K40 Whisperer: Making a Design
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- Опубликовано: 7 ноя 2017
- A walk through the process of making a design in Inkscape for K40 Whisperer and sending it to the laser cutter. This video covers setting the line colors for engraving and cutting and basic raster engraving using Inkscape and K40 Whisperer.
K40 Whisperer:
www.scorchworks.com/K40whisper...
Background:
K40 Whisperer is an open source replacement for the program called LaserDRW or Laser Draw that comes with the K40 Cheap Chinese Laser cutter. K40 Whisperer works on Linux, Windows and Mac computers. 
Хобби
You should get a medal for creating K40 whisperer! I award you with the Maker medal of Merrit!
I got my K40 in 2018 and was so discouraged by using it with LaserDRW that I kinda put it aside because LaserDRW is garbage. Then I watched your videos and discovered K40 Whisperer and it brought my cutter to LIFE!! I cannot believe the difference!! Like night and day. It’s so easy to cut now and I can have all the cuts and engraving files in one file and they’re sized already! Truly an amazing piece of software! Now I WANT to use my cutter. Thanks for the tips!!
THANK GOD you posted this. I am successfully doing my first combo of all three because of you. THANK you
This video got me up and running really quickly. Many thanks.
Thanks for the software and instructions. I'll be starting making stuff with my k40 soon!
I just bought one of the k40 machines today. I’m looking forward to using your software and the tutorials.
Hi I'm new to K40 c02 Laser so just starting to learn my way round this will be very helpful now the learning begins I also use a CR10S 3D printer and am still learning that I will be looking fo more videos on this laser subject...
Best explanation I've seen so far :) excellent thank you, really helpful.
FYI for people pulling their hair out about why some dxf files cut wierd (like cutting outside first instead of inside). Check the DXF in librecad as to whether it's doubled up, fusion 360 seems to have a habbit of doubling up the lines in the DXF which results in strange behaviour in K40 whisperer.
Thanks heaps to you the OP for K40 whisperer you've enabled my laser cutter without requiring me to use dodgy software :D
Thank you so much for this video, simple and straightforward instructions for complete beginners! Really appreciate it :)
HI , subbed instantly!!! Very thankful for your effort.
Love your software. Really simple and easy to use
I really really love this program. Amazing job!
Ejal Nvt 7
What a great piece of software!!, thanks so much!!, it works flawlessly!!!, very intuitive and common sense features. Just purchased a K40 from amazon, CD (CD??!!) came broken, just about to pull my hair when found this, 10 mins later had a sample in my hands. I'm very grateful on your job, how can donate?!, please keep working!!!!
Thanks, I don't accept donations. Go forth and laser!
thanks for the post ..it was so helpful for me
I got my K40 today. Thanks for K40 whisperer and for doing these videos. My k40 has a digital power display. I have no idea how the power numbers translate to current. Gotta put a milliamp meter on it.
To the point and informative, thank you!
Thanks for this video, help me a lot!!!!
Hi thank you for the software. I would like to ask how we can make the corners of the rectangular round?
Great Tutorial, thanks!!!
Awesome video thank you, I’m just starting out with this setup and this was a massive help. Ps where did you get your coiled air hose?
To change colors right click over the color at the bottom of the screen and choose stroke color. Much faster than using the dialog box
Interesting, I have never done it that way before.
Awesome info. Thanks
many thanks, got it working!
Excellent program, thanks.
I was wondering if K40 Whisperer knows, when vector cutting, to cut the inside cuts first? I had a project making a keychain and used a raster for the decoration then used the vector engrave button with the laser set for cutting to cut the opening for the ring before using the vector cut for the outside cut. Just asking since the item being cut and engraved could shift enough to ruin the project if the outer cut happened before the inner cut..
Yes, it will cut the indide first.
I have been playing with design files between Adobe AI, in SVG formats, and K40 Whisperer. So far, I have discovered that I have to save AI files in a legacy version of AI (version 8), remove all options that will add extra data to my design files, and create files in RGB format with a 36 PPI raster effect on my design files. I have managed to get my SVG files to work with K40 Whisperer using the correct RGB colors for my cuts, Raster engravings, but when it comes to Vector Engravings I can't quite figure out how one would use a Vector Engrave.
When designing a simple object, say a square box for Vector engrave, I notice that a Fill will not work for a vector engrave. However, a stroke will work for a Vector Engrave on K40 Whisperer, and it is limited to approximately 1 Point Width, or so. Even if I were to increase a Stroke width to something like 5 Points, K40 Whisperer still does not recognize the width of the stroke and continues to interpret the Vector Engrave stroke as being 1 Point in size.
