Press-Fit Construction
Machine: Epilog LASER Cutter
Material: 4mm-thick Cardboard
Design Software: Inkscape, FAB Module
I fabbed press-fit kits for a lion fish and octopus consisting of 2 and 9 pieces, respectively. Each part was drawn using Inkscape within 2.5x1.5 ft SVG files (Above). I exported the files as PNG and used the fab module to convert them into PATH and EPI format. When I let the Epilog run with the top hood open so I could confirm appropriate cardboard positioning with a dry run, I noticed the laser head hitting almost every boundary of its stage. The fab module confirmed the imported PNG dimensions were not as advertised by Inkscape.
After scaling my PNG in the fab module, reconverting, and watching my next dry run, I noticed the laser head seemingly retracing its path. I opened the PNG of the path file and saw the image above.
John suggested surrounding all my parts with a black bounding box as shown above. After adding this box with Inkscape and scaling again with the fab module, I checked my new path, which was finally valid, and cut the sea creatures parts shown assembled on top.