Wrong plate size, no idea why [Probably solved]

[illya_]

Hi everyone,

been lurking for quite a while and figured I'll start contributing by creating a custom keyboard and then post images, source-files and such...

However while prototyping my cardboard cutout somehow got the wrong size, and I have no idea why.

Hence this sadly much less glorious first entry thread.

Edit: you can see the issues in images 20170910_225931, 20170910_225925 and 20170910_225805 below. The holes are to big, so the switch won't stick.


The steps:

01 - The keyboard-layout-editor.com layout

More

[{c:"#d40000",a:7,f:5},"",{x:0.25,c:"#cccccc",f:4},"F1","F2","F3","F4",{x:0.25,c:"#bbbbbb"},"F5"],
[{y:0.25,f:6},"",{c:"#cccccc"},"1","2","3","4","5","6"],
[{c:"#bbbbbb",f:3,w:1.5},"",{c:"#cccccc",f:6},"Q","W","E","R","T"],
[{c:"#bbbbbb",f:3,w:1.25},"",{x:0.5,c:"#e6c5c5",f:6},"A",{c:"#cccccc"},"S","D",{c:"#e6c5c5"},"F",{c:"#cccccc"},"G"],
[{c:"#bbbbbb",f:3,w:1.25},"",{c:"#cccccc",f:6},"<","Z","X","C","V","B"],
[{c:"#bbbbbb",w:1.25},"",{w:1.25},"",{f:3,w:1.25},"",{x:0.75,c:"#cccccc",f:6,w:2.75},""]

02 - builder.swillkb.com
a) Settings:
  Switch type MX {_t:1}
  Stabilizer type: Cherry Only {_s:2}
  Rest of the settings left untouched.
b) This is my untouched output svg.
c) And this is after I manually edited the side and added some comments.


03 - I then send the edited svg-file (02c) to cotter.se
a) these are the settings I picked: image1, image2

04 - This is the cutout I got, for some reason the holes (and everything?) is a tad to large....
a) images: image1, image2, image3, image4, image5, image6 and image7.



so... any idea where I screwed up?


05 - thoughts:
a) Maybe I shouldnt have picked svg as the output from builder.swillkb, because it lacks length description(?)(as in inches/mm)
b) Maybe cotter.se doesnt support svg-files that well... or not svg files that lacks certain data?
c) (While it doesnt seem like I changed anything relevant) maybe editing the svg-files created the issue?
d) a sorcerer cursed my package?


I'll make sure to create a proper thread once the keyboard is finished.

/illya_

 untouched_svg.svg edited_svg.svg

[pomk]

Are the outside dimensions also larger, or maybe a bit smaller? If they are smaller you should adjust kerf. If the outside dimensions are larger, it is a scaling issue with the laser cut service.

[illya_]

Are the outside dimensions also larger, or maybe a bit smaller? If they are smaller you should adjust kerf. If the outside dimensions are larger, it is a scaling issue with the laser cut service.

Thank you for your answer.
I'm actually not sure what dimensions I 'should' get. I hate to ask, but do you have a helpful link?

However I think we can rule out that it is the kerf. The parts cut away are bigger than 14mm (took an image of a removed part and attached it to this post).

The strange thing is that both keyboard-layout-editor.com and builder.swillkb.com seems to be used rather often, so there 'shouldnt' be a problem with them...

but since the company I tried have been around for a while I am also hesitant to assume they screwed something up...

so my first guess was that I picked some strange settings and/or file type, which resulted in the issue...

[Findecanor]

Weird that in the small screenshot, the service specified the size as  149 mm × 128 mm when the size of the SVG image is 148.115 mm × 129.065 mm. That's rounding incorrectly!
In the big screenshot, the bounding box of the drawing is correct, however.

Hmm.. I am not sure but I intepret the SVG spec that if there is no unit specifier for a point, then that would default to "px", which is "pixels", and which could be just about anything.
I loaded it up in Inkscape, however and it also used correct millimetres like the preview on the site, though..

Weird. If this gets resolved I might be interested in using this service myself. There is a laser-cutter at the local makerspace and they require you to take a course in its operation before you are allowed to use it ... but in practice they never schedule any friggin courses for me to take.

[illya_]

Weird that the service specified the size as  149 mm × 128 mm when the size of the SVG image is 148.115 mm × 129.065 mm. That's rounding incorrectly!

Anyway, I see that the points in the file lack any unit specifier. If I interpret the SVG spec correctly, that would default to "px" = pixels, which in this case could be just about anything that the program on the server side uses.
I loaded it up in Inkscape, however and it reported millimetres..

Thanks for the answer. 

After thinking on your input, them interpreting the px as something other than millimeters seems like the most likely cause.

Would you suggest another file type as more reliable in this? (I could install inscape load up my edited svg and then output as another filetype.)

[Findecanor]

I'm sorry, I edited my post above while you were quoting me.

I read a warning yesterday about Inkscape. There is a new version out there that has a bug that makes it corrupt files that it loads... I'll ask about which version it was. I used the current packaged version in Ubuntu Mate myself.

[0100010]

Would try exporting from swill as DXF.

[illya_]

@Findecanor - I'll avoid inkscape then, and try to only use the ordinary tools.

@0100010 - I'll try that then

Thanks both of ya.