Inkscape/Kerf Compensation
THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION. FULL INSTRUCTIONS IMMINENT (6/16/2014)
Intro
Kerf compensation is necessary if we want parts that match our drawings. If we do not compensate for kerf then our parts will be undersized. Below is an image showing several kerf positioning methods. Without kerf compensation, Online kerf happens and the radius of the kerf is cut away from the part. Male kerf compensation is the goal on a CNC torch table.
image source
Kerf Compensation Plugin for Inkscape
There are two ways to compensate for kerf in inkscape. One is to simply draw the part oversized to account for the loss of material due to the kerf. This way is not preferred because different CNC tables will have different kerfs as will different cutting tools on the same table. The second method is to draw the part to size and use a kerf correction plugin to automatically adjust the drawing to compensate for a user selected kerf radius. Note: this is only tested on a 32-bit Ubuntu 12.04
Instructions
- Give yourself between 30mins to an 1hr to install this. Read these instructions fully before proceeding with step one.
- First, install inkscape:
sudo apt-get install inkscape - Now follow this link Stanford Wiki and install the plugin listed in step one there. By default, the inkscape extensions folder is:
/usr/share/inkscape/extensions - Continue to step two, recompiling inkscape with the instructions given at the link under step two. There is an issue with the first block of code given there. Use this instead:
sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake intltool libglib2.0-dev libpng12-dev libgc-dev libfreetype6-dev liblcms1-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev libxslt1-dev libboost-dev libpopt-dev libgsl0-dev libaspell-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libgnome-vfsmm-2.6-dev libssl-dev graphicsmagick-libmagick-dev-compat libwpg-dev bzr