Award stuff

STEP file for cone:  https://www.andymark.com/products/ftc-22-23-am-4801

Inkscape

Length of slot from last year is 2.83 inches is 71.82 mm

Width is 0.18 inch is the width of the slot.

The depth of the slot is 0.63

Using the bezier and straight line tool

Right click on a line 

File->Grid

Under Document properties. File->Document properties Looking at mm

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Go to cad.onshape.com

• Create->import files and load step file in ~/Desktop/STEP_files_for_onshape

• Import to a single document

• Click on the new onshape file

• Then use the cube (perspective viewer) in the upper right to orient the drawing the way you want

• Select it using the typical shift-cmdl-4 and copy the image

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4pVd3D_ymE

• Then start Inkscape

• Then select Time to Draw tab and click on “New Document” button

• Then copy paste, the cone from the screen shot (that we took earlier from the cone STEP file that we imported into OnShape) into Inkscape

• Path->trace bitmap and then go to the Single scan tab and increase the brightness cutoff until the black and white image of the cone turns mostly black

• And then click APPLY on the right bottom

• Now you can drag off the top image which is our vector and delete the original image underneath

• Now change the image to black by clicking the black box above the “Fill:” in the lower left hand corner

• Path->Object to path

• Object-> Fill and Stroke. To get the Fill and Stroke panel

• Then click on the Fill tab and click on the X to turn off the FILL and you will have a blank page

• Then click on the Stroke paint tab and click on the second box to the right of the X, which is the Flat color if you hover over it

• Then on the Stroke style tab, increase the width of the outline

• Inkscape Change the ruler from mm to inches in the upper right corner, where it says mm, use the pull-down menu to change it to ‘in’ (short for inches)

• File->Document Properties->select Grid tab->select Rectangular grid and click on New

How to Change Grid

• Go to File->Document Properties

• Go to the Display tab and set the "Display units" to "in"

• If you don't see the display with every inch (i.e., you see every 2 or 4 inches), then you just have to zoom in to see every inch

How to Get Rid of Stuff in the Outline

• first select the object outline

• path->Break Apart (which separates my outline with the stuff that was inside the outline)

• then click on the item inside the outline that you want to remove/move

What size to change sheet and how

• In Inkscape, click on File->Document Properties

• make the Width 16.000 and the height 12.000 since that is the size of our sheet at robotics

How to Center and Align Objects

• NOTE: there is an issue with word alignment so instead of having two lines of words, make each line of text a separate object, so you can center it. otherwise, it ends up being left aligned when you load it into visicut

• First select all objects that you want to align

• Objects->Align and Distribute

• Then under Align Click on the icon associated with "Center on vertical axis". But can align in any way you want. just hover over the icons to determine which alignment that you want

How to Fit the Most Objects on the Sheet

• Group and rotate as necessary 

• But, before you do the Path->Object to Path, which turns the letters and other non-bitmap images to vectors, make sure you save a separate file since you can't undo the vectors

Finding good icons

• can go to the noun project thenounproject.com 

• Here are the icons for lightning bolts lightning bolt icons 

• you can right click on the icon that you select and then choose copy image

• then just paste it into your inkscape document

How to Color for Laser Cutting

• Make anything you are going to cut RED by doing the following

  • click on the arrow/pointer in the upper left and select the entire object to be outlined

  • Object->Fill and Stroke

  • then click on Stroke Paint tab and select the "flat color" which is to the right of the 'X'. Then for the 'red' grab the two triangles in the red rectangle and move it to the right to color the outline and maybe some of the inside to red

  • Then select the stuff inside of the shade that you don't want to be red or cut using the pointer/arrow and select 'X' (no color). So now only the outline is RED

• Anything in black will be ENGRAVED

Visicut

• Load svg file into visicut (remember don't forget to turn svg into vectors by selecting everything and doing Path->object to path when you are in i

• under material selecte the correct material: acrylic or MDF (wood)

• also, specify material thickness 0.25 inch is 6.3 mm

• On the right hand side of visicut there are 3 tabs: maping, position, and Laser Settings

• First select  the Mapping tab and under "Map by single property..." select "Map by stroke color"

  • since joey made the outline was in red stroke no fill and the text and art (i.e., the words and the pictures, i.e., the engraving were black fill, no stroke)

