Evil Mad Scientist AxiDraw V3 User Manual Download Page 2

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0. Preliminaries

0.1 Welcome

Welcome to AxiDraw!

This is the user guide for the AxiDraw V3 family of personal writing and drawing

machines. This guide is here to help you get started. There is a lot here–covering

how you set up and use the machine, and pointing you towards additional re-

sources for the future.

This guide covers operation of the following AxiDraw models:

• AxiDraw V3

• AxiDraw V3 XLX

• AxiDraw V3/A3

• AxiDraw SE/A3

0.2 This guide is a work in progress!

This guide is a continuing work in progress, and we want to suggest you to check

back occasionally for the latest version of this manual, and to check that you have

the latest version of the software.

Recent changes to this guide include updates to the current software version,

which is v1.7.8, additions to the sections about text, and about vectorizing images.

You can download the latest version of this at

http://axidraw.com/guide

Look at the front cover of the guide to find the date and version number of the

guide that you are looking at.

Summary of Contents for AxiDraw V3

Page 1: ...User Guide Personal Writing and Drawing Machine AxiDraw V3 AxiDraw Version 3 5 Guide Revision 3 7 August 14 2018 ...

Page 2: ...Draw V3 A3 AxiDraw SE A3 0 2 This guide is a work in progress This guide is a continuing work in progress and we want to suggest you to check back occasionally for the latest version of this manual and to check that you have the latest version of the software Recent changes to this guide include updates to the current software version which is v1 7 8 additions to the sections about text and about ...

Page 3: ...Printing on large workpieces 17 6 2 Workholding with the Clip Easel 17 6 3 Using multiple Clip Easels 18 6 4 Moving beyond the Clip Easel 19 7 Connecting Power and USB 19 8 Pens and Getting Ready for Printing 20 8 1 Pen choices 20 8 2 Setting the pen angle 20 8 3 Inserting a pen 21 8 4 Pen up and pen down positions 22 8 5 Positioning your paper 24 8 6 Summary 26 9 Plotting with the AxiDraw 26 9 1 ...

Page 4: ... Hershey Text 49 10 7 Capturing signatures and handwriting 51 10 8 Aside Tracing of scanned handwriting 51 10 9 Filling text and shapes 52 10 10 Vectorizing images 54 11 Maintenance and troubleshooting 56 11 1 No lubrication required 56 11 2 Cleaning 56 11 3 Storage 56 11 4 Belt tension 56 11 5 The wrenches 56 11 6 Wiring 56 11 7 The pen lift servo motor 57 11 8 Loss of position 57 11 8 Service re...

Page 5: ...ger than the ma chine itself The AxiDraw is an extremely versatile machine designed to serve a wide variety of everyday and specialized drawing and writing needs You can use it for almost any task that might normally be carried out with a hand held pen It allows you to use your computer to produce writing that appears to be hand made complete with the unmistakable appearance of using a real pen as...

Page 6: ...a full page of A4 or US Letter paper Its geometry was changed to use a single drive belt with two larger stepper motors stationary on the base Its major components would now be made of aluminum machined or stamped and folded and the new pen holder could be mounted vertically or at 45 to the paper AxiDraw V3 The third generation AxiDraw V3 is a full redesign of the machine for higher perfor mance W...

Page 7: ...only Normally not needed But just in case a rubber foot gets bumped off of the base during shipping these are spares 7 Not shown Rubber bands These can be used to add a little extra pen force if needed See the last chapter AxiDraw Tips and Tricks 8 Not shown Special accessories included only with AxiDraw SE A3 The SE A3 also includes an XL pen clip and an italic pen adapter These are available sep...

Page 8: ...ppearences may vary slightly For example the AxiDraw V3 A3 and SE A3 have extended outrigger feet and the AxiDraw SE A3 base is colored black and covers the two motors Pen holder Central strut Base central strut Left motor cover Right motor cover Cable Guides not handles Carriage X axis part 2 2 AxiDraw Anatomy Pen holder Top View Carriage Y axis part Timing drive belt ...

Page 9: ...ck EBB Cover Stepper motor Pause Button EBB Control board USB Port Home Position Indicator Detail Pen holder Pen lift servo motor Vertical slide Thumbscrew Pen Clip Pen Clip Screws Vertical shafts Note AxiDraw ships with its pen clip disconnected see the next section Y Carriage ...

