Hey everyone,

Going to try to make some boxes with magnets so they don't just slide all willynilly. However, I'm not sure how to make the circle so the cutter won't just slice all the way through my material. My other concern with this is how do I make sure that I hit the same spot on the outside box? Is there a tool to say "start at this measurement point" specifically or do I get to have some trial and error with the ruler. Ideas? Tips? I'm about as new as you can be with this but I'm enjoying the hell out of it so far.

Thanks!
Newton

Hi Newton,
We're going to need a good bit more info. I'll ask all the questions I have.

1 - "....make some boxes with magnets...." It sounds like you mean real boxes, as opposed to drawings of boxes. Right? It sounds like you're going to use a digital cutting machine to cut out the cardboard (or whatever substance the box will be made with)? Right?

2 - ".... so they don't just slide all willynilly." Are the magnets used to close or secure the lid of the boxes, or are the magnets going to be the contents inside of the boxes? Ooorrrr....you couldn't possibly mean that magnets are the material that will be cut, to construct the boxes?? Or could you? Is it the magnets that you don't want to slide around, or the boxes themselves?

3 - "....I'm not sure how to make the circle...." What circle? Is it a circle where the magnet will be glued on? Is it a hole in the box? Or is it a round box? To draw a circle:

- enable the Ellipse/Circle tool
- hold Ctrl while you press the mouse button and drag in a diagonal direction
- after you're finished, do Path menu > Object to Path
- switch to the Selection tool to set the correct size (using W and H fields on the control bar)

4 - "... so the cutter won't just slice all the way through my material." Why don't you want the cutter to slice all the way through? Isn't that what cutters are supposed to do? Maybe you need to etch rather than cut? Is your machine capable of etching? Can you control the depth of the cutter? It might be a good idea to read all the documentation for your machine. Or at least locate it, in case you need to read it.

5 - "....how do I make sure that I hit the same spot on the outside box." So you need to etch (or whatever) on both sides of the material, in the same spot? Why? I could not be more lost, at this point, as far as what you're making! But generally, that doesn't sound like a problem which can't be solved by careful measuring. If you need to etch (or whatever) on both sides of some material, then you would make one rectangle (unless the box is round) for one side, and another for the other side. Maybe you could use different layers, if the project needs it. Then just measure correctly about where to place the circle. Then etch (or whatever) one side, the flip it over and do the other side.

6 - "....Is there a tool to say "start at this measurement point" specifically or do I get to have some trial and error with the ruler." I don't know how cutter machines decide where to start cutting (or etching, or whatever), or how to set the order for cutting. Maybe they use the z-order or maybe they use the order in which things were drawn. Or maybe there's some way to control it. Maybe someone else here knows, but I'd again suggest to read up on the documentation for the machine. In this forum, we can really only help with Inkscape. Coincidentally, someone here might be familiar with your machine, but otherwise we can only help with Inkscape.

But the ruler probably has nothing to do with it. Inkscape does not have "measurement points" or any kind of "points". What Illustrator calls "points", Inkscape calls "nodes". My best guess is that the machine starts cutting at one end of a path and ends at the other. Unless it's a closed path, then it probably starts wherever you started drawing the path. If the path was created via path operation or something else, I have no idea how Inkscape gives order to the nodes.

I do know that when a path is heavily edited, the order of nodes gets pretty crazy. However, I doubt that cutting machines would stop cutting in the middle of a path, and start again somewhere else. But I don't know that for sure - just my guess.

Some other info we might need. Your Inkscape version, your operating system, your cutting machine, and your cutting machine's software (just the name of it).

I think the poster is asking about specific settings for his or her CNC machine - i.e. how does the SVG path need to be styled, so that the CNC machine does not cut, but just take away some material. The answer is, this depends on your machine, and how it wants the data to be formed. You need to look it up in your machine's manual, or in online forums where people use this exact same machine.

Of course we can't help much with how various machines work, if that's what they're asking.