I’ve been digging into the complexities of this and would love some “solution” feedback.
Simple scenario - two concentric circles.
in inkscape, use stroke size to “change” the width of the lines. export → svg.
import into lightburn.
best case scenario I can get 4 concentric circles (2 for each circle)
Now I understand why this is happening, the question is what’s a simple solution (that can be expanded to a complicated object).
here some of my observations.
1). lightburn brings the svg in as a single object, not individual vectors. (so no filling in-between allowed.
2).Tried using powerstroke, with similar outcome.
3). Piddled with object-> path and stroke-> path with little success.
4). Seems I left with only a few options.
A). defocus laser (impractical not all vectors need to be defocused)
B). Create slightly larger/smaller circles to “fake” fill. (incrediblly time consuming and in-efficent)
C). Convert the ojbects into rasters.
D). Use something other than lightburn.
None of these work well with a more complex object. (except option D)
Thoughts? How are you solving this simple task, make a line wider than the focus point of the laser?
If you have 4 concentric circles on the same layer, and your layer is set to fill, you should end up filling the outer 2 and the inner 2. Isn’t that what you want?
Change the stoke on the line (as in the outer circle).
Get lightburn to “figure out a way” to burn that?
Since it’s vector, I get three concentric circles. (2 for the outside circle), one for the inner circle.
the outer pair cannot be filled, because lightburn sees them as a complex path.
I’m purposely keeping this a simple test. I could simply create a the two outer circles, join/group them and import them as a fill. That’s not the point. I’m trying to find how one would accomplish making a simple line “Thicker”. in a much more complicated object.
no. In inkscape I have a single vector line. In inkscape you can set the “stroke” size (ie it’s width). Since the width of the line is greater than the focal point of the laser you get two lines representing that single line (in lightburn). Also light burn imports both original circles as a single object, not separate vectors. so you can’t separate them into vector and fill.
Lines in LightBurn have “zero” thickness. The “burn width” is determined by the laser.
Anytime I want to add a thicker border to something. I create the border and then use the offset tool to make an identical border just shifted outward (or inward). If these two are both on the same fill layer, then it will burn between them (*) creating a “thick” line.
(*) If other things are on the same layer, then you might end up with a “negative” image as inside/outside are determined by looking at everything on that later.
I just created a circle in Inkscape and increased its thickness. When exported as svg and imported into LB, only a single circular vector came through.
Could you export as png say, and then use trace function in LB?
You will still get two concentric circles from that fat line. When I do a paper trace with a fine tip pen, I get two lines. I just delete the worst one.
@Hswiley described it well. I think there is an Inkscape setting to export lines with zero width in the SVG file. I do all designs, except drawing tracings, in Lightburn, so I am of little help here.
that is true. Lightburn quitely ignores stroke weight., so yes you get one vector line regardless of stroke. However inkscape has a path tool called powerstroke. If you apply it to a vector line and give it a stroke weight, it creates two vector lines outside and inside ediges. and in inkscape it can work just like changing the stroke. Its export and import into LB gives you two vector paths now (outer/inner edge). We’re close. Since LB imports these vectors as one object they can’t be used as fill in LB.
So this exercise is basic, but shows the technical issues around a basic principle, how do other users make a line thicker. In a simple object like these circles. the quick fix is just create two objects slightly scaled, merge and fill them. But in a more complex objects this may not be the right path. I’ve been reading about LB and complex paths and sub-paths(vectors). How the software products use and interpret them (example light burn ignoring stroke). How inkscape exports. My object in inkscape has several vectors, yet LB only imports one object. Is the issue with the SVG format? Does Illustrator do things differently (I don’t have illustrator), I’ve read it can.
Hello, you could use the offset tool in Inkscape to thicken the line. Then group both lines, combine the paths, and fill them with black or any other color.
Bert
I don’t understand this. LB can import any SVG and also objects can be set to fill. Or do you mean that those objects are not “closed”, such that LB can’t fill them?
This works fine for me. Do a circle, apply the power stroke, import it to LB and set the layer to fill. It gets a filled circle with the “stroke width” thickness of the one that has been created in Inkscape.
