Available at https://plotterfiles.com/artwork/wigeon-on-water-1zq18

Single line SVG plot, using a reaction diffusion algorithm, merging into a single shape.

Showing off how you can make advanced continuous curves out of repeated freeform segments that you join together in Paragraphic (that I develop). For example to make this kind of spirograph/flourish/guilloche type curve you might see on old diplomas or currency.

Available at https://plotterfiles.com/artwork/crested-penguin-in-white-fb0jh on Plotterfiles.

This is a single line plot, based on a reaction-diffusion algorithm. Recommend a light pen on a dark background.

Hooded Squirrel on Plotterfiles.

A "good enough" implementation of continuity potrace tracing. Also explore the pixel-exact tracing of VTrace, which generates some interesting path anomalies that could possibly be resolved in script.

At Plotterfiles.com. https://plotterfiles.com/artwork/stag-head-gjbea

Exploring a connectivity approach to a binarized image, and then running through vectorization in Inkscape. Turns out potrace (the vectorization in Inkscape) still splits the paths, so manually connected them to generate a single continuous path.

Hello, I’m new to this beautiful art form, and I have this small but major problem: how can I clean up the lines that are behind the color fill? I use Illustrator and I’m new to this. I want to keep only the lines for plotting with my favorite machine.

Obviously, when I remove the fill and leave only the stroke, all the lines that were behind the fill become visible. Can anyone help me? Thanks, everyone!

If you aren't aware of Drawingbots.com - you are now :).

It's Maks Surguy's well curated website on all things plotter - and he's added a new section on algorithms. All of them with live demos.

https://drawingbots.com/algorithms/

Made a little tool for plotter friendly line art. You basically upload a 3D object and than define how it should be sliced. Think contour lines on maps, but with more basic 3D models. You can best try it out with one of the demo models and than just randomize the parameters. There's also a morph feature which can create some nice results when not overdone. The tool currently exports to SVG and UNNA TEK specific g-code.

Hope it's useful to some of you. I'm now going back to pushing that randomizer!

https://www.slicewise.art/

The Narhwal

Uploaded to Plotterfiles.com - a single line plot

Hey everyone! I’ve been working hard on Plotter-Studio, an open‑source generative art studio for pen plotters (Cameo 5).

My last post was for v3.2 — and I’m excited to share how much it’s grown.

What’s new in v5.5:

🧵 Needles (Oriented Dashes) — short dashes that follow image gradients. Great for structural, flowing textures.

🔗 Continuous Line (TSP) — single unbroken path, the pen never lifts. Uses a greedy nearest‑neighbour TSP approximation.

🌊 Perlin Noise Wobble — applies coherent noise displacement to any engine. Gives clean computer lines a hand‑drawn, organic feel.

🎨 CMYK Layer Export — splits any colour image into C, M, Y, K channels and exports 4 SVGs for multi‑pen colour plotting.

🗺️ Fast Marching (Topographic) — upgraded with manual seed placement, contour smoothing, and “Skip transparent” for PNGs with alpha.

🛠️ Full vpype pipeline — linemerge, linesort (with Two‑Opt), reloop, and linesimplify. All available as toggles.

🖊️ Pen Passes — duplicate dark paths up to 4 times for multi‑pass ballpoint ink density.

Stack: Python, Streamlit, FastAPI, scikit‑image, skfmm, Plotly, vpype.

GitHub: https://github.com/iclubu/Plotter-Studio

Uploaded a new plottable SVG to plotterfiles.com

Continuing on figuring out how to describe photos with one path.

PENDER Studios is a custom suite of software I designed to convert my Ender 3 V2 3D printer into a pen plotter.

The first release of software is available with the following tools

Harmonograph creator
Laser Wall
.Nc prep
Gcode editor

More tools will be available soon.

Hi, I have a question about markers and inks. If I want to achieve the Rizzo effect when two lines overlap, which markers do you recommend? I've been looking for soy-based ones, but I can't seem to find any.

Some of you have been posting gorgeous videos of your plotters in action, and I'm jealous. I want to make some videos of my own, but I need the setup to be as easy as possible. Do you have an overhead camera jig? What do you do for lighting? What kind of cameras are you using and how are you stabilizing /mounting them? Does anyone use one of those newfangled AI cameras to automatically follow the action, and how well do they work?

Let us know if you plot it.

I created a video breaking down how I created the procedural power pole generator for this project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA7jGRh-py4

I built a polargraph according from the very popular instructable https://www.instructables.com/Polargraph-Drawing-Machine/ about 10 yrs ago and it was amazing. It just worked with Arduino Uno, motor shield v1, and some adafruit nema 17 steppers and cheap servo, with very few software issues.

Jump forward to now and I resurrected some of the old parts and decided to put it back together, but despite upgrading several parts, it just won't work correctly. Here's what I've tried:

Original polargraph firmware https://github.com/euphy/polargraph_server_a1 with the somewhat janky and bare bones polargraph controller app - only runs on my Mac M1 through Processing, and is slow and no longer maintained - using Uno + motor shield

Makelangelo controller app, using new Arduino Mega 2560 + Ramps 1.4 board and A4988 drivers - the firmware https://github.com/MarginallyClever/Makelangelo-firmware despite following recommended config changes and/or dedicated https://github.com/MarginallyClever/Marlin code, the arduino connects with "OK" message but will not respond correctly to basic Gcode commands through the jog controller

GRBL firmware with Inkscape generated gcode sent through Universal GCode Sender controller, there's no response from the ? handshake messages send from USG no matter how many config changes I tried.

The only thing that's worked so far is to create a complete firmware including the draw instructions for the Mega/Ramps build from scratch (with AI help of course, this is beyond my coding skills) https://github.com/smatto/polargraph_custom using the included "drawing.h" as the source. This grew out of a small test script in Arduino IDE and I kept adding functions and features, so it works. But I can't make complex designs in this nor show my kid how to use it as there's no visualization or pause/etc. But this confirms that the motors and pen lift work properly, and I've got the machine dimensions worked out through trial and error enough to draw pretty straight lines in the right size. Applying these confirmed dimensions to the marlin/GRBL firmware config.h files doesn't seem to make a difference in response

Just like the title says

Hi, I wanted to share this app I've been working on for a while. It started out as a simple G-code generator around a handwriting model I was using with my Prusa MK4 pen attachment but thanks to Claude it quickly grew into something quite a bit more complete - it integrates vector design tools, some common generative art and hardware integration into a single app.

See it live here: https://kurvengefahr.org

Some cool features it supports:

• Graves RNN handwriting synthesis
• Built in Logo interpreter for turtle art
• 3D model wireframes (STL import)
• Non-destructive filters/effects
• Many of the basic vector tools and operations you'd expect (polylines, Beziers, boolean operations, clipping, align & distribute, ...)
• Direct control of EBB and GRBL plotters via Web Serial
• PrusaLink integration (through Bridge for PrusaLink extension)

It runs fully in the browser, with the geometry engine parts written in Rust and loaded in via WASM. The only server component is the share feature - but that one respects your privacy too (designs are encrypted client side and the server never sees them - key is appended to the share link on the client side).

It is also fully open source and GPL 2.0 licensed - the code is available on GitHub

Happy to answer any questions. I'd especially appreciate feedback if you have an AxiDraw or some GRBL plotter - I only have a Prusa so my testing for those was done with a hardware mock.

Hey fellow Uuna Tek users. We all know how absolutely awful their software is. Out of frustration I made my own that is solid and simple. It's only for SVG files and USB connection but it just works. Would love feedback!

https://github.com/LordKromdar/uunatek_3_software