As a work around to this, I simply stopped using the Vector engrave feature and keep all my lines to be interpreted by K40 Whisperer as Raster Engrave strokes. By doing so, I can control the line stroke's width pretty accurately.
My question for all is, In what particular scenario would I want to use the Vector Engrave feature?
Has anyone else experienced the above situation with Vector Engravings before? And, if so, how did you remedy the situation?
I did discover that if I use the gradient effects on Illustrator, keep and treat the Fills as RGB colors and use Black and White, that K40 Whisperer will give one a beautiful gradient effect. I'll have to Laser Engrave the test files to see the effects created using the Radial and Linear gradients.
Thanks everyone!
thanks a lot for this video!!
If your drawing contains both external and internal cuts, is there a way to determine the order that K40W cuts to avoid having the part drop off the material before the internal cut completes? (I know I could just create 2 cut files)
K40 Whisperer does some internal analysis to determine which cuts are inside of others. K40 Whisperer always tries to perform the inside cuts first.
Now I have version 1.1 and the RGB goes well beyond the 255. Does this have any effect?
Hi, nice tutorial. Only one question, what is the inicial mA for the raste and vector engrave that you use? Thanks
5 mA Engrave, 10 mA Cut
Hello I have a question , when I am trying to cut a cursive font it cuts out the overlapping parts of the word. Not one whole word ( like a had written it cursive ) also when I upload a a svg ( bought from Etsy it does not cut it . I’m new to this and can not get it. Please help :) thank u!
K40 Whisperer cuts the lines that are in the file that you open. To make your cursive cut the way you want you need to edit the file in Inkscape or another editor. There are a lot of Inkscape videos out there.
Gracias !!Gracias !!Gracias !!Gracias !!Gracias !!Gracias !!Gracias !!Gracias !!Gracias !!
My K40 arrived Monday and I can't wait to try K40 Whisperer (I have no plans on trying the included software); thank you for making this software available. May I ask where you got the coiled air hose? That looks like a great way to eliminate the need to add a drag chain for the air-assist mod.
49cfr I used
Self-Retracting Polyurethane Tubing from McMaster Carr
Abrasion Resistant, Opaque Yellow, 5/32" ID, 10 Feet Long
9148T122
More info is available here:
www.youmagine.com/designs/k40-air-assist-nozzle
Great to the point tutorial; where one can easily extrapolate to do more advanced. What camera did you purchase for K40, with software? thx
I didn't purchase a camera for my K40 Laser.
Just a quick question. I have been using Adobe Illustrator for many years. Can I continue to use Illustrator and just convert the file to an SVG before exporting to K40 Whisperer?
yes
Doing a program for the 3040 cnc would be brilliant too, i purchased a k40 and cnc k40 easy with your whisperer, but struggle with the cnc and its knock off lsrdrw. well done buddy on the program you've come up with.
You can take a look at F-Engrave, Dmap2gcode and G-Code Ripper to do various things with CNC machines.
when vector cutting or vector engraving a line, since the thickness of the line drawn does not matter, what part of the line will the laser follow (the inside, the outside, the middle?)
Matthew Rossing It follows the middle of the line.
Matthew Rossing x
Hi
Might be a silly question:
If I was to cut a small circle in a large circle, how does K40 Whisperer know to cut the small circle first?
If it cut the large circle first, and moved, the small circle might not be in the same place?
Thanks
For closed shapes (i.e. a circle or any shape that has no open ends.) K40 Whisperer can determine which object are inside of each shape and cut those first. If shapes overlap or share common edges it is not posible to be 100% accurate. It determines which objects are inside using geometry and math. This functionality can be turned off by unselecting "Cut Inside First" in the advanced options. If you do this K40 Whisperer will cut in the order the objects are defined in the SVG file.
How about if you open a dfx file and I want it 1:1 scale. What setup should I do?
K40 Whisperer will read the units from the DXF file if they are included. Otherwise K40 Whisperer will prompt
you for the units.
Your video was easy to understand and I appreciate that, however, when I tried it everything in 40K Whisperer went crazy and basically stopped working. I'm getting messages like the wrong mode. Raster comes up with an error problem every time. No matter what I've done, including deleting and reloading the software I've gotten no where. There is one thing I find strange. When I reinstalled 40k whisperer it still had my settings, i.e. the last picture brought in and the jog step that I set which is much lower than the original. Any suggestions? I hate wasting the money on the 40K
e-mail me with the controller model you have (The board the usb plugs into.) e-mail address is in the K40 Whisperer help menu.
