Inkscape is free, it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and it will do everything a plasma shop actually needs. No subscription, no login, no cloud account that can take features away next year.

The problem is that every other Inkscape tutorial on the internet is aimed at graphic designers. They teach you gradients and web export. They never mention bridging, or kerf, or why your beautiful design fell through the slats in six pieces.

This is the plasma version. Twenty five episodes, in order, every one of them about getting a cut-ready file onto real steel. It is free on YouTube and this page is the index.

You need Inkscape, a computer, and something to cut with eventually. That is it.

The order matters. Each episode assumes the one before it. If you have used Inkscape a bit already you can skip ahead, but do not skip Groups and Paths or Nodes - nearly every problem people bring me traces back to not understanding those two.

The episode numbers below match the numbers on the video thumbnails, so you can always tell where you are.


Where the whole thing starts. Getting the right build of Inkscape downloaded and installed on your machine, without ending up on one of the fake download sites that bundle junk with it. Inkscape is free and open source, there is no subscription and no login, and it does everything a plasma shop actually needs.

[Watch Episode 1: Installing Inkscape](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBoeeS6bgaA)


The lesson most people skip and then fight the program for a year. Dialling in your document units, page size and general behaviour so that every time you launch Inkscape it opens ready for plasma work instead of ready for a poster. Five minutes here saves you resizing the page on every single file you ever open.

[Watch Episode 2: Setting Up Your Default Settings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1gsQtdL1Mo)


A short one, and more useful than it sounds. If you design in the shop at night, a blinding white canvas is genuinely hard on your eyes over a long session. This shows you where the setting lives and how to turn it on.

[Watch Episode 3: Turning On Dark Mode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqUN_WpvFEg)


How to get SVG, DXF and image files into Inkscape the right way, so nothing gets mangled on the way in and your table does not choke when it is time to cut. Covers downloaded cut files, scanned images and customer logos, which behave differently from each other.

[Watch Episode 4: Importing a File](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CiseuV_jtY)


One of the most misunderstood parts of sign design, and the one that wastes the most steel. Setting your real-world dimensions inside Inkscape so the finished piece fits the material, cuts clean, and is the size the customer actually asked for. Get this right at the start and you stop re-cutting parts.

[Watch Episode 5: Sizing Your File To Cut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jL0KclbCx0)


The single highest-value skill for anybody selling personalised signs. How to open a pre-made monogram template and swap in a customer name cleanly, so one purchased file becomes an unlimited product instead of something you re-buy for every order.

[Watch Episode 6: Changing Monogram Text](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cxv9KtMlNE)

[Read the full written guide](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/how-to-change-the-font-in-a-cnc-cut-file)


Bridging is what turns a font into a functional metal sign. Letters with enclosed centres - A, O, B, D, R - drop straight through the slats unless small tabs hold them in place. This covers how to add those tabs and where to put them so they hold without looking like a mistake.

[Watch Episode 7: How To Bridge Letters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg36ZhfLL8w)

[Read the full written guide](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/how-to-bridge-letters-for-cnc-plasma)


Deceptively simple and absolutely critical. Which format to save in and why the answer changes depending on whether you are archiving, coming back to edit later, sending to SheetCam, or building a file library to sell. Saving wrong is how people lose the editable version of a design forever.

[Watch Episode 8: Properly Saving Your Work](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIieDp_IiPk)

[Read the full written guide](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/convert-svg-to-dxf-for-cnc-plasma)


Where the art becomes metal. Taking the finished Inkscape design into SheetCam, prepping the file, assigning operations and generating G-code that runs clean on the table. This is the bridge between the drawing and the torch.

[Watch Episode 9: Creating a Toolpath In SheetCam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beLn0SNxG54)

[Read the full written guide](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/how-to-create-a-toolpath-in-sheetcam)


The official start of the drawing half of the course. What to expect, which tools get used, and how the lessons build toward drawing your own cut-ready designs from nothing. No expensive software and no years of design school required.

[Watch Episode 11: Drawing Course Intro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YSLcuvWzlQ)


The concept that trips up nearly every beginner. If you have ever clicked something and had the wrong thing select, or made an edit that refused to apply, it is because the object is grouped, or because it is not a path yet. This lesson makes the difference obvious and permanent.

[Watch Episode 12: Understanding Groups and Paths](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4r5_glkiJc)


Whether the letters are the metal you keep or the holes you cut through it. It sounds like a small distinction and it completely changes how a sign is built, how it is mounted, and whether the design even holds together. One of the most important concepts in the whole course.

[Watch Episode 13: Positive vs. Negative Text](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S96IWuKD8RM)


Nodes are the building blocks of every path, curve and shape in your design. Once you can add, delete and shape them deliberately, you have real control over how the torch travels - smooth curves where you want them, sharp corners where you want those. This is the fundamental that everything in the drawing half rests on.

