Marty McGuire

Posts Tagged eggbot

2011
Wed Feb 9

Thing-a-Day 2011 #9 - Plots of the 2-color Baltimore Node logo!

This post used to be on Posterous. I rescued my posts before Posterous shut down and am now sharing them here.

I made this version of the Baltimore Node logo the other day in Inkscape, but wasn't at home to test it. Here are the resulting plots on both EggBot and Unicorn!

The Unicorn version came out a little messed up due to my sizing the file wrong - the pen went off the edge of my sticky note pad and mussed everything up. I resized the plot to fit the sticky note fine, but had some pen registration issues with the now-crumpled sticky note pad. I'll probably try this again later with some nicer stock.

New files and more detailed description over on Thingiverse.

Node-2-color-eggbot
Node-2-color-unicorn
Mon Feb 7

2-color Baltimore Node logo (Unicorn and EggBot)

Files

node-logo-2layer-75x75.svg
11034 bytes. Updated
node-logo-2layer-eggbot.svg
11319 bytes. Updated
node-logo-2layer-75x75.gcode
17439 bytes. Updated
⮩🛠 This is a derivative of Baltimore Node logo (Unicorn) by schmarty.

This work is licensed Creative Commons - Attribution.

Description

To go with the new multiple-color plotting functionality of my Unicorn G-Code Output extension for Inkscape, here’s a new version of the Baltimore Node logo.

This one is ready to plot in 2 layers - all of the black parts at once, followed by all of the blue ones, with a pause at the beginning of each layer to allow a pen change.

I also made use of my Hershey Fonts in SVG to make the word “baltimore” more readable after plotting. This should make it look nice, for example, on an EggBot.

UPDATE!

I forgot to resize the original for a sticky note pad (whoops!) and I was right that the EggBot version needed layers beginning with a number.

Updated files attached and pictures added!

Instructions

If you have a Unicorn, try out the attached G-Code. It’s set to start with the pen centered over 0,0 and fits on a sticky note pad (75mm x 75mm).

If you have an EggBot, try plotting the SVG using the Layers dialog. Layer 1 is black, Layer 2 is blue.

Sun Feb 6

Hershey Fonts in SVG

Files

hershey_svg.zip
149280 bytes. Updated
hershey.zip
107203 bytes. Updated
astrology.svg
32309 bytes. Updated
cursive.svg
20791 bytes. Updated
cyrilc_1.svg
22660 bytes. Updated
cyrillic.svg
23636 bytes. Updated
futural.svg
15480 bytes. Updated
futuram.svg
22512 bytes. Updated
gothgbt.svg
35125 bytes. Updated
gothgrt.svg
36666 bytes. Updated
gothiceng.svg
35041 bytes. Updated
gothicger.svg
36582 bytes. Updated
gothicita.svg
30219 bytes. Updated
gothitt.svg
30303 bytes. Updated
greek.svg
16383 bytes. Updated
greekc.svg
21662 bytes. Updated
greeks.svg
15541 bytes. Updated
japanese.svg
55942 bytes. Updated
markers.svg
5566 bytes. Updated
mathlow.svg
16193 bytes. Updated
mathupp.svg
15783 bytes. Updated
meteorology.svg
16078 bytes. Updated
music.svg
26086 bytes. Updated
rowmand.svg
23433 bytes. Updated
rowmans.svg
15379 bytes. Updated
rowmant.svg
31035 bytes. Updated
scriptc.svg
25598 bytes. Updated
scripts.svg
22608 bytes. Updated
symbolic.svg
19740 bytes. Updated
timesg.svg
22309 bytes. Updated
timesi.svg
23030 bytes. Updated
timesib.svg
30928 bytes. Updated
timesr.svg
21818 bytes. Updated
timesrb.svg
30830 bytes. Updated
math-drawing.svg
8619 bytes. Updated

This work is licensed Public Domain.

Description

Making text for Unicorn or EggBot plots isn’t always a fun process. Most tools require you to convert text into paths, and even then you get the outlines of shapes, which can often turn messy at small sizes.

mifga pointed me towards the Hershey fonts[1]. They’re a set of fonts for vector plotters named after creator Dr. A. V. Hershey who made them for the National Bureau of Standards.

These files are in a weird, weird, format. But after some normalizing, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, I was able to write some code to parse them and spit them back out as SVG! Now you can use these fonts in your Unicorn drawings.

Each SVG contains a layout of one of the Hershey fonts. The hershey_svg.zip file below contains all of the SVG files. The hershey.zip file contains the (cleaned up) original .jhf files. math-drawing.svg is just an example of using these glyphs, including scaling and stretching. I think the result is nice!

To use these in Unicorn plots, you’ll want to grab my Unicorn G-Code extension for Inkscape[2].

[1] Hershey fonts - http://emergent.unpythonic.net/software/hershey
[2] Unicorn output for Inkscape - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5986

Instructions

To use these fonts in your Unicorn plots:

  1. Download the SVG file containing the font of your choice, or grab the whole hershey_svg.zip to get them all.
  2. In your Inkscape drawing, use File | Import to load the font you want
  3. Drag around and duplicate the characters that you want to use.
  4. Delete the ones that you don’t.
  5. Plot it!
    • (Unicorn users) Save your file and Save a Copy to get your .gcode!
    • (EggBot users) Plot directly from Inkscape. :)