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Worthless Dice by blarbles

I’ve recently learned a few tricks with Inkscape to help me better use my Unicorn. ¹  Since then I’ve discovered that Inkscape can be used to import, edit, and export to DXF files. ²  This is especially relevant given my recent OpenSCAD tutorial that covered converting DXF paths to 3D solids.

Inkscape comes with a DXF exporting function, but it doesn’t seem to work well with OpenSCAD.  I believe the reason for this is that Inkscape exports DXF files in DXF R13 format which uses certain features that are not supported by OpenSCAD.  There are several ways to work around this:

• Use an earlier version of Inkscape. Around about Inkscape version 0.46 or so, it would export DXF files in R12 format – which OpenSCAD can understand.
• Break all curves into lines. Nudel posted his method for exporting to DXF files using any version of Inkscape. ³  Basically he suggests breaking all curves into their component lines.
• Use a different plugin. I have found using the “Better DXF Output” plugin would save my Inkscape drawings as DXF R12 files, which OpenSCAD could interpret.

Once you’ve got your DXF file, don’t forget to check out the OpenSCAD tutorial on extruding 2D objects.

1. Inkscape is a free open source vector drawing program. [↩]
2. Photo courtesy of blarbles’ OpenSCAD tutorial homework! [↩]
3. I’ve updated my OpenSCAD tutorial to link to this post as well [↩]