I try to keep my posts as simple as possible so anyone with any amount of experience with the software can follow the code and use it. In my last post I made an stl "cutter" that can be used to cut large files into sections but I didn't go into much detail on the Inkscape part of it so here is some more detail.
Inkscape has some excellent tools and one of them is Path>Division,with this option you can draw a line with the bezier tool, select the line and while holding down shift select an object under it then go to Path>Division and it will divide the object.
For example I made a square larger than the object I want to cut and then drew a line across it:
Here you can see the black line I drew right in the middle:
Then make sure you are in the "selection" mode by selecting the selector tool, click on the line and then hold down shift and select the square:
Then go to Path>Division and the square will be cut into two sections:
I moved the section so I could see it, but a better option would be to change the color and move it to another layer. When you move the section and there is a gap, then import it into OpenSCAD the file will cut and there will be a gap, so it's best to keep the cut "object" in place.
I drew another line in the other direction and cut the square into 4 parts, changed the color of each part and moved each section to it's own layer so I could handle them individually in OpenSCAD.
Next I saved the "Inkscape SVG" file, then specified the path for it and the stl file in my OpenSCAD file and now I have four cleanly cut sections:
Being able to use layers with svg is a powerful tool and makes this combination easy to customize.
Here is a squiggly line that I used in the same way:
Inkscape and OpensSCAD along with countless other open source software projects are amazing and powerful tools that are completely free, and the creators deserve recognition for their hard work and dedication, you guys do a great job.
