CNC in Inkscape and VCarve

Vector drawing is the basis of using most of the cutting machines at Makersmiths - the laser, the CNCs, the vinyl cutters and large format printing. Vector drawing is also a little bit different from the typical bitmap based computer drawing and photo editing that most people are used to. The great thing about learning to do vector drawing in Inkscape is that the software is free, there is a large community supporting Inkscape, and the skills are transferable to other projects you may want to do at Makersmiths on other machines.

This is an entry level course, but you must attend the first class in order to attend the second class. This two class series will prepare you to draw and create GCode to use on the CNC machines (Big Red and smaller machines in the room to themselves) in Leesburg. The first class will show you how to do vector drawing using the free Inkscape drawing program. The second class will teach you how to use those drawing in VCarve to create the GCode you need to run on the machines.

We will be meeting in the Leesburg Makersmiths classroom. You must bring your own laptop and mouse. It must be Windows in order to run VCarve, or you must know how to load a Windows OS instance on your Mac (Bootcamp).

You will be provided with a copy of the presentation slides via Google Slides at the end of the class. Feel free to contact the instructor after the class for help on individual projects.

New to Makersmiths? Prior to coming to class, please sign this waiver form:

https://waiver.fr/p-NVPOj

Questions? Contact the instructor: Jon White at JustOneCube@gmail.com