Inkscape lasercut living hinge extension

Link to releases

This is an extension for Inkscape to render Living Hinges.

Living hinges are patterns that can be laser cut into materials such as wood and acrylic, allowing them to be bent into surprisingly tight radii.

This extension is primarily built for Inkscape 1.0 and above, but there is also a 0.92+ release.

Installation

For details see the wiki.

Inkscape 1.0+

Download the release archive and extract it such that all of the files are contained in a sub-folder of your extensions folder.

Your extensions folder can be found at Edit->Preferences->System->User Extensions

On Linux, this is usually:

~/.config/inkscape/extensions

On windows it's usually:

c:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\inkscape\extensions

Inkscape 0.92

Download the 0.92 release archive, and extract the files living_hinge.inx and living_hinge.py into your extensions folder (see above for the location). Do not put them in a subfolder. The 0.92 release is functionally identical, however the extension dialog does not display some elements such as sliders and images.

Usage

The extension is found in Extensions->Render->Living Hinge...

Input the width and height of the desired pattern and then apply (or live preview).
If an object is currently selected, the extension will fill the object's bounding box instead of using the size inputs.

Choose the type of pattern you'd like by selecting its tab. Adjust the parameters as needed. Play with the sliders in Live Preview mode to find the optimal values and click Apply to use it.

The extension will round some of the parameters up or down in order to fill the desired area evenly.

To get a better bounding box by the edge, you can draw a bounding path around the desired area afterwards, then select Path->Intersection to limit the pattern to exactly that path.

Selecting Draw Swatch Card will render a complete sample swatch ready for cutting.

Patterns

The currently supported patterns are:

Straight lattice:

Diamond lattice:

Cross lattice:

Wavy Lattice:

Contributions

Contributions are welcome, such as for more or improved patterns, etc.

Licence and contact

Author: Ben Buxton ([email protected]) Licence: GPLv3