Page 10: ...ipping Locate the disconnected cable end on the left hand side of the base The cable has three wires Black red and white Plug its connector into the bottom three pins on the EBB Control Board as shown The black wire faces back towards the edge of the board 2 3 Unboxing ...

Page 11: ... into the pen clip Attach the pen clip to the vertical slide with the two small black M3 screws using the 2 mm hex wrench which has a ball end for easier access The pen clip may be attached either in a vertical or diagonal orientation depending on what kind of a writing implement you are using Continues on next page Pen clip M3 Screws for pen clip 2 3 Unboxing continued ...

Page 12: ...either case use exactly two screws to attach the pen clip in place Current production two hole slide with the pen clip mounted in the diagonal left and vertical right configurations Older AxiDraw units may have a four hole slide with only two holes in the pen clip Here it is shown with the pen clip mounted in the diagonal left and ver tical right configurations ...

Page 13: ...fting point in the middle of the machine 2 Heat Please note that the two stepper motors may get warm This is nor mal but it is helpful to be aware of it They should not get too hot to touch 3 Moving parts AxiDraw has exposed moving parts Keep fingers hair and other things that could get caught crushed or tangled safely away from the belt and the pinch points between the moving carriage the pen hol...

Page 14: ...bles 5 Check pen up and pen down heights 6 Set up your pen and paper 7 Begin plotting from within the AxiDraw software Part 4 of this guide goes through the first item on the list Installing the soft ware Parts 5 through 8 go through setting up your AxiDraw for use Part 9 walks through making your first plot and various options available while plotting Part 10 talks about designing for AxiDraw It ...

Page 15: ...ntrol is performed from within the AxiDraw Control panel A second extension Hatch Fill is provid ed as well to help with filling in shapes 4 3 Aside Alternative software and APIs RoboPaint is an alternative driver software available for painting and drawing robots It requires a separate install process but does support AxiDraw Programming is not required to operate the AxiDraw In the case that you...

Page 16: ... automatically leaving it ready for the next plot Slide the carriage to the Home Corner by hand You can move it diagonally by holding the solid block of metal behind the verti cal side of the pen holder Do not push the vertical side of the pen holder directly The carriage should only be moved when the power to the motors is off If it does not move easily turn off the motors so that you are not try...

Page 17: ...h 6 2 Workholding with the Clip Easel A simple board with clips the Clip Easel is included with the AxiDraw for holding smaller workpieces principally different shapes and sizes of paper that are not large enough to be held down by the AxiDraw itself This is a great way to mount paper when getting started with the AxiDraw The AxiDraw V3 Clip Easel is 9 12 inches about 23 x 30 cm in size with rubbe...

Page 18: ...aid to be in landscape orientation and your paper should be oriented as in examples A and B above If is taller than it is wide it has portrait orientation turn your paper sideways as in examples C and D above This default behavior can be overridden See 9 7 Advanced options on page 37 6 3 Using multiple Clip Easels A common technique is to use more than one clip easel such that you can quick ly swa...

Page 19: ... machine For example if you are labeling small note cards with the AxiDraw or if you are plotting two side by side letter A4 size pages with the AxiDraw V3 A3 or AxiDraw V3 XLX Using two small easels side by side you can designate one A and one B and alternate plotting on the A or B side If you change out each side when it finishes you can plot contin uously without ever pausing to swap out the pa...

Page 20: ...rawing instruments that do not require significant pressure While we refer to writing and drawing instruments as pens to be concise other instru ments such as automatic pencils chalk charcoal and brushes can also work well in many cases Others like traditional ball point pens may work poorly because they require a substantial amount of downward pressure to operate 8 2 Setting the pen angle The pen...

Page 21: ...y to immobilize the pen so stop turning once you encounter moderate resistance When using any ink based pen whether rollerball fountain pen or permanent maker it is helpful to bleed out the tip before writing Try it by hand on a piece of scratch paper and make sure that ink is actually flowing Note on fragile or delicate pens If you choose to use fragile pens such as high end fountain pens with ce...