[Watch Episode 14: Understanding Nodes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmgywAjN85A)


By this point you can draw, size, bridge and edit. This is the lesson that takes a design from decent to clean. Layout, balance, visual weight and the real-world strategy behind why some pieces sell and some sit on the table at the craft fair.

[Watch Episode 15: Elements of a Great CNC Plasma Design](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o0vnRlzE0k)


Frames are the most overlooked part of layout and one of the biggest upgrades to a finished piece. They add structure and visual weight, they pull the elements of a design together, and on a plasma cut they are frequently what physically holds the whole thing in one piece.

[Watch Episode 16: How to Use Frames](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1YzfErvPQ4)


How to thicken or thin the lines in a design without breaking it. Essential when a design looks perfect on screen but has strokes too fine for a torch to hold at the size you are cutting. An easy trick that rescues files you would otherwise have to redraw.

[Watch Episode 17: Shrink and Grow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxBFRDvS9-c)


Going next level with text. Hollowing out letters adds depth and contrast to nameplates, business logos and signs, and it is one of the details that makes a piece look designed rather than generated. Builds directly on the bridging and node lessons.

[Watch Episode 18: How to Hollow Out Letters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko811k_LdgQ)


One of the most popular plasma projects there is - American flags and the variations people actually order, including thin blue line, memorial and military service designs. How to draw your own instead of buying somebody else s file, so yours is not the same one at every booth.

[Watch Episode 19: How to Design Custom Flags](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVfhEaK2TEU)


Turning a photo or a customer logo into a vector you can cut. Trace Bitmap is what converts a grid of pixels into real paths, and the settings that come out of the box are wrong for plasma nearly every time. This is how to drive it properly.

[Watch Episode 20: How to Trace Bitmaps](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqhU2q2x1m4)

[Read the full written guide](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/inkscape-trace-bitmap-settings-for-cnc-plasma)


A must-have technique for layered signs, multi-colour finishes and clean installations. How to build a custom backing plate for stacked cutouts, signs mounted on wood, or multi-piece artwork you are powder coating in more than one colour.

[Watch Episode 21: Creating Backing Plates](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZh7V2oBuMs)


The high-value skill every operator needs: taking an existing design or template and modifying it quickly and cleanly. Changing a last name in a monogram, swapping one element for another, adapting a file to a customer request without rebuilding it from nothing.

[Watch Episode 22: Alter a Design or Text](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3woLv3-9Vto)


The full workflow for the job that pays best - a business hands you their logo and wants it in steel. From the file they send you (which is never the right format) through to a cut-ready design that still looks like their brand.

[Watch Episode 23: Company Logo To Metal Sign](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN5WAnw7YKA)

[Read the full written guide](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/make-a-metal-sign-from-a-business-logo)


There is nothing worse than an hour of design work disappearing when Inkscape falls over. Unless you know where it put the backup. How to recover your work through Inkscape s autosave and backup system, and how to set it up so the next crash costs you two minutes.

[Watch Episode 24: Crash and Auto Save](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n53QUiH0kaQ)

[Read the full written guide](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/how-to-recover-your-work-after-an-inkscape-crash)


How to curve text properly so it sits clean and centred and cuts beautifully. Monograms, badges, business logos, circular address signs - arched text is what makes a piece read as custom instead of homemade, and doing it right is a specific technique rather than a fudge.

[Watch Episode 25: Text On A Circle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd2sft5U230)

[Read the full written guide](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/how-to-arch-text-for-cnc-plasma-signs)

Every episode above lives in one playlist on the channel, in order, so you can work straight through it without hunting for the next one.

[Watch the full CNC Plasma Inkscape Drawing Masterclass playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYkrHJ_I6iKEiGQOC38QBVZLDKFCJruo)

Watching somebody else drive Inkscape only gets you so far. Open a properly built file and take it apart - look at where the bridges sit, count the nodes, see how the pieces connect - and the lessons land a lot faster.

The [free CNC plasma cut file library](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/free-cnc-plasma-cut-files) has cut-ready SVG and DXF in every category at no cost, and the [full store](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/cnc-cut-files) has the rest, all drawn for plasma and tested on a real table.

When you are ready to draw your own from nothing rather than editing somebody else's, [Draw a Deer Monogram From Scratch](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/draw-a-deer-monogram-from-scratch) walks through a complete design start to finish.

This course covers the software. Running a shop is the other half - what to charge, where to sell, which products are worth your time and which ones quietly lose money.

That is what the [Tin Man Metal Works masterclass](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/start-today) is for. The Inkscape course above stays free on YouTube either way.

Start at Episode 1 and work down. Do not skip Groups and Paths or Nodes. Practise on real cut files rather than blank canvases. And bookmark this page - twenty five episodes is a lot to hold in your head, and the numbers on the thumbnails will tell you exactly where you left off.