I tested Fusion360 Cam, Estlcam, 3dpBurner Image2Gcode (MPCNC) and others. I want to laser engrave Signs, but the image-rastering like in 3dpBurner takes sooooooo long for large engraves because it travels over every pixel even if there is nothing to engrave, and the vector-based solutions I know are always just engraving the outlines… but my goal is to engrave filled letters. Is there a solution anyone knows for engraving images with fill but leaving all the white parts of the image aside? Has anyone a tip or a hack?
There are a few that do skip the blank area. I can’t think if which ones. I am sure someone can chime in and let you know. Optimized engraving, or something like that. One version of image to gcode did it but it broke something else if I remember right.
There are extensions to Inkscape that will allow hatch/cross-hatch fill of closed shapes. Take a look at the Eggbot extensions… there may be others as well. I also use the JTech laser plugin for Inkscape to generate output for my laser engravers.
Thanks Tim. Funny thing: I just did it like this (estlcam with pockets and islands) bevore reading your post and yes - with some tweaking of the toolsettings it works quite nice. But it’s a pain in the *** with long texts - especially with the islands to set the toolpaths. but yeah - it worked and the sign is ready!
Thanks again!
Thank you dkj4linux as well. I didn’t got along with inkscape and dont really know where to get the extensions and get them to work properly. maybe that will be a future project because I’d like to have a intelligent solution for that instead of setting it completely manual.