Spring Magnets

CPL Maker Lab: Spring Magnets

Today you will make a spring magnet using cardstock and magnetic sheets.

We’ll create our files with Inkscape, which is available online for free, then cut our designs out of the materials with a Silhouette Cameo electronic cutter.

Tips

• Keyboard shortcuts: Undo (CTRL+Z), Select All (CTRL +A), Copy (CTRL +C), Paste (CTRL +V)

• The electronic cutter cuts from one piece of loaded material at a time.

• Feel free to talk with or assist your neighbor in this informal learning environment

Search for an Image

Go to openclipart.org or images.google.com and search for an image with a keyword such as flower, spring, lamb, etc.

Add silhouette or outline to your search for better results. 

Save the Image

To save an image from Google Images, click the image you want, click Preview image, right-click the full image, select Save Image As (or its equivalent), choose the Desktop as the save destination, click Save.

 To save an image from openclipart, click the image you want, right-click the green MEDIUM IMAGE (PNG) button in the new page, select Save Link As (or its equivalent) from the dropdown, choose Desktop as the save destination, click Save.

Prepare the Page

A 3” x 3” template is located at the bottom of this page for quick use with future projects. 

In the class session, we set up our Page (workspace) to create that template.

·         Open Inkscape, click File > Document Properties.

·         In the Page tab, change Default Units to in.

·         Under Custom size, change Units to in. Change Width to 3, change Height to 3, hit ENTER on keyboard.

·         Click the X in the top right corner to close the window, notice that your Page is square.

·         Click Object > Fill and Stroke.

·         Click Object > Align and Distribute.

Drag and Drop Image into Inkscape

• Click on your image, holding down the mouse button.

• Drag your image onto Inkscape icon, release the mouse button.

• We’ll refer to moving the mouse with the button held down as “click-drag.”

• In pop-up dialog, make sure Embed is selected, click OK.

• Use the (+) and (-) keys to zoom in and out – zoom so your image fills most of your screen.

Your image is surrounded by a dashed line and several arrows – this means it’s selected and those are scaling arrows. Click outside your image or hit ESC to deselect it. To select an image at any time, make sure you’re using the Select tool in the left Tool Box, click the edge of your image.

If your image is too large to fit within your Page, in Select mode, turn on the scale ratio lock in Tool Controls, click-drag corner scaling arrows until it fills the Page without overlap. Click-drag the image to move it within the Page.

Trace Bitmap: Getting the Path

Trace Bitmap creates a vector path from a bitmap/raster image – laser & vinyl cutters cut along paths.

• With your object selected, Go to Path > Trace Bitmap.

• In the trace dialog, our selections are under Multiple scans.

• Select Grays, check Remove background, and reduce Scans to 2.

• Click Update for a preview – it won’t be as detailed as the finished scan.

• Click OK, click the X in the top right corner to close the window.

Delete the Bitmap

·         Click-drag an image off to the side. 

We need to delete the original bitmap image – if you can’t tell which is which, select one, click the Node Tool. If there are no nodes (gray shapes along the path), delete it. If there are nodes, keep it! You can also refer to the status bar below the color palette. If the original is selected, it will read Image. If the trace is selected, it will read Path.

·         With the bitmap image selected, hit the Delete key on your keyboard.

Turn Off Fill, Turn On Stroke, Set Stroke Width

·         With your image selected, look at the Fill and Stroke menu that we opened earlier.

·         In Fill tab, click No Paint. In Stroke tab, click  Flat Color. In Stroke style tab, set Width to 0.003 in, hit ENTER.

·         Deselect  When scaling objects, scale  the stroke width by the same proportion.

Ø  Steps 8-11 will add a daisy shape to your design. You’re not expected to keep this shape, but follow along to learn more Inkscape tools!!

Draw an Oval

·         Move your new image with paths so it’s outside the Page.

·         Click the Ellipse tool, notice the cursor has an oval next to it - this is a drawing tool, you can’t make selections with it!

·         Click-drag to create a tall oval. Your oval should be about as tall as your Page, and about a quarter of its width.

·         If you need to resize your oval, click Select, use the scaling arrows to adjust it. Your oval must fit within the Page.

Align Oval to Page

With the oval selected, in Align and Distribute menu, next to Relative to, choose Page from the dropdown menu.

Under Alignment, Click  Center on Vertical Axis, click  Center on Horizontal Axis. 

Duplicate, Rotate, Repeat

·         Click Edit >  Duplicate to place a duplicate directly on top of the original. If comfortable with hotkeys,

use (CTRL + D) instead, but do not hold down the D key  – quickly tap it to avoid a pile of problems.

·         Hit either square bracket key ([ or ] ) once or twice* –selected shapes will rotate exactly 15 degrees with each keystroke.

*Your original traced path is going to be the center of your daisy, over-rotating it won’t give you enough room for a decent sized set of magnets

·         Create another duplicate, rotate it, and repeat until you have a full flower - surprise, the ovals are petals!!

Save as SVG and DXF

·         Click File​> Save As, Select Desktop as the save location, change the file name ​ to your name.

·         Save as SVG ​(Scalable Vector Graphic) to edit and use again later.

·         Save as DXF​ (Desktop Cutting Plotter) for the Cameo Cutter. In the pop‐up dialog, uncheck LWPOLYLINE​ box!

Fabrication Time 

We’ll cut the same shape out of cardstock and an adhesive magnet sheet, then assemble the magnet(s)!

SURVEY

We'll direct you to a SURVEY to help us improve our workshops and learn about makerspaces in libraries. 

Thanks for visiting!