Resizing Patterns For Other Uses

[kmmcrafts]

I know this was brought up by Jim Blume a week or so back but I thought I'd show a example of one I did today. This design is meant for laser / CNC cutting and I did cut this with the laser tonight. The original design was at a size of approximately 11 x 8.5.. I resized it to be smaller for a ornament instead. The gift box it's in is 5 1/4 x 3 1/2 just to get an idea of how much I changed the design in size from its original state. I do this kind of stuff quite often just to make things that maybe others are not making.. Many folks would look around ( if they wanted this design ) for a ornament when searching the pattern makers websites and never find a ornament like this.. because it wasn't designed as a ornament, LOL I've done just the opposite too.. I've taken ornaments and enlarged the diameter and then made it into a wall clock or other larger wall hanging. 

 

 

[rjweb]

Kevin, very nice, and it was cut with your laser correct,  how did you go about making the design smaller, thx RJ 

[OCtoolguy]

Very nice Kevin.

 

[kmmcrafts]

30 minutes ago, rjweb said:

Kevin, very nice, and it was cut with your laser correct,  how did you go about making the design smaller, thx RJ 

Yes, I cut this with the laser. What I do to resize is use inkscape and once loaded in inkscape I make sure the box is checked to keep it proportioned. Several ways to resize on there but I just use the buttons at the top in the toolbar for to make larger or smaller.. since the box is check to keep proportion the same you only have to click either the wider or taller buttons and they both change at the same time. Seems really simple to me but I do remember a time where I struggled with that.. but there are plenty of folks here that help if you trying to do something and can't figure it out.. rather than ask to have someone change it for you ask how to change it.. then eventually you pick up on that. I've "had" to learn some of this stuff since I can't just hand draw on the pattern for the laser and CNC machines.. In the beginning of modifying my own patterns I used to tape patterns together or tape text on them etc, LOL.. can't with these machines though..

BTW, Lot of laser / cnc designs can be cut using a scroll saw.. many designers when sending you the download link for the file / pattern they send them in several different formats.. such as printable PDF or SVG for laser or DXF for CNC.. so this pattern could be just printed and cut on a scroll saw.  They send you a zip file with several different formats.. just choose the PDF one when you open it if you want print it to scroll it..  Here is the link to the sellers etsy page where I got this pattern from.. I actually order a whole set.. have most of the state ornament patterns too. 

Here is a short video of my laser cutting out one of the state ornaments this morning. https://www.facebook.com/kevin.metzger.56/videos/574532267228682 I had to make the video pubic so you folks can view it.. Sped up the video, actual cut time was just over 5 minutes. Think cut time for the trucker cross shown above was around 5 minutes too. You might think that's fast but, LOL.. I can cut a stack of 5 in 20 -25 minutes on the scroll saw so the laser really not any faster unless you have more than one machine running.. it does allow me to do other needed work while it's running though.. like finishing, sanding blanks, designing new stuff.. so it does free up some of my time..  

[BadBob]

I run everything through Inkscape. If they need it, I clean them up first with Gimp and copy them to Inkscape, where I use the "Trace Bitmap" function to convert them to vector format. Once this is done, I can manipulate the pattern in any way I need.

 

[kmmcrafts]

Yes inkscape and gimp are both very handy and powerful software's well worth the free download and learn if you can. Another very powerful and in my opinion way better than inkscape or gimp as far as ease of use is the Vectric software that came with my CNC.. BUT... it doesn't work well to use to create patterns because to my knowledge there is no way to save it for use with printing the finished pattern.. only way is for G code to go to the CNC and carve it out.. That would be my software of choice IF I could design and print out or save as a Jpeg, PDF or other type of file to use with printing out the designs. Probably a way to do it.. I haven't looked real hard.. Probably not many people would buy the software just for patterns etc.  since I think the cheap version is still around $500+..