I'm trying to find an alternative app, etc. for my wife's Cricut explore air device app "Cricut design space". It is a device that cuts, writes and scores things like signs and cards. If anyone knows of a good alternative to the software or a work around she could use, please let me know. Also, running a virtual machine of Windows 10 would be an option if as a last resort but, if this is what's required, please link or share any useful info as to linking the Cricut to the VM.
Thanks to the members of the wonderful Ubuntu community for all the time, effort and patience given to make this all work.
13 Answers
Definitely use the open-source Inkscape for creation of designs. Create two files, one for designing, and one where you copy the finished work (with all path combining, union, etc - i.e. the most pure and simple version of your design) and save as another .svg file. (i.e. LOGOdesign.svg and LOGOcricut.svg.) You will need a windows or mac computer to upload this with cricut's proprietary web plugin, and keep in mind editing will be minimal once it is in "Design Space". However, you can save it there, cut from the file, access it from a new android or iOS app, from which you can also cut.
From my research, there is no 3rd-party program that will let you cut with this machine. Provocraft is using Apple's model whereby they want to limit you to their equipment and software. Luckily, they do allow you to import your own .svg files, although only by going through their web interface - not ideal, but workable.
1I have a Cricut Explore and under Linux it is exceptionally handicapped. You cannot even use Design Space in Chrome or Firefox without the plugin.
I spent a lot of time getting it working. In the end I opted for Virtualbox, you'll need guest extensions (free from the VB website) to get USB 2.0 support, Windows 7 as base install and FireFox as the browser of choice.
Do yourself a favour and remove practically everything possible from Windows to lighten the load on your system and speed everything up.
If you want to work primarily in Linux and then only do the print/cut in the Windows VM then use Inkscape to generate .svg files. The downside is that these can really go odd when you import in to DS if you have an even slightly advanced SVG file (swirls, grades, text (not supported, has to be converted to a path!), etc). I've been using GIMP and doing RASTER PNG files, importing them in to Design Space and using its importer to fix things so I didn't have to deal with random lines and swirls in the .svg import.
I hope that helps.
I'm late to the game but we're going to try libcutter from these directions I found.
Setting Up Libcutter Cricut Hacking
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