Short guide to the use of laser cutting machines/Use of Adobe Illustrator for Laser Cutting

In this sections of the book will be described how to use Adobe Illustrator to create patterns to be used in laser cutting machines.

Create a new file

Open Adobe Illustrator and create a new file.

Change the units from pts to inches, and the colors from CMYK to RGB.

Design of lines and objects

To create lines, draw images, create shapes or designs will be used Illustrator left menu, the options: Pen, pencil, text, shapes tools, etc. with them will be created lines, draw other images, make shapes such as rectangles, circles, etc. Or create new design.

Draw a line

Draw a line with the pen tool (the icon of a pen), press left click on the canvas to draw the first point, then press the left click in other part of the canvas to trace or make a line.

Even when a lines is easy to make and does not look to useful, can be use to cut pieces in a straight line (or curved line) in the cases we just want to cut a piece of material to reduce its form or make a new form.

Creation of shapes

Choose the shape tool, select a shape and draw it to create a rectangle, circle, star, etc.

A tool that is used to properly adjust the dots that form part of the lines or objects is the rule.

Creation of more forms

New forms can be easily created with the pen tool, just draw 2 or more points, then adjust their position of each dot changing the value for x (diagonal point) or y (vertical point).

x value of 0 is located at the beginning of the page in the left size and it increases towards the right side. y value of 0 is located at the beginning of the page in the top of the page and it increases towards the bottom of the page (canvas).

The coordinates are written in the form (x, y), for example the first dot can be located in 2 inches beside the left corner of the canvas and 2 inches down of the top of the canvas, making the first dot (2, 2).

For example: To create a triangle, can be used 3 points, to create a rectangle use four points. The shape tool can also be used.

A tool that is used to properly adjust the dots that form part of the lines or objects is the rule.

Round corners

The corners of created objects (with pen tool or shape tool) can be rounded selecting Effect menu, Stylize, Round Corners and choosing how rounded the shape is desired.

Use of the rule

To see the rule in the canvas press Ctrl + R or select view, rulers, show rulers.

A measuring tape can be used to measuring of physical objects, and the using these measures to draw them in the canvas using the rule to choose the dots.

Use of the coordinates for each dot or object

The rule may not be necessary when using the x and y values, for example, drawing a straight line of 2 inches, the first dot can use the coordinate (2,2) and the second dot can use the coordinate (4, 2).

If a object has more than one dot, they can be aligned in the same way, for example a rectangle with 4 dots, 2 inches long can have the following dots:

(2, 2) (2, 4) (4, 2) (4, 4).

The objects can also be aligned with the align tool, for this, click in the window menu and choose align (or press shift + F7)

Changing the color of the lines or shapes

To change the color of a line or an object, click on the object, then in the properties window, appearance section, click on the square beside the fill option and in the filling space beside #, type the color number.

RGB color model uses a system of 6 number and letters, the three more used colors in laser cutting to indicate what type of task will be done with the line or object are the following:

Black, to raster etching (00000)

Blue, to vector etching (0000FF)

Red, to cut Cutting (ff00000)

Choose the color palette icon and type ff0000, this will create a red color, this will indicate the printer that the line or object will be cut, or 000000 to raster etch, or 0000ff to vector etch.

Cutting, vector etching and raster etching

Once you have designed an object use the color numbers to complete the desired task.

Cutting

Use red color, ff00000, this will cut the object in the desired shape.

Raster etching

Use black color, 00000, this will vector etch the design.

Vector etching

Use blue color, 0000FF, this will vector etch the design.

Print to sent the file to the laser cutting machine

To sent the document created to the laser cutting machine just press the keys Ctrl + p and choose the laser cutting machine, after this the file will be sent to the Universal Laser Systems control panel software, and from them the cutting can be started.

See also

Short guide to the use of laser cutting machines/Use of Inkscape for Laser Cutting