Easy Workflow Tutorial with Affinity Designer and Sheetcam

First video is up.

This is a tutorial on how to set up Affinity Designer and Sheetcam to run the Langmuir Systems Crossfire Pro table. From being active on the forums I’ve seen a lot of workflow questions, and I think anyone can learn this process, and be able to make their own designs without having to rely on pre prepped files and stencil fonts.

Why Affinity? One time purchase, runs smooth without needing a beefy computer, exports as svg straight to Sheetcam for headache free designing.

Why Sheetcam? One time purchase, easy to use with reliable results.

For as much as we spent on our tables, cutters, and air, we can’t cut corners on how we program the machine. Subscription based software stinks. Most free software leaves things to be desired.

The only part I forgot to cover was putting the Sheetcam license into its proper location to remove the restriction on the lines of code exported.

Feedback is welcome, I hope to build on this in the future.

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EXCELLENT! Great intro to Affinity! SheetCam was ok, but I’ll let you know directly.
Arclight Dynamics does a good job on SheetCam so maybe focus on Affinity AND
KEEP THEM COMING!!!
:beers::clap::clap::clap:

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Nice job on making a simple part to start. This seems like a decent program especially for someone that has no experience in making parts.
For the people that have experience or have been using a different program for a while its a hard jump to forget what you already know and start using another program whether it be affinity or any other one.

Yep. This is geared for the people who are new to this game and struggling to learn the fusion workflow and can’t find a CAD they like for a price they can stomach.

I have a second video planned, but I want to try something before or after it. My social media experience is primarily based on improv… I run the account for my work at my day job, and I’ve done videos with quick edits and high energy stuff, but It’s time consuming to edit and put together. I like doing live stuff more.

So, if anyone has a file or a design they have been working on or needs tweaked, send it to me so I can work on it live, or at least on a real time video. No charge…

How difficult of a file are you looking for?

Hit me with your best shot. If it’s absolutely insane, I may want to charge you. Lol. Depending on what it is, the end result may be based on artistic interpretation.

Its not too crazy I’ve just had it for 6 or 8 months its one of those “buddy” type jobs that I never find time for.
macneil-crest

Sweet, that’s an easy one. Especially already being an svg.

Yeah Its not to bad I did a little work with it when I first got it. He just sent me jpeg originally.
I did have it basically done once that I intended on cutting out in 3 layers but computer crashed and lost 90% of the work I did and its been sitting there ever since lol.

Did you bitmap trace it in Inkscape to get it to where it is now?

I assume that’s what I did cause that’s what I normally do with those files but I can’t really remember.
I have the original pic on here somewhere too
vel%20mori

This is awesome, I’ve wondered about this. I’m still waiting on my table to get here. I’m a graphic designer by trade and wondered about the svg export working with the system. Thanks for the good info.

This seems great, and very helpful. I have had my table for a couple months and haven’t had the bandwidth to start with it because learning new software seems implausible at this moment. I will be watching your vid on the next free evening I have!!

Thanks!

Thanks! The second video should be up in a day or so. Then I’m going to be just working on files people send me and showing the process.

When I realized I didn’t need to transition to a full cad I was very happy. Granted I’m not doing anything 3d or to aerospace spec, but the holes are the right size and the parts fit together so I’m satisfied.

Svg works great. I think @TomWS describes dxf as an older format. I wish svg were the industry standard. To get my designs into a dxf that the local laser shop can cut takes two additional programs. So that’s definitely the downside if you need dxf, but I rarely do.

Your tutorial is effective to get going! I like the Affinity Designer over the FreeCAD for ease of use as a first time user of a CAD tool.

Don’t anticipate having to use DXF format, but if I did, why not just send the SVG to FreeCAD and convert to DXF?

That’s something that @TomWS helped me figure out. There is something that happens when you export, and try to just save as a new file type.

He figured out that to get a perfect dxf version of an svg that I create in Affinity, you have to do the following. He has a bit more of an understanding of some of the coding behind the files and how different programs interpret things. The only use I have for dxf is for farming out bigger jobs to a local laser cutter.

“I opened inkscape (don’t launch inkscape by clicking on your svg) and set Display Units to in, selected page size to A1, Portrait, but then modified units to “in”.
Then go to File->Import->SVG and import your 115cooktop.svg file. Resposition the imported object so you can confirm that it is the correct size (it should be).
Then save the file as 115cooktop2.svg. Close Inkscape. If you import 115cooktop2.svg into SheetCam (make sure your scaling is 1.0) you will see that your cooktop is the correct size.

So, then, to make a proper DXF out of it I used QCad. I started QCad, made sure my application units were in inches and imperial measure, opened 115cooktop2.svg and then saved it as 115cooktop2.dxf using R32 [2018] DXF Drawing [Teigha] *.dxf format. Voila! If you open that dxf with SheetCam (Scaling should be Inch), it, too, will be the correct size.”

Second video is up. Future videos are going to be a lot of fun. I think I’ve figured out how to do this and keep it interesting, maybe even entertaining. I just felt like there needed to be some sort of starting point for all the tools and setup that I’ll be using. I’ve done a lot of videos and live streams as part of my day job, so I’d even like to venture into a live stream file assistance type thing as well. I just have to channel the mojo I have for my day job into this.

I’m going to tackle @Fortifyfabworks file this week, and also show something else I’m working on.

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Do you have a process that works? I haven’t found one yet that was as reliable as the SVG->QCad->DXF route.

Good job, Jon! You had me worried on that opening! I thought, Oh No! Not one of those! (fully expecting the annoying in your face music to come on suddenly)

Glad you just let it flow :slightly_smiling_face: