Inkscape Introduction

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
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I've been promising for a while now to do one but I was not sure how best to do it. I really don't have the in-depth knowledge of either the program or English language to do a detailed step by step tutorial, hence introduction in the thread title. That being said, for what we are doing here, that is concept 2D line drawings, you don't really need that much in-depth knowledge of the program. I personally use maybe a dozen of the features available. You might want to do more of course and I would be really glad if this simple introduction led to that. But for me, after the concept drawing, most of the designing happens in the shop.

Let's start. First here is a shot of the interface with the 3 most used tools:

A: Draw Bezier curves and straight lines (Shift+F6)
B: Edit paths by nodes (F2)
C: Select and transform objects (F1)

Don't be deceived, this is enough to get you started drawing knives or anything else your creative mind can come up with.



Now clicking on the Draw Bezier Tool (A) will let you create a path by laying nodes using the left mouse button. If you complete the path by clicking on the first node you placed, it will automatically convert to a path. If for some reason you don't want to complete the path, hitting enter anytime will also convert to a path.

Now clicking on the Edit paths Tool (B) and then on your newly created path. You will see the different nodes forming the path and now clicking with the left mouse button on a segment and holding it down will let you modify this particular segment. You can do the same by clicking on the handles connected to the nodes instead of the path. Both will transform the path in different ways. Like I said, there is no way I can explain how this works and there is really no need as you'll easily get the hang of it with a little practice.



You can also add other nodes by double-clicking anywhere on the path. There are tools to do this and all other sorts of node manipulations on the upper toolbar, like splitting the path between 2 nodes for example. But you don't need those to get started.



Now, using the File/Import menu you can import an image into your drawing. Like we did previously, you use the Draw Bezier Tool (A) to create a path around your object by placing nodes at different points around the perimeter. You then use the Edit paths Tool (B) to modify the path so that it conforms to the shape of the image. When you are done you simply delete your image and Voila! A nice line drawing you can now work off of.



One last tool is the Select and transform objects Tool (C). Click on it and then somewhere on your drawing. You will see a box around your drawing with arrows. By dragging these arrows you can modify the shape of the whole drawing. If you hold down the CTRL key while dragging an arrow, you will change the size of the drawing but keep the ratio. Very useful to size your drawing without distorting it. Clicking a second with one the drawing will change the arrows around the perimeter and these are now use to rotate your drawing.



And that's pretty much it. Save, print and bring your drawing into the shop to start building that awesome knife you envisioned.

Here is the concept drawing I did for the Inquisitor, using the simple steps I just explained.



And the final resulting knife. Easy peasy! ;)

orig.jpg


So start drawing and don't be afraid to push the boundaries. Inkscape will let you do that easily and I find that it is by pushing those boundaries that you stumble onto design ideas you might not have thought of otherwise.

I hope that this introduction does make a little bit of sense but if it doesn't, feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to help.

Thanks for watching.
 
Well, sort of amazing to me who is so backward in even basic computer workings. On the other hand I do believe that those who can benefit by any items to help them advance in the making of knives should use all available assets they can become comfortable with.
"It's not what you use or how you get there but how good it is when you have it completed."
I believe this will be a boost to many, Pat, who are looking for aid to draw up knives. And when they see the Inquisitor came out of that program, there may be many more large fine knives soon being started. Great stuff, Pat. Frank
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Thank you very much Pat for this tutorial! It's great to see the beautiful Inquisitor in this introduction...lots of inspiration with that knife! ;)
 
Thanks for that Patrice! I had no idea how to use Inkscape. I've been using Google Sketchup, which works ok, but you can't import an image, and it has it's limits.
 
Nice knives. Last night I installed an extension for converting your Inkscape paths to gcode for CNC milling called Gcodetools. I tried using Cadstd and AceConverter for a free toolchain to make some blade guards, but the bezier curves don't translate well. Gcodetools is supposed to fix that, and not require two separate tools. I'll post a note when I actually mill a part.
 
There is a program out there called---The Knife Design toolkit. It works with Inscape...but I'm not sure how. Computer dummy here :).
 
I am glad you guys like it.

Frank, if we lived closer I'd have you pump out knife designs with this in no time. Of course I'd say you did ok without it. ;)

Robert, since it is because of you that I got off my lazy butt and did this I thought it only fitting to use the Inquisitor as an example. ;)

James, I don't have the need for CNC gcode for now but it is good to know that there is an extension for that if I ever do. Looking forward to your results.

As far as the knife tool design kit, I never heard of it. I looked a bit and it looks like pre-made blade designs and textures/parts. If you want to modify them you'll need the tools I've describe here so I would advise to start learning them before you go spending money (even if it is not much) on basically a set of pre-made blade drawings and textures.
 
I really like Inkscape. Learning to use it is a good intro for the more advanced design programs, as you use things like editing and moving nodes, creating paths, converting objects to path, and the like. It's very easy to use, as Pat says, once you learn the basics for line drawing. It's a very powerful drawing program with many tools that I don't know how to use- but messing with them can be fun. One of my favorite things to do is to create a knife drawing for a customer, then take the block of wood he wants from Alpha or Arizona Ironwood, etc., and import the picture of that specific wood block as a custom fill for the handle- the same thing can be done for blades, importing pictures of specific damascus patterns for mockup design fills.

Here are a couple of random drawings of mine. A knife and a wrought iron/copper sign for my cafe...

Sam%2520Bowie%25202a.jpg


Cafe%2520Lune%2520sign.jpg
 
Glad you like it TinMan. Of course I am no wizard but I'd like to be. Wizards are cool! :cool: ;)

Salem, thanks for the pattern import suggestion, I'll have to give that one a try. Like you said, lots of features to explore so if any of you guys want to post other ones you use, feel free to add them on here.
 
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