How to Resize a Laser Cutting Template to a Different Material Thickness

Are you frustrated when you find an interesting laser cut template and are excited to make a reproduction only to realize that you don't have the same material, for example, you have 4mm thick plywood and the tutorial uses 6mm plywood for the material? Or are you disappointed that you carelessly ordered a 6 mm material when you actually needed a 4 mm one?

Here's the good news, when encountering a problem similar to the one above, there is a way to help us solve it quickly and easily: by simply re-scaling the design from the original material thickness to the new material thickness! However, it should be noted that this method can help us solve the problem of different material thicknesses to a certain extent, but the corresponding sizes of our finished products will also change. So if you need the exact same finished product as the template, then simply re-scaling won't work.

In order to calculate the correct scale factor, you need to use an important formula: Scale Factor = (New Thickness / Original Thickness) * 100
The following are specific instructions about how to resize a plan from 6 mm to 4 mm material thickness using Inkscape:

1. Calculate the Scale Factor:

• Formula: Scale Factor = (New Thickness / Original Thickness) * 100.
• For resizing from 6 mm to 4 mm, the calculation is: (4 / 6) * 100 = 66.67%.

2. Open the File in Inkscape:

• Launch Inkscape.
• Open your SVG file.

3. Select All Elements:

• Press Ctrl+A to select all elements in the file.

4. Open the Transform Window:

• Go to the top menu, select Object -> Transform, or use the shortcut Shift+Ctrl+M.

5. Switch to the Scale Tab:

• In the Transform window, click on the “Scale” tab.

6. Enter the Scale Factor:

• Check the box for “Scale proportionally”.
• Enter the scale factor (66.67%) in the “Width” field.
• Ensure the unit is set to “%”.

7. Apply the Changes:

• Click on “Apply” to resize the plan.

After following the above steps, your plan is now resized and ready to be cut from 4 mm material.

If you haven't downloaded the inkscape, here's how to do it on lightburn. Its “Slot & Tab resizer tool” allows you to easily resize slots, tabs, and rectangles often used for joining sides together and could help with automating this.

1.Open the lightburn and press “Ctrl+A” to select all objects.

2.Slot & Tab resizer tool : Go to the top menu, select Tools-> Resize Slots in selection.

3.Click on “Slot Width”

4.Enter 6 in the “Old Material Thickness” and 4 in the “New Material Thickness” field.

5.Apply the Changes: Click on “OK” to resize the plan.

We hope this article has been helpful to you. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at rollandberry2020@gmail.com. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated with our latest news and updates.