Page 22: ...find it in the menu bar at Extensions AxiDraw AxiDraw Control Click on the Setup tab Select the Toggle pen between UP DOWN action and click the Apply button If your software is all installed correctly and everything is hooked up correctly the pen lift motor will alternately move to the up or down positions each time that you press Apply If it does not move check that you have correctly hooked up t...

Page 23: ...ition of your pen should be approximately 1 8 to 1 4 inch 3 6 mm above the surface of the paper You can physically adjust the position of the pen with the thumbscrew and or change the positions from the Setup tab of AxiDraw Control Toggle also to the pen down position With the pen down the pen should rest on the paper by its weight If it does not you may need to lower the pen down position While t...

Page 24: ...eat the corner of the page in your Inkscape document as Home Corner for the purpose of plotting Here is how the page printed above looks from within Inkscape 8 5 Positioning your paper With your pen at the Home Corner and the pen at an appropriate height it is time to position the paper with respect to the AxiDraw The printable area starts at the Home Corner and extends down and to the right from ...

Page 25: ...bove Whetherverticalorhorizontal itisalwaysthecor nerofthepaperclosesttotheHomeCornerthatonealignsbelowthetipofthepen For comparison here are how those two documents look on the computer when setting up to print The absolute position of your paper with respect to the AxiDraw will vary de pending on the paper the pen that you use as well as the pen length if it is mounted at 45 For any given pen an...

Page 26: ...chive and from within Inkscape open up the file called AxiDraw_First svg Once open the document should look approximately like this If you cannot see the full page outline when you first open the file select from the menu View Zoom Page or type the number 5 on your keyboard 8 6 Summary Your AxiDraw is now ready for use To recap the steps so far are 1 Move the pen holder to the Home Corner if it is...

Page 27: ...gle the pen down and back up 8 4 From the menu select Extensions AxiDraw AxiDraw Control In the Setup tab use the Toggle pen between UP DOWN option 4 Clip a piece of paper to the Clip Easel 6 2 Align the paper to the upper left of the Clip Easel closest to Home 5 Clip in your pen with height just above the paper 8 4 6 Position the paper with its upper left corner beneath the pen tip 8 5 ...

Page 28: ...d the AxiDraw and make sure that the carriage has room to move both in front of and behind the base Finally switch to the Plot first tab of AxiDraw Control and click Apply to begin The AxiDraw should now begin printing your document and will return back to the Home Corner with pen up when it finishes ...

Page 29: ... will pause between pages when plotting multiple copies This delay is intended to allow time for you to swap out the paper be tween copies The default value is 15 seconds but it can be set anywhere from 0 no added delay to 3600 seconds 1 hour Plotting continuously If Copies to Plot is set to 0 zero then the AxiDraw will plot continuously with the same delay between pages until you press the physic...

Page 30: ...lot after pausing open the Resume tab of AxiDraw Control select the Resume action and click Apply To instead return the carriage to the Home Corner select the Return to Home Corner option and Apply The plot can still be resumed after moving back to Home if and only if moved by this command If you instead want start a new plot from the Plot or Layers tab you must re turn the carriage to Home before...

Page 31: ...ide and show individual layers Hidden layers are not plotted and this is one of the simplest ways to plot only certain parts of your doc ument A second method of using layers is with the Layers tab of AxiDraw Control When you click Apply with the Layers tab open the AxiDraw will plot only the layer or layers that have a name beginning with the number entered there under Plot only layers beginning ...

Page 32: ...lot the blue layer by specifying 2 in that field Click the Apply button each time to begin plotting of the selected layers The set of layers shown in the Layers panel on the previous page corresponds to the example shown below A birthday party invitation with six colors and six lay ers You can see how it appears in Inkscape as well as printed on the page using six ultra fine point Sharpie markers ...

Page 33: ...nal commands and parame ters that can be specified through the layer name You can use properly formatted codes to specify the pen down height and the speed for printing specific layers There are also special codes that can introduce a timed delay while plotting or force a programmatic pause as though you had pressed the pause button to halt a plot These types of codes are rarely used in everyday p...

Page 34: ...peed that will be used when the pen is down The second Pen up movement speed sets the maximum speed that will be used when the pen is up traveling between two points The default value for these two speeds are 25 and 75 respectively You can adjust these speeds Keep in mind that the quality of printing that you can achieve is always a trade off between speed and neatness The Acceleration parameter c...

