Laser Heart Key Chain

Participants will create an original heart key chain. The heart shape will be vectored, or cut out, and the text will be rastered, or etched on to the surface.

This tutorial was greatly aided by Ian Pullen's tutorial on About.com.

Download the Template

Download the template 3x3 keychain. The template has a set work area of 3x3 and uses inches. Save the template to the Desktop for easy access.

Open in Inkscape

Locate the template file, Right-Click and select to open it in Inkscape.

Introduction to Tools

On the left is the toolbar. The first tool is the Select Arrow, we use this the most before moving, resizing, and transforming objects. As you change tools, you will notice new options appear in the work area. Today we'll be using:

• • Selection Tool

  • Path Tool

  • Polygon/Star Tool

  • Text Tool

Polygon Tool: Draw a Triangle

Select the Polygon/Star Tool. Choose Polygon and decrease sides to 3 for a triangle. Draw your triangle by:

• • Clicking

  • Holding the mouse button

  • Dragging

  • and Releasing to set your shape

Change the appearance of your triangle by going to Object>Fill and Stroke. Set the Fill to No Fill, the Stroke to Red, and the Stroke-style to 0.003". We are changing these settings for the laser cutter -- by having our cut lines represented by the color red, we can avoid wasting time having cut lines rastered.

Object to Path

Right now our triangle is a nice base, but because we want to add path nodes, we have to turn our triangle into paths.

With the triangle selected, go to Path>Object to Path.

Path Mode: Add Nodes

Activate the Path Tool and click on the top line of your triangle. You should see the two corner nodes turn blue, meaning the line and nodes are active. In Tool Controls, click on the first control, Insert New Node. This will create a new node in the center of the line segment. (This can be done manually by double-clicking, but using Insert centers the new node.)

Path Mode: Change Node Type

We want to change the two outer nodes to curved lines. Let's DESELECT or RELEASE with the ESCAPE key. Now click on the outer left node. Hold down shift while you click on the outer right node. The two nodes should be blue, and the center node should be gray because we did not select it.

There are six sets of node modification in Tool Controls. The second option in the fourth set, or Make Selected Nodes Smooth, is the option we want.

Triangle to Heart

You should have something like a heart now! You'll see blue lines coming from the curved nodes. These are handles and they can be manually adjusted to increase or decrease a curve. You can also select the center node to drag it higher or lower. When you have the shape you like, click the Select Tool, mouse over a corner handle, and hold down Shift to proportionally increase the heart so it fills the 3"x3" square.

Add Text

Click on the Text Tool, then click in the heart. You will:

• • Add a name or short message to your heart

  • Select Text>Text and Font to change the font

  • To increase or decrease size, go to Selection Tool and use the handles

Add Key Ring Hole

Using the Circle Tool, click while holding down Shift to draw a perfect circle. Click on the Selection Tool to view its Height and Width. Make the Height and Width 0.18". Place as desired.

Save

Save your key chain with your name, using the default file format SVG, for example: leo.svg

Cut

Come with us as we cut your key chain.

Survey

Surveys are here: https://sites.google.com/site/cplmakerlab/surveys