I used Armorsmith Designer, now what?
I hear you over there asking “I exported it from Armorsmith Designer, so I am ready to cut my pattern and put it together, right?” I wish, but it isn’t that simple. We have our shapes, but not really in a form we can use. So, this step is about taking that fil from Armorsmith Designer and making it into a pattern we can print and cut pieces (or, in my case, use the laser with).
Believe it or not, this step is pretty easy – until it isn’t. But more on that later.
It is also free. Or, at least, it can be free. A lot of people swear by adobe illustrator for their vector graphic needs, but I use Inkscape. It’s partly about the cost, but mostly about the fact that I didn’t realize that illustrator and Inkscape do the same thing… I am not good at either of them, or at vector graphics in general, so there is that.
You can grab Inkscape on their homepage at (https://inkscape.org/). Go ahead and install it. If you are using Adobe Illustrator, you can follow along with this tutorial, but it will be up to you to figure out the differences. Launch it and lets get into it.
Once Inkscape is up, you should see something that looks like this.
As you can see, I have a file named “helmet smoothing.svg” already. I was working on this project earlier and wanted to make sure I had the process down before I gave you wrong information. Since you don’t have a file already, go ahead and click the “New Document” button in the lower right hand side of that dialogue.
When you do, you should see this.
This is the default screen for Inkscape. I have been told that you can make some amazing stuff with it, but I haven’t figured out how to do that, yet. We are going to be using this application to generate vector paths. It’s fiddly and technical, but vectors are a visible representation of a collection of points and data that are scalable up and down without losing information or clarity.
The main reason we are going to use it, however, is vector paths are how we control the laser! With a teeny adjustment, this is also how we make our own custom pattern for cutting out foam.
The first step is to import the file we made in Armorsmith Designer. To do that, we are going to click on file, and then import.
You want to select that DXF file that we made in Armorsmith Designer. Once you do that. You will see this dialogue pop up. Make sure you check “Automatic scaling to size a4.” Since Armorsmith spits out patterns designed to be printed on 8.5×11 inch paper (a4), it scales all of its output to that size. By importing it scaled to that, all the work we did to make sure it fits our head will not be wasted.
Click “OK” and it will import the pattern we made in Armorsmith. There is a lot more to do, but here is where we begin to see how our finished pattern is going to work.
Zoomed out, you should see something like this.
Yes. The lines are very thin and a little hard to see. That is fine. Vector files use “paths” to create their images, and that is the main reason we are using them. The laser moves along these paths. If we use a raster image (raster images are most likely the ones you are used to using) the laser application will just engrave the material. It’s useful, but also infuriating.
There are several things we are going to need to do to use this.
1) we are going to have to clean this up. All of the little lines that you see are places that Armorsmith thought that we should make a cut. Since we are using EVA foam, which has some stretch to it, we can simplify our shapes a bit.
2) we are going to have to break up a couple shapes. When you look at the image, you can see a couple VERY LONG BITS that won’t be easy to cut (even if you do have a piece of foam that size). So we will break it into more manageable pieces along the lines of symmetry.
3) we are going to have to make a couple pieces that are SLIGHTLY smaller so that we can use an additive process to make the grooves on Samus’ helmet.
SO, the first thing we are going to do is trace the one part we are absolutely sure of – the banana looking one.
There are a couple reasons for doing this. The main one is that somethig about the file that Armorsmith gives us does not want to “weld” properly. In vector applications, welding is taking two small paths and combining them into one. When I select all the paths in the banana and weld the paths, part of it disappears. The second is that we want to make a shape that we have complete control of. The stuff that Armorsmith spit out is just our reference to work from.
Before we do anything else, we want to rename this imported layer and lock it so we can’t mess anything up. To rename it, just double click on where it says “Layer 1” and type a new name. I named mine “Original import.” Then click that little padlock on the right side of the layer.
And now we want to click on the new layer button.
After you do that, give this layer a new name. I am calling it “tracing pattern” for now. Once we get the pattern traced and set up, we will have 3 layers for our export. They will be named for the materials we are cutting them from: 10mm EVA foam, 5mm EVA foam and 1mm EVA foam.
We are going to use the pen tool. This allows us to draw straight lines and Bezier curves. Click on the pen tool on the left hand side of the screen.
The pen tool is pretty straightforward. You click on points to make the shape. Start at one point and then click at every corner you see on the shape we imported. When you get back to the beginning, click on the first point you made to close the path.
The video below shows the whole process of making the path for one of the shapes.
When you get to the end of making the shape, click on that first point you made. It’s going to close the shape and create a new path. That path SHOULD be on the layer we made, but if it isn’t just click and drag it onto the layer.
The next step is repeating the process, but with some more steps. See the two long, weird shapes in yellow below?
We need to cut them in half. There are a few reasons for this.
1) that is a ridiculously long part and will be extremely difficult and unruly to work with
2) It will be difficult to cut that from a single piece of foam
3) we can arrange the parts in a manner that is a much more efficient use of foam if we split these two HUGE pieces.
So that is what we are doing to do.
The process is identical to what we did before, but we are only going to outline one side. when we do it. I am going to start at the spot where we are going to cut it in half, so when we come back to the beginning, we have the half we need. We don’t need to trace the other half, because we will duplicate and mirror it later in the process.
Unfortunately, we are going to have to “eyeball” it. I know there is a way to snap things to the middle of a line, but for what we are doing, with the materials we are using, this will be fine. I’m going to outline these two parts and make paths for them. After I do that (and hiding the imported layer), we have something that should look like this.