Page 35: ...arting point might be Writing Drawing speed 15 Pen up movement speed 60 Acceleration Slow Working at high speeds When using wide tipped permanent markers or other writing implements that make broad marks one might go as high as Writing Drawing speed 90 Pen up movement speed 100 Acceleration Maximum There are additional factors besides speed that influence precision These factors include the pen li...

Page 36: ...y clear of the paper and to prevent pen down movements from beginning until the pen is touching the paper If you are trying to increase the speed of your plots be aware that the total verti cal travel distance is a very important factor in how long pen lifting and lowering takes Thus try to decrease the vertical range first and look at the delays next Slower gentler movements are possible and will...

Page 37: ...This will give neater performance for certain types of paths but creates more vibration when going around curves It gives more uniform but less natural ink flow Report time elapsed Default off When checked a dialog box will report the elapsed time and pen travel distance after each plot finishes This option is particularly useful in preview mode Optional delays Default 0 These delays are discussed...

Page 38: ...e will provide an estimate of the total plotting time that will be required An additional option available within preview mode is Preview mode rendering Preview mode rendering can be enabled from a pop up menu with options None Pen down movement Pen up movement and All movement If an op tion other than None is selected then either the pen down movement pen up movement or both will be simulated and...

Page 39: ... shown in blue and the pen up movement is shown in light red And here is how those previews appear in the Layers panel The pen down drawing and pen up drawing are rendered as separate sublayers within the Preview layer so that you can hide one the other or both Since they are documentation layers these layers will not plot on the AxiDraw nor will their contents be rendered as part of future previe...

Page 40: ...iage in the X or Y direction by the distance specified The distances are specified in inches 1 inch 2 54 cm and may be positive or neg ative The Home Corner is the X 0 Y 0 position and positive moves in both X and Y are away from the home corner An important note is that no limit checking is performed when manually com manding a move from the Manual tab Take care not to run the AxiDraw into its ph...

Page 41: ... EBB to enter bootloader mode This utility mode is sometimes used in reprogramming the firmware If you should accidentally enter this mode disconnect the AxiDraw from both power and USB to reset it Strip plotter data from file The AxiDraw software stores certain configuration data within your document While having that data there does not cause any known issues this command can strip that data fro...

Page 42: ...select that from the pop up menu in order to access the full plotting area of the machine For the AxiDraw SE A3 please select AxiDraw V3 A3 from the pop up menu If you click Apply with this tab selected it will query the EBB the AxiDraw con trol board and report its firmware version number AxiDraw is currently shipping with firmware version 2 5 5 In case of USB communication difficulties this com ...

Page 43: ...he document where you wish to print right underneath the tip of the pen For signing the valentine card above where the entire text consists of two words one could position the position to start writ ing the upper left corner of the word me directly beneath the pen tip Extending this idea further you can even plot away from home by starting out not at the Home Corner but from some midway point a vi...

Page 44: ...etter or Letter Landscape Objects that are not paths The AxiDraw does not directly plot objects that are not made of paths This in cludes pictures raster or bitmap images such as jpg gif png files and effects such as fills gradients and background colors These kinds of things require con version to paths before plotting That is straightforward in some cases and not in others One notable example is...

Page 45: ... Color And in the Stroke style tab select a consistent width say 0 020 inches or 0 5 mm This procedure generally provides a good preview of how the AxiDraw will view your page It is only a preview not a precise representation of how plotting will work For example it shows the outlines around objects even if they are not yet converted to paths For a more exact preview of how your document will plot...

Page 46: ...larly you can use fonts in any typeface style or character set including foreign lan guages and including fonts that resemble handwriting Most fonts e g truetype opentype fonts that are installed on your computer are accessible directly from within Inkscape You can create and edit text objects in Inkscape by selecting the text tool which you can select by clicking the icon shown here or by using F...

Page 47: ...the outline The actual vector shapes contained within the font file and how the output will look when printed with a pen plotter Now if you had picked that handwriting like font with the intent of creating hand writing like output on the AxiDraw this is probably not what you had intended The cause of this perhaps unexpected behavior is that one could easily though mistakenly assume that a handwrit...

