I also want to use my OX for drawing but I’m having a very hard time finding good “photo to gcode” options for Mac. Inkscape doesn’t work on High Sierra at the moment and I was able to use some software to get a workable SVG but both Fusion 360 and JSCut bomb out because of the complexity.
Do any of you have experience with image to drawing with a CNC on Mac?
You are talking about vector or an actual image/photo/raster?
An actual image. I want to recreate Tesla’s patents for art in my mancave / makerspace and there’s something to be said for pen against paper that an “art print” recreation lacks; a je ne sais quoi if you will.
I’ve taken the image from Google image search, removed the background to get the following PNG. I’ve even been able to slice it into a fairly decent SVG ( http://www.synapsedm.com/p/Tesla-Patent1.svg ) but that SVG is 4.6MB and trying to convert that to GCode kills anything I’ve tried.
Try Lightburn. There’s a free trial.
SVG is a verctor. Not sure I have seen someone doind grayscale with a pen or similar. In any case try Laserweb4. It should process the svg with no issues, but since this is a long converted ( traced ) then it’s going to be difficult to have a reliable output unless you clean so each segment is a line
@raykholo Nice software! The SVG and DXF loaded instantly (which is a first). Within a few minutes I was able to export my DXF as gcode using the Cut mode for Chilipeppr but it only did the outline and I need engraving so I’ll have to look through the instructions more clearly.
@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty Excellent! LaswerWeb looks great although it’s having a hard time chewing through generating my gcode. Looks like it’s nearly frozen at 20% after about 5 minutes and my laptop fans are full bore. I’ll mess around with it some more but it looks simple enough to use. Thanks!
Add a laser. Cheap and is made to do this. You have a CNC, the tool head is irrelevant.
@Brandon_Satterfield I’m planning on an enclosure anyway but would it be required for adding laser? I saw the tube, mirror, clamp, power supply, etc on your site - is that all I’d need? Assuming I’d need an actual laser head, tubing, etc. Can I cut on an MDF base or do I need a laser grid?
@raykholo Really love Lightburn so far. Is there a TinyG controller type or what would work with it? I only tried Marlin but that didn’t work.
It’s really meant as laser software and not CNC software. Try selecting grbl, maybe? That should get you the basics.
@raykholo I was about to try grbl and got pulled away. From my test exporting Gcode after getting the z-axis figured out, it works /really/ well for simple 2D CNC. Will report my experience after testing grbl but you should look into officially adding TinyG support (as it isn’t 100% compatible with grbl) and then you could market it as a basic CNC app as well.
Not my program, although it does work with my laser control boards and we do resell it. The developer has stated he wants to keep things separate because CNC is a whole new set of operations. But I don’t even play the guy on TV, tell him yourself: there’s a LB group on G+ and FB!
I wish, but it is someone much smarter and more skilled than I working on that piece of gold.
@Jace_Richardson just add one of the small diode lasers. No reason to go CO2 for engraving and such. We don’t have any on the shelf, they leave as soon as they get there so we don’t list them.