NOTE: this step doesn’t need to be perfect. We will be going in and converting a lot of this to Bezier curves and adjusting where the points lie. This is just s we can get to a point that we actually have something to work with.
NOTE: If you finished the path and you can’t see it, you PROBABLY need to add a stroke to it. This thread covers how to fix it pretty thoroughly (and definitely better than I can).
For now DO NOT MOVE THESE SHAPES. We still need them aligned with the layer below for when we refine them.
Looking at the rest of our shapes, we can see a couple things that we can do a bit better. We are going to rename the layer that we brought all of the stuff from Armorsmith in from.
And now, we are going to go back into Armorsmith. Go ahead and reopen the file you saved before and click on the patterns tab. You should see something like this.
There are three pieces I am concerned about. They are pictured below.
The first two, we can do something with directly. The last one, due its geometry and the way that Armorsmith (and Pepakura) processed it, we are going to have to handle it in a different manner. There will be a whole chapter of the Samus Saga on that one part.
For now, let’s concentrate on those two bits and get this pattern simplified a bit.
Click on those two parts and find them on the model.
As you can see, they fit together, so let’s join them to make our pattern a little easier to cut and assemble.
Click the “Activate Join/Cut tool” button.
Then, click on oneof the edges of the diamond shape that is pointed towards the other part. When your cursor nears a linked edge, you will see a linking line.
Click on the edge that the linking is pointing to. Go on. Do it… you know you want to.
When you do (if we have done everything right and I haven’t told you the wrong thing), the two pieces should merge into one – like this.
Next, we are going to click on this piece of the helmet.
That is going to select the piece below.
This part is the perfect piece for you to practice on. Activate the join/cut tool in Armorsmith and play with it. We are trying to simplify the shape as much as possible. I am not going to walk you though every click on this part of the pattern – it’s time to fly, little bird.
NOTE: If you click and join or cut something and it ends up looking like a Lovecraftian nightmare, you can undo it with ctrl-z.
The goal is to get something that looks like this.
Now that we have MOST of the shapes adjusted in a way that will work for us, we are going to re-export this. This process is tedious, but is necessary to make the best pattern possible. We SHOULD only have to do it one more time… In theory.
NOTE: This is the first time I am processing this model for making a cosplay with it, so a lot of this tutorial series is showing you the iterative process as it happens. The little fiddly bits that are required to make a pattern work.
I am going to move the two pieces we just modified to their own workspace in Armorsmith. (Click on it to select it > right click on it > send to > new workspace) I named the new workspace “Second Export” so I know what I have already done. While we are at it, move these two parts over there, too.
NOTE: I just figured out that you can cntrl-click to select multiple parts and you can send them all at once.
So, now, you should have a pattern that looks like this.
We are going to go ahead and export this pattern into its own file. (File > Export > Unfold > DXF) I named mine “Samus helmet second export”. And we are going to head back over to… you guessed it – Inkscape!
In our layer panel, we are going to hide our first import. Then click on layer 1. Then we are going to import the second pattern file we just made. (File > Import > select the file) Make sure that you have the “Automatic scaling to size a4” radio button clicked and hit OK.
Remember how we locked the first layer? We are going to unlock it so we can drag the newly imported group to the center of the page. Then we are going to lock it again. We don’t want to accidentally overwrite what we just imported. While you are at it, go ahead and rename this second import.
Now, we are going to repeat what we did with the other parts of the helmet – create a new path with the pen tool for each of the pieces there. HOWEVER – as you can see – some of these pieces have some gaps in them, so we are going to have to do some guess work. I know this is intimidating – but there is no need to worry. Before we cut our expensive materials, we are going to prototype it in another material. Some people do cardboard, I like posterboard. So we can play around with it and we can always make changes if we need to.
I’m going to trace the smaller 3 first, as I already know that I am going to make some changes to the bigger piece to save myself a headache later in the project. Here is what I came up with.
So… the piece that we have left (pictured below) has an edge that is effectively a joint with another piece. Due to the curves in this helmet, the foam is going to be under a bit of stress, so I am going to extend that piece. Doing this for two reasons:
1. It will suck trying to get those edges to stick in the right place while everything is under tension.
2. it will relieve some of the tension on those joints so it will be less likely to come apart
So, here is what I did with that part.
I went ahead and traced the fins that go on the back of the helmet and rearranged the pieces while I was at it. I wanted to get a pretty good look at how this would all fit together. Now we should have a page full of weird shapes that looks something like this. Keeping in mind that this is just one side of the helmet, you can see how we are going to put it together.
You are starting to get the idea of how this is going to work and look now. However, there are still some things that we have to do. I decided to break them out into other lessons because they are require different processes than what we have used here. The short list is:
1. We need to figure out how to fix that one messed up shape we set aside.
2. Inside that shape is a semicircle that the fins attach to. We need to decide if we want to put that in, or mount them directly to the shape we still have to figure out. I am tempted to leave that open, add some netting and add some fans – one in, one out – for ventilation.
3. Along the side of the helmet, where the fins go, there is a panel that we will need to add.
4. We need to smooth out the shapes we have made using the Bezier handles in Inkscape, but I prefer to do that all at once,
5. We need to make the pieces that will give us the grooves along the top and sides of the helmet.
In the next episode we are going to figure out the piece below.
The video below shows this process. As we work on our patterns, we start to notice things that we might have missed, or that we can improve on. I normally record my videos as I do the tutorial so they are an exact match, but my computer crashed, so this video will not match the tutorial exactly… But that is a good thing because I missed a couple things that I caught when setting up for the recording.
NOTE: This video will not have the steps outlined like I normally do, as the tutorial was very concise.
November 10, 2025
