Tips on my workflow for deleting (not clipping!) image outside of path

[mnaylor375]

Hi! I use Inkscape to make designs for a laser cutter. SVGs are great for lasers because the vector path gets set to cut and the bitmap image is used for engraving, so with one file I can cut and engrave.

A problem I have is that my lasercutter doesn't recognize clipping paths. So if I have an image I want to cut out, it is not ok that I just select the path and image and make a clip or a mask -- the svg still holds all of the image data and on the laser cutter it will try to engrave the whole image, not just what's inside the path.

Nearly every search I do about cropping/deleting talks about (a) setting a clip, or (b) Inkscape does not have this functionality yet.

I wonder if anyone has a good way to do this? Here is my current workflow:

1. select path and image then Object/Clip/Set.
2. export clipped image as a jpg
3. Object/Clip/release
4. select image and delete, leaving just path
5. import jpg (which does not have the unwanted image data on the outside of the path)
6. carefully reposition jpg and path so they are aligned again
7. save as svg.

This works, but it is clunky. Can anyone see a way to streamline the process? Even a tip on aligning the jpg and path with a couple of click would be appreciated, even better if there's an export option or another method that disposes of the clipped image data.

Thanks!

[Moini]

How about using https://gitlab.com/su-v/inx-pathops for cutting the paths?

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

Probably you would want to learn about using Path Operations, or also called boolean operations.  Inkscape provides those natively, so you might not necessarily need to install that extension.

It depends on each particular image as to which path operation would work the best.  Here's the manual info on path operations:  http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Paths-Combining.html

As far as I understand, that extension allows to perform multiple operations with one click, while the ones Inkscape provides natively, you can only do one operation at a time.  So that extension would help if you needed to, for example, subract (Difference) or intersect (or other operation) with the same object, several times.  I guess Moini is thinking you could use the clipping path and intersect it with all the other paths in the image (assuming there's more than one).

But again, it very much depends on each particular image, and exactly what your goal is with each path, as to which operation  you need.  And also it depends on whether you'll need many multiple operations.  For myself, I probably wouldn't bother with the extension unless I needed to do more than 3 operations in an image.

Also, keep in mind that it doesn't save a lot of time to use the multiple operations, because Inkscape actually still does them one at a time (as far as I know).  It's just that you only have to select and click once.  (Although it seems like I might have heard some discussion about making the operations happen simultaneously, so that it does save time....but I'm not sure if that was ever actually accomplished.)

Anyway, by using the path operations, you are actually cutting the paths to the proper size and shape, using the clipping path.  So you would never need to export a JPG or import or align it.  Well, not unless using the JPG provides some kind of advantage with engraving, as opposed to using the SVG itself.  I don't use any kind of cutter or do that kind of work, so I'm not sure if there might be some advantage that I'm not aware of.

If you do still need to re-align it, maybe you could use a couple of intersecting Guides to create something you could snap the JPG to, after you import it?  Do you need info on snapping and/or guides?