Preparing an illustrator file for laser cutting

[Lee Dang]

Hi,

I'm waiting for my laser cutter induction, so in the meantime I wanted to prepare some files.

I honestly don't get any of the software stuff at the moment. I've been looking at different sources and what not, and they seem to give mixed messages about converting .ai files to something a laser cutter will take.

Is there anyone who has any advice?

I just want to etch/burn, so I have basically got everything in fills with some strokes here and there. I also have layers for each colour, ie black, dark grey, grey, and light grey. I exported that as a .dxf file, would that work?

I also can't do anything in the lasercut 5.3 demo either, while the full version requires the softdog dongle :(

Thanks,

Kim

[Michael Erskine]

A search through the google group shows that a few people are using
Illustrator for their laser designs and that there should be
information on the wiki regarding settings for dxf export (try
https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Laser_cutter#Adobe_Illustrator).
I don't generally touch the LaserCut software until I sit at the laser
itself and then it is just to import dxf and tweak/check for final
cutting. Everything else I do in GIMP and Inkscape which work fine for
me.

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[paul spacebee]

I found an irritating (but repeatable) scaling issue with output from Illustrator, so I stopped using it and use Inkscape for laser work preparation.
your mileage may vary.

[paul spacebee]

If you're trying to use gradient fills for 'blended' etching, you'll have a bad time, as they say.  the laser software only supports bitmap images, not vector gradients, so if you're trying to do mixed cut (vector) and etch (bitmap), you'll obviously need to sort out your scaling somehow.

Another caveat is, you'll need to convert everything to paths and make sure your area to etch is closed (the laser software can help with the closed paths if you need, but I prefer to have everything ready when i sit at the laser console)

The least troublesome way I found to work with illustrator was to export as .swf and then open the files in inkscape to export to .dxf.

(I'd be very pleased to learn that I'm incorrect about gradient etching, if that means someone will explain how to make it work in a reasonable fashion)

/Paul

[Mark Cambridge]

Personally, I exclusively use Illustrator CS6 for everything.

The laser software doesn't seen to recognise colours from illustrator (except for the odd grey here and there) so just stroke everything in black.

Also, don't use fills - it wont recognise them.  Simply stroke everything with an empty fill (not white etc).  I tend to use a 0.01mm stroke width as I can see fine detail with that size if needed.

You can group objects together in Illustrator but the laser software won't see more than 2 levels deep of groups - I usually ungroup everything individually and then group as one for final export.

If you want to grade engrave or the like then make sure you have a bounding box around your item to be engraved so the laser knows it is to be engraved within that area (as a pointer - create another bounding box 2mm smaller and use this as the 'cut' line as a grade engrave ramps up at the edges).

Forget layering in Illustrator - I pay no attention to them when designing for the laser.

Export to dxf via the export dialogue and ensure the top 'version' drop down menu is set to R14, you can leave all other options as they are (unless you have artwork selected and you only want to export the selected artwork, then tick the relevant box).

Hope that helps a little.

Mark

On Tuesday, 21 July 2015 06:26:23 UTC+1, Lee Dang wrote:

[Michael Erskine]

On 21 July 2015 at 10:16, Mark Cambridge <vipe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Also, don't use fills - it wont recognise them. Simply stroke everything
> with an empty fill (not white etc). I tend to use a 0.01mm stroke width as
> I can see fine detail with that size if needed.
> You can group objects together in Illustrator but the laser software won't
> see more than 2 levels deep of groups - I usually ungroup everything
> individually and then group as one for final export.

These rules are the same for Inkscape: ungroup everything and turn all
objects into paths - make it easy for LaserCut's tiny brain!

[Mark Cambridge]

In Illustrator, to create paths from text use the following menu: Type->Create Outlines (and then change fill to empty, and stroke to black and the desired weight). I tend to make a copy of the text before I do this in case I need to change it as when you've created outlines for text it becomes un-editable as text.

[Mark Cambridge]

Sorry, one more note - If you have an object that is made up over several lines curves - JOIN them together. (CTRL+J)  Although in Illustrator it may appear to 'look' like one continuous line on the screen, if you can select them individually then you need to join them. The laser will see them as individual lines if you don't and you really do not want that!

You can also use the 'Unite Lines' (I think thats what it is called) in the laser software to do the same thing but I prefer to do it in illustrator so I know I have 'laser ready' artwork ready to go.

[Lee Dang]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Hmm, it looks like I'll need to sort a few things out.

Got the induction on Saturday so maybe that'll clear some things up.

I had everything as closed objects, with fills and no strokes. Seems like people are saying no to that.

I forgot to mention I wanted raster fill engravings. The fills were greyscale, and I basically kept each grey on a different layer to keep things organised. I tried importing it into lasercut5.3 but wasn't sure where to go from there.

[Michael Erskine]

I think you're on the the right track with different layers for
different grey levels: on Lasercut the different layers are needed to
etch at different powers but these just come out as different coloured
layers in Lasercut. The translation between colours on Inkscape and
LaserCut works well with the palette in the templates we have devised
(https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Laser_cutter/Inkscape#Custom_Colour_Palette)
somebody needs to come up with a similar technique that works in
Illustrator or you can hand edit the various fills when you get it
onto Lasercut. Alternatively a single layer of monochrome bitmap fill
with dithering might work well - you need to try things out to see
what works.