last time i tried to import a pdf to act as the project for cutting, i was obliged to trace the outline using lightburn, and it produced 2 parallel lines defining the lines on the pdf
however, opening a pdf generated by this site created a plot that was ready to burn and perfect
what arcane magic is this ?
because i want more of it, given i have a gazillion pdf files of model plans where no such amazingly convenient tracing happens, and a few where it does
am i correct to presume that any plotted file printed to pdf is agreeably transformed sans trace, and anything else gets kludged by the trace process to said parallel lines ?
is there any way to use a pre-made (standard) pdf or bmp to create a clean single line to cut parts ?
It simply shows that PDF is a container which may contain gems or garbadge.
Depending on the program/file format an image is based, it is vector fomat you can laser directly or a pixel image with the need to trace it
With PDF it is possible if you use the right source/creator tool, with BMP it is not.
BMP is pixel based and needs to be traced always to cut lines.
However, due PDF is a container (aka a ragpicker), it shows what you put in. It is not the preferred format to use. Better would be SVG, DXF, HPGL or even GCODE (and maybe others)
but i have enough complications in my life without procuring a further selection of software (free of otherwise) and gaining the skill set to work it all
my brain is vague enough doing routine stuff without investing time into that
rather i can cut a set of appropriate ribs for a plane, and get on with building and flying, and trying to remember how i programmed the radio for the last one
i don’t want to invest the time and energy learning to make a program draw ribs when the same time spent cutting them out after tracing them would have me closer to building
i did like airtools doing it for me though even though i need to add some details
As said before: The PDF is as good as the base data and how it is putted in. I digged a little bit and found the PDFs are made with TCPDF library. I´m working with the precursor of this library for decades, so I can rate this a little bit.
As I see it, the lines drawn in the PDF are exact the data from the airfoil plotter you can get as CSV, I don´t know a way to create such a PDF more exact or smaller. So this Plotter is a very goog choice.
I hadn´t PDF in mind as I startet with Lightburn but I think I should work a little with that. Reproducing the file with FPDF (the lib I work with) should not be that difficult with a given CSV.
even though i need to add some details