@@ScorchWorks Thank you but I got the situation fixed.
Do you need inkskape? I have the adobe suit along with other logos design software like Picart and Over etc...If so what if i already have a logo created?
Yes you need Inkscape. K40 Whisperer uses inkscape to process SVG files. You don't need to design the file in Inkscape but it needs to be installed.
Out of curiosity, is there any functional difference between vector engrave and vector cut, or is it just there to let you do multiple vector operations in case you need to perform them in a specific order?
Vector cut diea some additiinal checking to ensure cuts inside of other cuts are made first. This ensures the larger piece does not move or fall out before the inside cut is performed.
Quick question. When I import my file from Inkscape into k40 whisperer all of my cuts are black even if I set my blue and red to 255 any idea what I could be doing wrong? Thank you for any help
John M I think the video covers most common problems. You can also read this. www.scorchworks.com/Blog/k40-whisperer-vector-colors-and-text-in-k40-whisperer/
Thank you, your blog was very helpful! I was solely working with text and after drawing some lines I realized those showed up fine in k40 whisperer. I was trying to vector engrave the stroke of some text. Using control k, and then control j for dynamic offset I was able to fix the problem and my lines appeared as the correct colors
Thanks for the information! For some reason when I go to load the inkscape svg file in k40 whisperer, I get a "Inkscape not found" message. I'm on Windows 10 and just downloaded the newest version of inkscape. EDIT: Just figured it out lol.
I'm glad you worked it out.
Hello, how did you figure it out? I'm still struggling with that message
@Adolph Smith snr Will newer versions not work, only that ver?
Great video! Where did you get the coil for the air assist?
Details of my air assist are here: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4150036
Help? Saved as svg, 255 blue transfers to K40 in grey scale. Also when my paper and image are the same size they still move independently? The image moves but not the paper?
I am not sure what you are trying to say.
Scorch Works when you do your images of the star and oval- you go to print properties and make the “paper” on the computer the same size as you image. You then move it to the upper left corner and both the image and the paper move . When I have my image and make the “paper”the same size as the image the paper never moves, just my image ?
@@jennfavreau5198 I don't know how that is possible. I would like to see video of that happening.
Will any SVG work or does it have to be done or saved in Inkscape ? Most of my work is done in Coreldraw X4 and not familiar with Inkscape so hoping to not have to redraw them. Or will importing into Inkscape and saving to SVG be good enough ? Your videos are good. Easy to follow, mouse not jumping all over the place clicking stuff not needed, voice not to loud and no stupid music drowning it out. Excellent. Thanks.
+freebird1963 I am working to make it work better with Corel SVG files. Right now you will probably need adjust the colors in Inkscape. A new version of K40 Whisperer that should work better for Corel SVGs should be out in about a week.
Thanks very much for the reply. Look forward to it. Great work by the way and videos.
That would be awesome! Since all of my SVG files were created in Corel Draw :}
Hello so trying out the corel svg for it. When saving in Corel for SVG not sure of the setttings that should be used. Options are : Encoding method unicode UTF-8 (default) or 16 ? Styling options: Internal style sheet (default), Presentation attributes or external css ? Fountain Steps ? ( Mine defaults to 50 ) and export bitmap type ? Gif Jpg (default ) or Png and link or embed (default) ? I also noticed that I get some errors in Corel when saving SVG saying Invalid IDs Found. One or more IDs used in the file are either duplicates or contain invalid syntax. . Tells me to check all group, obj and symbol instance names to ensure that they are not duplicated within the file, and do not start with a number. Dups and invalid IDs will be automatically be appended on export. I couldn't find a answer on the net to it. So not sure what issues that will cause.. Or would it be better to save as a EPS and import into Inkscape and save as a SVG. Thanks .
Has anyone gotten the error lib USB not connected when you initial laser cutter
Can you tell me where you got that hose you are using for the air assist? Thanks.
Mcmaster Carr, the details are here: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4150036
@@ScorchWorks Thanks
He i have 4060 laser machine chines i use corellaser 2012.02 software can i use inkscape
You can use Inkscape for design but you would need to know what controller board you have to determine if you can use K40 Whisperer.
good evening congratulations for your work and your software, a question, when I write inkscape makes me read correct and when I send the raster, the engagement or the cut, it has me speculating (contrary) how come?
