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Software for the AxiDraw drawing machine

4xiDraw

The 4xiDraw Extensions for Inkscape - Software to drive the 4xiDraw drawing machine.

More about 4xiDraw: https://www.instructables.com/id/4xiDraw/


Install as you would any other Inkscape extension.

I use the following GRBL setup:

$100=100.000
$101=100.000
$110=5000.000
$111=5000.000
$120=1000.000
$121=1000.000
$130=200.000
$131=200.000
$132=200.000
$N0=M3S90

Note: If you change the physical dimension from the 4xiDraw default, be sure to edit fourxidraw_conf.py and change the values of PageWidthIn and PageHeightIn accordingly.


Dependencies

The main extension "4xiDraw/4xiDraw Control..." should work directly with Inkscape 1.0.1, but Inkscape 0.9.x will require some python modules and and Inkscape extensions to be installed, as set out below.

Note that the "4xiDraw/Hatch Fill..." extension has not yet been upgraded to work with Inkscape 1.0.1/Python3.

Python Modules

  • lxml
  • Pyserial. (Note that an older version, 2.7, must be used on Windows.)

Inkscape Extensions

To install a new extension, download and unpack the archive file. Copy the files into the directory listed at Edit > Preferences > System: User extensions. Be sure to copy the *.py, *.pyc and *.inx files from inkscape driver directly to this folder. After a restart of Inkscape, the new extension will be available.

  1. plotink helper routines for Inkscape extensions.
  2. eggbot_hatch.py from the EggBot extensions for Inkscape.

Known issues:

  • There is apparently a rounding error somewhere, so the start and end of a drawing does not always line up.
  • The speed is lower than it should be.

No module named lxml

Try to install the python2 version of the module to resolve this issue. See this issue for more detailed information.

No module named serial

Again, make sure to install the python2 version.


This is based on the AxiDraw inkscape plugin, https://github.com/evil-mad/AxiDraw/