I seemed to have discovered an interface problem between Sketchup and the SVG plug-in. Here’s the part that I wanted to convert into SVG format:

Not that complicated right? But here is how it appeared after I exported to SVG and then loaded the SVG file into Inkscape:

As a workaround, I exported the part separately to SVG, then merged it in Inkscape with the file containing the other parts. It appeared okay, so I gave it to the associate at Metrix to have it laser cut. He said that the part had double lines and suggested that it had something to do with SVG format.

After minutes of thrashing around, I realized the problem was more fundamental. In Sketchup, the part looked fine on the screen, but I suspected that there was something about the invisible software commands attached to the part, and while it didn’t affect anything in Sketchup it caused things to turn out wrong in SVG.

So I used the Sketchup tape measure to measure the dimensions of the old part and generated a new copy of the part by clicking out the outline segments one at a time. That process may seem unnecessarily cumbersome, but it ensured that there would be absolutely no invisible software link between the old and new versions of the part.

Sure enough, the new version of the part came out right in SVG format without having to export it separately:

I won’t assign blame between Sketchup or the SVG plug-in, as both programs are free and I’m mainly happy with them the way they are. Let’s just say that this one time there was a communications fail between them and you may have to watch out for it.