  • therefore, instead of "map by stroke color", he selected "map by color"

• Then the following 4 entries should be "enabled" for the checkboxes (note there may be more entries if you select more than one color or different shades of a color)

  • for red stroke color, the profile is "cut"

  • for "none" stroke color, the profile is "engrave"

  • for "black" stroke color, the profile is "engrave"

  • for "everything else" stroke color, the profile is "engrave"

• we can skip the "position" tab and just do the adjustment via the laser cutter itself

  • but if you do the position tab, then you set the x and y and by eye-balling where he wanted to start he set the x and y to 10 mm each.  or you can manually set it by adjusting via the laser cutter itself with the black bar and the focus

• On the "Laser Setting" tab, select the power, speed, and frequency based on the paper near the laser cutter.  since we are doing the small cones in wood and we used 1/4" thick wood and the laser cutter is a 30 watt machine, we used 500 for the freq, 20s for the speed, and 100percent for powe. however, this would have taken us 3 hours 20 min to cut, so instead, we increased the speed to 40s (so now it is 1 hour cutting and 1 hr 10 minutes of engraving for a total of 2 hrs and 10 minutes).  The faster the speed, the shallower the engraving, however 40 sec plenty for the awards and we could have likekly gotten away with 50 seconds.  NOTE: on 2024, we tried 40 seconds for speed and it did not cut through, so we changed the cutting to 20 seconds and it did.  

  • for the engraving we used 18 % speed, 100% pwr, freq 500 (always 500 freq for wood)

  • NOTE: in order for it to engrave faster, we changed the speed for the engraving to 40 seconds, so not only does it engrave faster, but it also doesn't burn as much.

• For the acrylic, it was 1/8" so the cutting would be freq 5000 f, 20sec, 100percent and the engraving would be 500 freq, 90s and  50 percent

• Now you turn on the laser cutting machine using the black switch on the side

  • then click the white skinny button on the edge of the red power switch button on the power strip behind the laser cutter, which turns on the booster pump which sucks the toxic air from the laser cutter and then you push the button on the front of the black box under the laser cutter (which says BOFA) in order to turn on the filter. You will hear a beep indicating that the machine is initialized

• if you want to see the estimate of how long it will take to laser cut/engrave your design, you can hit the estimate button. If it is too long, you can change the speed in the "Laser Setting" tab.  The slower the speed, the deeper the engraving and cutting.

• when you're ready to transfer the files from the visicut to the laser cutter, you click on the Execute button on visicut.  Pay attention to the number of files since the first one is the cutting file and the other ones are the engrave files.  This is important when we select which one we want using the display on the laser cutter.  

• you push buttons 3 and 4 on the laser cutter to select the job (file) that you want to execute first. Remember you want to do the engraving file first, so it is job 2 or 3, not 1!!!

• Put your material on the laser table in the upper left corner. Make sure that the table is low enough to accommodate the material.  If not low enough, press the Focus key, then the down arrow to lower the table before placing your item on the table. Set your focus by flipping down the focus gauge (the spring unit on the lens assembly) and raising or lowering the table until it is just touching the material.  note that if the wood looks a little burned then try to move the wood closer to the laser

• if you want to see if your laser pointer is aligned properly against your wood or acrylic piece, click on the pointer button (7) and a red light will show up.  then you can click on the X/Y button (which disables the X and Y axes and you can now move the black carriage by hand to any point on the table.) and move the black frame that holds the laser using your hands (you do NOT use the arrow buttons).  once you are sure that the red laser pointer is starting where you want to start cutting on your material, then you hit the "go" button once to lock in the black carriage again

• If you want to make sure that the files that you loaded into the laser cutter are aligned properly, you can also, enable the red laser pointer by pushing the pointer button (7) 

• next click on the XY off button, so you can move the black bar above the material/wood piece closer or further away to align the red pointer where you want to start cutting/engraving, can then you can move the belt to move the red pointer left or right. once you find the proper location where you want to start engraving/cutting, then you press the XY off button again, so that you cannot move the black bar or the belt. XY disabled means you can still move the bar and belt. XY enabled means that they are locked in place.  then you can either leave the laser pointer on or off

• and now you can  run the either the "cutting" file (usually job 1) and/or the "engraving" job (job 2 and/or 3) with the lid open, which outlines with the red laser pointer, where it will engrave or cut, without actually engraving or cutting.  You can select the job (with the up/down arrow keys) and then hit the "go" button, "stop" button and "reset" button which puts the pointer back at the origin (which is the upper left hand corner).

