Inkscape

Inkscape is a full feature free software tool for creating complex artistic designs, and is similar to Illustrator in functionality. You can download it here

Inkscape Usage for making Stencil Designs

Outlines

To get outlines of shapes without any color fill, go to the Main Menu and choose Object -> Fill and Stroke ...

Set the Stroke Style Tabsheet width and default solid line.

In the Stroke Paint Tabsheet: choose "Flat Color" and then pick a color. Set the opacity to 100%
For the Fill, choose the x in the box for "No Fill" or "No Paint".

Editing objects

To edit a Star or Polygon shape's properties

1. first select the object (will not work on paths!)
2. Next click the Star/Poly tool icon to get the property toolbar to show display at the top.

Rotating

Use Shift key depressed with Left Mouse Click to get multiple objects selected.
Use Shift-S to rotate an entire grouping of objects.

When rotating an object, look for the crosshair which is a + and move it to the object interior center.  The crosshair may be far away from the object, so you may have to zoom out to find it. Use Object -> Transform ... to do a numerically tuned rotation in a dialog box.

Units

To change the viewing units to inches:

File -> Document Properties then choose the Page Tabsheet. Change the Display units dropdown menu to "in." to set your ruler units.

Small shapes

Make sure that your necks and corners of shapes are large enough to allow a pen tip to trace inside of it.

Exporting DXF

Sometimes Autocad .dxf fils are not scaled properly, too large or too small - though the original aspect ratio is respected. So you may have to resize the objects in the application you import the .dxf into.

When exporting in .dxf format, you should use the "pt" units.

Paths

To ensure that your shapes are maintained across applications, convert all of your objects to paths first. This is under the main menu Path-> Object to Path after first Cntrl-A to select all objects. For example, I have found that rectangles that have had their corners rounded in Inkscape will show up as rectangles with normal 90 degree angle sharp corners in RDWorks.

IMPORTANT: Before converting you objects to paths, first save a version of the Inkscape .svg file with your shapes as proper objects. Then after converting to paths, save that Inkscape .svg file with a DIFFERENT filename. This is because once converted to paths, shapes can not be converted back to objects. Also, paths can not be edited like objects.

Strokes

Sometimes when drawing a new shape from the standard toolbar choices, the object will not appear because the Stroke color is set to White or is Unset. Go into the Edit -> Preferences menu to change this to a visible color.

More advanced methods

For stars and polygons the spoke ratio is less than 1 by design.

Stars and Polygons: Depending on the spoke ratios, rounded value can force overlapping traces which, if carefully selected, can give multiple closed shapes sharing one or more common points. For the purposes of cutting, one common point is simplest. however, there can be discontinuities nd imperfect intersection cuts that can lead to undesirable results, especially for stencils which need clean tracing surfaces. A better solution is to use the Path -> Union function to merge adjacent sections of a star or polygon that are intersection each other. This has the added bonus of creating unique intricate designs.

Copying shapes: Click on the center point of where to paste the object, so that the center of the object coincides.

Union of Objects:  In order to use the Path -> Union function, the 2 or more objects must be individually selected first using Shift-Left mouse click. Rubber band selecting and defining a group will not work.

Spirals: You can change the number of turns on the spiral by either clicking on the innermost or outermost endpoint, then dragging left or right to shorten or lengthen.