Making SVG Shapes
I highly recommend that all laser users learn how to use a graphic design program. I use Affinity Designer which is a low one-time cost program. There are many other programs out there, such as Inkscape which is free. Regardless of which one you pick, there are tons of YouTube videos on how the use them. The only features you need to learn from any of these programs is how to create, move, and modify vector shapes. I give you a short introduction to the basic idea and the terminology below. I'm pretty sure the terminology that I use is universal.
I use a large iPad to do all my designs but any computer will work fine. I use a laptop computer to operate the Glowforge laser. I save my design files as SVG files in my cloud account and then upload them to the Glowforge software.
Vector Design 101
A vector design is made up of one or more shapes. A shape can be created with the shape tool or it can be drawn using the pen tool with lines and nodes. A line is also called a path, curve, or vector. A node is a point or corner on the line. The nodes help create either a curve or a pivot point. The line is the path that the laser will take to cut the material. Each shape you make will appear as a layer in your design. Shapes can be added, subtracted, merged, or intersected with other shapes to create a new shape. They can be moved around, enlarged, and reduced. You can select a shape, duplicate it, and drag the copy next to the original shape.
The inside area of the shape can be colored different colors. The inside color is important for laser operation. All shapes of the same color will appear in one step of the design in the laser operating software. If one shape is to be cut and one shape is to be scored by the laser, they must be different colors to appear as different steps.
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The line can be assigned a color and a thickness but it should be left colorless unless using the stroke function. The thickness of the line is known as a stroke. This is how a border is put around an object when creating digital art. The stroke can be adjusted for thickness and orientation to the path. It can be inside, outside, or on the line. The corners can be rounded or squared. Setting the stroke at 18 pt (points) is going to give you a shape with a 0.25 inch border which comes in very handy for quilters. The path is still the original shape line. When you select the command "expand stroke" a new additional shape will be created that is just the stroke (the border) along with the original shape. They can now be separated. The nodes on the inside line can be deleted and that leaves you with a shape that is 1/2 inch larger than the original, or a 1 inch square with the 1/4 inch seam allowance.
Maka a 1 inch square
Add a stroke
18 pt
Delete the inside line
Expand stroke and move the square to the left
Changing the size of a shape with seam allowance added will enlarge the seam allowance proportionally, therefore use caution when changing the size of any shape intended for piecing. In this example, changing the size of the rounded square will alter the curvature of the rounded corners.
Each shape is a layer. The layers can be made into groups and subgroups to keep things organized. You can export all or some layers of the design to create an SVG file.
Paper Piecing Designs
After designing a block for paper piecing, the same design can be exported as a pdf file and printed for your paper piecing pattern. You can overlay with text to number the shapes. This pattern can be scaled to any size.
Making the SVG Files
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Make a copy of the block in the size you want.
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Separate the shapes.
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Add a stroke to each shape: 18 pt for 1/4 inch or higher for more seam allowance.
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Expand the stroke and delete the inside of the shape.
Scaling a Design
Paper pieced blocks do not need an accurate 0.25 inch seam allowance surrounding the shape because the lines on the paper is the sewing guide. After drafting all the shapes in a block, the stroke (seam allowance) is added to all the shapes. Using rounded corners in the stroke will save fabric.
If you want to increase the seam allowance of a finished SVG design, changing by scale (locked aspect ratio) will only work for shapes that are equally sized all around such as a square, hexagon, circle, etc. It will not work correctly, for odd, asymmetrical shapes. For rectangles, height and width has to be adjusted separately to change the seam allowance equally on all sides. See the rectangle vs square example below. For all other asymmetrical shapes, you have to go back to the original design and add the stroke in order to change the seam allowances equally in every shape.