I do not understand your question.
when I do the engrvain the cuttin or the ruster the k40 the writing makes me backwards instead of writing from left to right writes from right to left@@ScorchWorks
i am italian and use google translator sorry my english
Where is the "home" position of your laser (upper left corner or upper right corner)?
@@ScorchWorks right corner
so it does not matter if i put line width(stroke) of 10mm and 1mm?
Correct, for vector cut and vector engrave features the stroke thickness does not change what K40 Whisperer does.
what if the star would be filled with blue and we would vector engrave it? Would there be any difference compared to the raster engrave?
All 'fill' colors are interpreted as raster engrave. Blue fill would be converted to a shade of gray and raster engraved.
@@ScorchWorks thnx. I was asking because i just started using a k40 and my rasters are not coming out very nice. I get ridges and lines. Maybe its the plywood im using or the settings and i was searching about vector rasting and i couldnt find too much information, but thank you
I'm new at this and dont understand what vector is or anything else. So do you have some info for dummies?
You might want to start by just google "raster versus vector"
I'm new to using a laser, I have watch quite a few videos and have downloaded inkscape and K40 whisperer but whenever I try to get the laser to cut my design (at the moment a square) it says my usb driver needs updating. When I have looked into it the only way I can update this driver is my paying £7 a month for driver support. Is this right or am I doing something wrong?
Read the install instructions: www.scorchworks.com/K40whisperer/k40w_setup.html Everything is free.
As a total side note, stay away from anything that claims you need to pay them for monthly support. That's a fantastic way to start chatting with a "representative" in India who will gladly hijack your computer. For further research in this area, see Jim Browning's channel. :)
Using .17 and now when I tell Whisperer to engrave it goes from were I set it to all the way to the right of the design and starts and then moves right from there. It does not start we I put the laser head either by hand or by the arrows. Any ideas why ?
freebird1963 That is odd. I don't know how that is happening. Can you e-mail your configuration to the address in the help menu? Use 'File'-'Save Configuration' or something like that to save the settings.
Hello. Thanks. Yes I will. I can do a little video of it in action too. Thanks.
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you on this. I upgraded to .19 and now it seems to work as in the video. We also had the a power outage and I had not rebooted either so maybe one or both of those events fixed it but its working now as it did before.
My artwork in inkscape was red blue and Black, when i imported to k40 whisper it showed only black can you help me?
Here is a post covering some common issues: www.scorchworks.com/Blog/k40-whisperer-vector-colors-and-text-in-k40-whisperer/ After you have read that if you think you have a file that should work you can e-mail it to me at the address in the K40 Whisperer help menu.
You got to go to Pato and convert objekt to path. That will do the trick.
So I assume if you had a really thick red line, it would just automatically cut the inside or the line?
It cuts along the center of the line.
whats the settings for doing rubber stamp?
1mm/s
100% power
Can you engrave photos with K40 Whisperer?
+berighteous Yes you can. I will post a new video on that topic tonight.
Hi, any ideas why K40 Whisperer is showing 2 vector cut lines? Same image, one slightly smaller than the other. Thanks
Most likely the design is doubled in the SVG file. There are probably lines in the SVG file that are too thin to see or hidden behind another item when viewing in Inkscape.
@@ScorchWorks Thanks for the reply. I'm completely lost. I create a star for example, 0 fill 255 stroke paint, 2mm stroke style- open in k40 whisperer perfect.
Import image, trace bitmap, delete image, resize to page, stroke to path, 0 fill 255 stroke paint 2mm stroke style- open in k40 whisperer as 2 vector cut lines. I'm sure there is only 1 layer in inkscape.
Any chance I can send you the svg to see if there is something I'm missing?
Thanks
@@matthewsmallwood6627 When you trace an image in inkscape it traces the edges. If you trace an image of an 8 you will get the outside shape and two circles that represent the edges of the holes in the 8. There is a new feature that may be in the latest version of inkscape that tries to give the centerline trace but I have not tried it. You can send me the file, but I am sure what you are seeing is due to tracing an image.
@@ScorchWorks Hi, managed to sort it. When tracing bitmap, I select edge detection, change scans to 2. Delete image, brake apart, delete unwanted section. Thanks
Your voice is so cool
I didn't hear or see what you set the power to? How do you know what to set it on?
You need to set the power on the laser. Either with the dial or digital panel (depending on which model you have). For engraving 5ma an for cutting 10ma are good starting points. The material you are using and speed setting might drive you to higher or lower power levels.