• Once you have confirmed that the jobs will cut and engrave where you want, you can close the lid, select the desired job and then hit the "go" button. if you need to stop it, you can hit the "stop" button. When the job is done, the laser cutter will beep and the display will indicate that the job is done.  Then you can select the next job and then hit go again.

• big files

  • visicut handles images differently. higher quality. since image is simp

  • when image goes into visicut, it interprets the image as higher quality however, we don't need the higher quality, so.  

• trace bitmap it changes from an image to a path. when you select the object, it will say Path at the very bottom if it is a path. versus if you select something that says image at the bottom, then itis an image. Path is a vector shape. once you have changed something into a path, then it can no longer be edited as text since each letter is actually a shape (made up of vectors).  

• if zoom in on a image, and set the fill to empty and set the stroke to black.  stroke is the outer perimeter and fill is the area enclosed by the outer perimeter.  since we are using a closed shape, the outline is the stroke.  outer hexagon is a stroke will no fill.  

• for the large awards, started with files from before. make the new shape for the new season. edit all the text so it is correct, convert all the text into a path object. (selecting the text and then change to a path) in one of the menus of inkscape. and for an individual award you can combine all of the text into a single path. and make sure all of the settings.

• so basically we only have two operations, engraving and cutting, so if you select the objects so they are either engraving and cutting in inkscape, then visicut doesn't have to switch modes as much

• outline of the hexagon is a path, and the text is also a path, but they have different fill and stroke, so visicut can tell them apart.

• the outline is stroke with no fill

• and all the text and and the images are fill with no stroke. 

• option in inkscape. if you right click on object and select the same fill and stroke, then you will select every single object that matches. the black fill and stroke, so if there is one that is not showing that it matches, then you may want to change it to be the same

• so in order to make the image engrave faster, convert it to a bitmap. 

• turn on the BOFA fume extractor push the power button and you should only see the green light net to the checkmark which indicates it is happy. the blue.fan lights incrase it if it gets smelly. smelling the laser cutter means you are not extracting the fumes enough.

• turn on the laser cutter power button which is on the back right

• there is. a key on the laser cutter, which is a power safety cut off.  if the key is not in, you cannot turn the laser cutter on. looks like a little black wireless mouse receivers.  

• the BIG red button on the right side is an EMERGENCY STOP if things get dangerous. It is a push to stop and a twist to reset. there are arrows telling you which way to twist it

• the laser printer has the capability to have an automatic fire extinguisher in the laser printer itself, but it is not currently installed as of 5/8/2025. intentions to install when time allows

• make sure that the cutting area. make sure there is nothing on the top of the slats or any remainder debris from previous laser cutting sessions

• grab the material from the bin and pop it in

• then on the left side, connect the USB cable to your laptop.not that there is a USB to USB-c adapter that should be available if needed to connect to your laptop

• when open xcs green square xTool Creative Space, then click green New Project button in upper right hand corner

• whenever you want a new picture of the material in the laser cutter box, then you click on the camera called refresh background, takes a new picture of the plywood

• click on the image button which looks like a mountian in a picture frame in the upper left panel and open your SVG

• arrange it on the image of the material in the laser cutter.

• click on the layer button at bottom left

• that gives yu the different colors. seleect black and then on the right click on engrave. then click red and then select cut

• on engrave, click the picture of the different darknesses, which looks like a grid of X's and start with the middle one, it helps you pick the darkness of the engraving

• click on the picture na d make sure that the width and height values are correct. of the overall image.  you the person need to measure with a ruler

• now click green process button in the lower right corner

• close the lid before pushing the green start button 

• if want, can push play to see animation of cutting. if it looks good, then click the start button. then get a ready image 

• when the button on the laser cutter turns blue you are ready to cut, so push the silver button with the blue halo

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• with the new laser printer, you must use your own laptop. it can be a PC or a Mac, but not linux

• make sure you download xcs. xtool creative studio

• when joey made the svg's he used 2 colors: one red and one green where red is cut and black is engraved

• here are the SVG files with the award scalable vector graphic files awards svg files in robotic files shared drive 

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