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Calibration Plate Designer

tkinter GUI to design calibration plates and export SVG/DXF for microscopy and fabrication.

Calibration Plate Designer

Overview

A Python GUI application for designing calibration plates with various pattern types for microscopy and fabrication. It exports SVG or DXF files ready to send to fabrication services such as Compugraphics Jena GmbH.

Pattern types

  • Resolution patterns - dot arrays with configurable spacing from 5 µm down to 200 nm.
  • Distortion patterns - checkerboard / grid patterns.
  • Line-pair patterns - configurable line spacing, width and orientation.
  • Alignment markers - crosshairs, fiducials and graduated scale bars.

The plate uses a flexible 4-section layout with configurable dimensions and margins, all measured in millimeters with micrometer-level precision.

Install & run

pip install svgwrite>=1.4.0 ezdxf>=1.0.0
python calibration_plate_designer.py

Workflow

  1. Set plate dimensions (default 101.6 mm / 4 inches) and margin.
  2. Configure each of the four sections (dot spacing, grid size, line spacing/orientation, marker type).
  3. Click Generate SVG or Generate DXF and choose where to save.

Use cases

  • Microscopy calibration - resolution testing, distortion measurement, scale bars.
  • Lithography development - line/space resolution and alignment-marker placement.
  • Quality control - measurement standards and batch-to-batch consistency checks.