HELPING in inkscape with scans or found patterns

HERE is another lesson I thought I would share with you
(I have roughly made all pictures for use in this lesson
needed somethings quick and did not want to use copyrighted stuff)

LETS BEGIN
This is good for if you have patterns you want to
turn into cut patterns that you have scanned or found on net
OK pretend this is a pattern i have scanned
and now want to turn it from a jpeg gif pdf or other
if i import it into inkscape and then bitmap trace for clean up

Sometimes you will find just a simple design such as i have here
has soo many nodes it is far to hard to clean up and check that everthing
is connected for cutting

This one has 176 nodes
(ok i admit i added them to show this example but it does happen)

So what you do instead of bitmap trace it
just import picture Then go down the
bottom of window and LOCK the little padlock (clicking on it )

Now go up to layer and add layer

And name it I call mine "mine"

Now on that MIME layer you get the BEZIER tool

Start at one point of the design and click (ONLY ONCE)
then across to the other side and click (ONLY ONCE)

Continue going all way round the picture
till you get back to where you started THEN CLICK TWICE

Then up to paths and OBJECT TO PATH

So I can see this better while it is selected i then change the colour
of the black lines to another colour different to the one on the
first layer (RED for this one)
I just drag a colour and drop onto stroke

And your object will turn red
As you can see it is not the shape that is on the
locked layer but here is what you do now

Go to EDIT PATHS BY NODES

Then all you do is grab the lines and move them into shapes between the
nodes it is easy moving lines between nodes you just shape it by move your
curser along the line

Continue with the next line and so on

Till you get all the way around your picture

When you are happy with that then you LOCK your MINE layer

And then you go back to layer 1 where you original picture is

And UNLOCK it

Now up the Layer and Delete current layer

That layer will go and you will be left only with the MINE layer

WITH 11 nodes instead of 176
Now you can neaten it up or just save and cut

THE END OF THAT PART

Now if you had pattern in which you wanted to do
And it was like for stitching instead of going into a
paint program and removing all the stitch lines and cleaning up
Here is what you do

LETS BEGIN
I hand drew this and it is soo not straight but that was good i left it as
it was an extra lesson for you

Ok it is scanned and you import it into your inkscape

Firstly let me show you what it looks like
if you bitmap trace

A mess

Easy fixed lock that layer and add layer to work on
Get a circle to match the holes you want it to cut

Place on one then duplicate and place on next and all the way around

Delete the layer one as shown in first part of the lesson
and you have your pattern READY TO CUT
(well if it was a store brought one this one is so not straight BUT
easy fixed)

END OF THAT LESSON PART

Quick lesson
FIXING THE PATTERN
LETS BEGIN
Highlight the first set of circles

Go ALIGN AND DISTRIBUTE OPJECTS button and click on it

and click ALIGN horizontal
do this for top and bottom rows of circles

Then highlight the side row of circles

and click on align vertical

Now they are perfectly in straight

Though the two in the middle i am not happy with so i
can show you how to fix that Highlight top row and click
make horizontal gaps between even

And now they will all be even space
do the same for bottom row of circles

You can even do the side ones by
highlighting them and click on
make vertical gaps between even

NOW they stitching pattern is all even ready for cutting
This was to show you that you can make your own things
easy and clean them up soo easy

END OF THIS PART

NOW what i have found is a lot of patterns
found on the net that are made using
pdf when you import them and
break them apart or ungroup (which ever is needed)
That some break apart in to so many pieces that the lines are all
in millions of pieces around the piece you want to convert
SO this is another lesson to follow on with the last three parts
LETS BEGIN
You have imported the pdf file so you can check and convert
to .svg for cutting
well first thing is recommended is to check
that the things will cut right and how you do this is to
take away the "score lines" and then to check that all
outside edges are all in one piece

Easy to check I ungrouped and wow it was alll in lots of
pieces (which would mean conecting this at every NODE
so as it cuts right (this one being little is fine but when you are
making things like i have been doing over the past week example like the
robot with 100's of nodes to join and make sure they are all joined ))

So what i do is i turned this to a
red outline colour and LOCKED this layer
and got a new layer called it MINE

Grab the bezier tool and go around the object
where there are any slits i go up them and back down them

Don't do the score lines

Lock the mine layer go back to first unlock and delete layer
and you are left with you pattern

So simple quick and easy try it
ready for cutting

THE END OF THIS PART

QUICK SHOW of what you would have to do if you did not want
to do the above

Delete all score lines
Combine all 14 remaining pieces
select all parts that are not connected

One this picture it is where i have circled
(but i have seen worse)

Double checking that they are all joined
(Take 3 times a long as the other for this small picture)

THE END
Hope this has helped you with some of the many questions on how too's i have
had.