GNU/Linux instructions

Building

• No dependencies required, only a C++11 complying compiler.
• Create a build directory and enter it mkdir build && cd build.
• Generate Makefiles using cmake ...
• Build the project using make (multithreaded compilation using -j <coreNb> is advised).
• Binary is named packer.
• make test will run the tests.
• make doc will generated the documentation (Doxygen required) into build/doc/html/.

Installation

• Directory ~/.config/inkscape/extensions/ must exist.
• Run make install to install packer as an Inkscape extension.

Windows instructions

Building for Windows (x86_64) on a Debian system

• Require package mingw-w64.
• Create a build directory and enter it mkdir build-win && cd build-win.
• Configure Cmake project : cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../Toolchain-mingw-w64.cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/ -Dtarget-os="windows" ...
• Build it using make.
• Executable name is packer.exe.

Installation

• Copy files packer.exe and packer.in to your Inkscape's extension folder.
• It is usually located in C:\users\:user_name:\appData\Roaming\Inkscape\extensions.
• :user_name: is the name of your current windows session.

Usage

Command-Line Interface

• Basic usage : ./packer inputFile.svg > outputFile.svg moves all the original shapes and pack them to fit the document's size.
• Run ./packer --help for a complete list of options.
• --width X and --height Y can be used to specify the wanted size of bin (in px).
• The --dup [01] enables the duplication of the original shapes, thus only the duplicates are moved.
• The default behavior is to pack all shapes. If the user specifies IDs of shapes using --id ID (can be used multiple times), only those will be packed.
• For the purpose of laser cutting, the buffer X can be used to force a minimal distance (in px) between the packed shapes.

Inkscape interface

• Located in Extensions->Packer in the Inkscape menus.
• The default behavior is to pack every shape. However if the user makes a selection of shapes beforehand, only those will be packed.
• For now, the parameters must be specified in pixels.

Features

Processed SVG features

• Every path description.
• Structural elements svg and g.
• Primitives rect, ellipse, line, polygon, polyline and circle.
• Attributes id, height, width and transform (every format).

Grouping policy

• A shape can contain multiple paths that will be moved jointly or a single path.
• Only the most atomic SVG groups (i.e. groups without subgroups) will be considered as shapes. Paths located outside of such groups will be considered as shapes containing a single path.
• Inside a multiple-path shape, a path completely covered by another will be processed as a hole.