Feel the rain on your skin: 2014

For sure I am a travel addict. I am also lucky to have studied, worked and lived in various places around the world. My current stop is Singapore which is an excellent base for discovering South East Asia, a region full of hidden gems, diverse cultures and natural beauties. But I am no touristy-site hopper: when I travel, I try to look for small things, easily overlooked corners and places that are off the beaten paths. Small towns and cities are my favourite. It is in such places that you will find the most authentic food, untainted by the need to internationalize and commercialize, identify the unique aspects in the local way of life, and of course, meet the most friendly people who make your experience unforgettable. And I would rather spend more time in less places so as to give myself enough time to have a feel for whatever places I go to.

Interestingly, the more I travel overseas, the more I realize how little I knew about my country (I come from Vietnam), hence the need to go home and discover. Have you ever felt the same way? These days I try to make use of my limited holidays to explore what Vietnam has to offer. A highlight of this blog will thus be my travel experience in Vietnam and I hope it will be useful to travellers like yourself.

Enjoy!

P.S. Check out my tripadvisor reviews at http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-reviews/youngnfree

Convert vector drawing (.svg) to AutoCAD (.dxf) with Inkscape

Monday, October 20, 2014

Recently I wanted to use a CNC machine to carve out a drawing I had in vector format. A CNC machine normally works with .dxf file so I had to find a way to export .svg file to .dxf format.

Inkscape's default option to Save As > Desktop Cutting Plotter (AutoCAD DXF R14) (*.dxf) will result in an empty AutoCAD drawing. It took me a while to figure how to fix it, but thanks to MrGoon, I finally have a straightforward solution.

1. Open SVG file in Inkscape
For the sake of exercising, you may download a free SVG file that I used here.

2. File > Export Bitmap

3. In Export Bitmap window, specify a high resolution, such as 600dpi. This will create a PNG file.

4. Open the PNG file in GIMP

Steps 5 to 8 essentially erased everything but the black outlines.

5. Select by colour (black)

6. Invert selection

7. Clear selection

8. Select None

9. Copy and paste into a new Inkscape file (Change document orientation and reposition pasted image if desired.)

10. Path > Trace Bitmap

11. File > Save As .dxf

Et voila! When you open the .dxf file, you will see the black outlines appear in perfect "health".

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