Page 48: ...ndwriting font based on your own hand writing there are free services online such as http calligraphr com that can build fonts based on samples that you provide Even so note 1 that these are standard outline fonts and the advice above still applies In most cases 2 fonts automatically generated from your handwriting tend to be rather crude as compared to high quality hand crafted fonts Suggestions ...

Page 49: ...ell them apart As you can see characters like the t and x here are composed of two inter secting strokes Similarly a letter o in this font consists of a single loop This particular stroke font is a single stroke font since each visible line is made up of only a single path Some other stroke fonts instead use multiple strokes to con struct wider characters e g bold fonts There two severe disadvanta...

Page 50: ...t limitations on the set of included Hershey fonts I The set of fonts is limited It cannot at present be expanded II The set of characters within each font is limited essentially to basic ASCII English characters It cannot at present be expanded Future versions of Hershey Text will use a new file format that will allow extended character sets and the addition of custom font faces Additional single...

Page 51: ...time please see our detailed documentation on the subject http wiki evilmadscientist com capture A link to this page can also be found on our main documentation site http axidraw com docs 10 8 Aside Tracing of scanned handwriting While we are frequently asked about this it should be noted that there is not any straightforward way of automatically converting scanned handwriting into a set of high q...

Page 52: ... px and the default value of 5 0 is appropriate for wide permanent mark ers A lower spacing will produce a more uniform fill and a higher spacing will produce a more traditional hatch fill for shading You can use the Live preview option to see the effects of different choices without actually applying them to your shapes and text The Connect nearby ends option enabled by default connects the ends ...

Page 53: ... with the ends connected usually give good results for most situa tions The key parameter that you ll need to adjust based on the pen that you use and so forth is the Hatch Spacing 1 No fill 2 Spacing 3 px Angle 0 Connect nearby ends off Inset off 5 Same as 4 but with crosshatch on 6 Same as 4 but with Spacing 1 0 px crosshatch is off 4 Spacing 3 px Angle 45 Connect ends On Range 3 Inset on distan...

Page 54: ...ir own programs to per form this kind of conversion and we will point out a few of these programs Inkscape includes a vectorizing tool found in the menu at Path Trace bitmap It works by tracing the outlines of darker regions It does work and is some times useful for very simple shapes but it generally does not produce high quality output that works well on plotters You may end up with for example ...

Page 55: ... http wiki evilmadscientist com stipplegen The portrait above on the right consists of a single wandering line Plots like this can potentially print quickly because there is no pen up pen down movement This one was generated with an experimental program called ScribbleDraw avail able upon request https shop evilmadscientist com contact ...

Page 56: ...in power supply when not in use will prolong the life of the machine 11 4 Belt tension The AxiDraw uses a single timing belt looped in an X around the two motors and the Y carriage This belt may gradually stretch a small amount and can be re tensioned where it is anchored if necessary The necessary hex wrench 2 5 mm is included with the AxiDraw Do not retension the belt unless it is actually neces...

Page 57: ...an unexpected obstacle for example if it was not moved to the Home Corner before plotting or if it was bumped while moving If this should happen press the pause button as soon as possible to cancel the plot Remove power to the machine if necessary Use Raise pen turn off motors in the setup tab to de energize the motors and manually return the carriage to the Home Corner before trying to plot again...

Page 58: ...ng sure that each pen is set to the same height above the paper A good way to do this is to rest the tip of the pen on a spacer when tightening the pen in place Use a small flat piece of wood plastic or metal 7 It is possible to completely detach the AxiDraw s pen holder and affix other types of tools to the front of the Y carriage Four M4 tapped or tappable holes are provided for mounting other t...

Page 59: ... plot without having to open the AxiDraw Control panel again 14 When saving graphics in SVG format from Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW a helpful tip is to select the Presentation attributes option in the SVG export options This typically helps to make the formatting work better in Inkscape 15 The order in which objects on your page will plot is generally determined by the order in which they were ...

Page 60: ...ne documentation resources for AxiDraw axidraw com docs www evilmadscientist com shop evilmadscientist com wiki evilmadscientist com forum evilmadscientist com contact evilmadscientist com Blog Store Docs Forum Humans ...

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