OK, so I have tried looking everywhere honestly I didn’t want to bug you about this, but I have one major question about this laser engraver. How on earth do you line up your project? I’m having a really difficult time with my art and lining it up say on a specific piece of wood. Or do I need to actually cut out the wood to fit the design. :/ I feel so stupid
+Carole Mattia I is difficult to make suggestions when Inhave no clue what you are trying to do. If you are doing the same thing over and over you can cut the shape of the part you are engraving out of wood/carboard then you drop the part ito the hole so it is in the same place each time.
Scorch Works I guess what I was trying to ask was how I line of a piece of art work on a piece of wood and have it centered on the wood
What you can do is draw a rectangle the size of the piece of wood you are going to use around your design then engrave the rectangle shape onto a piece of thin cardboard taped inside your laser engraver. Then you can place the piece of wood into the engraved rectangle. (You can make the rectangle a little bigger than the piece of wood so it i easier to see. Then you can delete the rectangle from the design and engrave on the wood.
Bud how do you set the laser power?
The power is set manually on the laser engraver. The stock board (m2 nano) does not support PWM power control. There is a new stock controler called m3 nano that has the required hardware for PWM but nobody has figured out how software can utilize that hardware.
The vector cut, what thickness material? How many passes? My K40 at 25Ma takes 5 passes at 3mm/sec to cut 1/16th balsa! Why? Focus seems good.
My material was .020" one pass. At 26mA you run the risk of shortening the life of your laser. I never go above 15 mA.
I understand not running at high mas but why would it take 5 passes to cut 1/16th balsa at 3mm/sec? You didn't answer that.
@@sotm6078 Mirrors not aligned, dirty mirrors, dirty lens, bad power supply, bad laser tube, distance from lens to material wrong, laser path partially obstructed by air assist nozzle.
Spent hours adjusting mirrors, in fact they have all been replaced by mirrors from Cohesion3D. How would one know if power supply is bad? Bad Laser tube? Hey this thing just got set up. Right now I'd like to chuck it in the garbage!
I am not an expert on the electrical/laser stuff. You might want to ask on the K40 Google+ page or review the information on Don's web page: donsthings.blogspot.com/
How do you get rid of the black in the middle of the first square. yours is white but u say it defaults to black. i can't figure out how to get rid of the black and go to white so only the red border shows. thanks
Depending on the settings the default will change. Select the 'fill' tab and change the fill color or select the X in the top row (below the tabs) for no fill.
@@ScorchWorks thank you i think that's what finally worked. im not sure though bc i found the answer somehow by clicking around lol
when I import my svg file into K40, it turns to grey scale losing the blue and red. what am I doing wrong please?
The two most likely problems are 1. Your stroke colors are not set correctly or 2. The colors are in an image not vector features.
@@ScorchWorks I have drawn this in Inkscape .92 as an svg file. Colors are set to either 255 red or 255 blue but still showing as grey in K40. line thickness is 1px
@@55commodore If you e-mail the file to me I can look at it. e-mail address is in the K40 Whisperer help menu.
Same thing is happening to me? Set to 255 for blue, saves in blue but when it transfers to K40 goes to a grey scale? Advise?help?
55commodore , did you get an answer? Same thing is happening to me?
Does the software support the text SVG element?
Yes
@@ScorchWorks Thank you for the quick reply, any limitations on font or other properties for that element?
@@overreactengine Not that I can think of.
When i click on "initialize cutter" on K40, it says "Laser cutter not found" but everything is connected, any idea???
Look at the K40 Whisperer driver install instruction page and follow the uninstall instructions. Then try to reinstall the driver. It may help to let windows install the default driver before installing the driver for K40 Whisperer.
Well, I uninstalled K40 and installed it again, I connected the machine and it made the sound, but i pressed "Initialize Cutter" and it said in the bottom in red "USB ERROR: Laser USB Device Not Found", sooo, I have Windows 10, do i have to install a specific version?
Did you go to the driver uninstall instructions and uninstall the driver or did you just uninstall K40 Whisperer?
Make sure you are using the installer for the latest version of K40 Whisperer (currently 0.29).
I just uninstalled K40 whisperer, so i have to go to the driver uninstall instructions, uninstall it, and install it back again?
This is genius!
Why couldn’t you just select the red key at the bottom of the screen?
You can do that as long as you select the pure red key. Not one of the other colors that look redish.
Whisperer does not recognise the blue for engraving
Brille Kaufen , alles unscharf