General Guide
Setup Document in mm
Draw a reference plane rectangle at 1:1 scale to match the size of the material in mm. We recommend setting your document to 1300x900mm so you do not exceed the machines cutting area.
Leave a 5mm border as the laser cannot reach to the extreme edges of the cut bed.
Document Setup Options
Below are two options on how to layout your design within your file.
General File Setup
Make Model to scale: 1:1 mm
Laser cutting Lines
Create a new layer and call it “cut”. Place everything you want cut into this layer. Set Colour to True colour RED (255,0,0) and make line weight as thin as possible.
Vector Engraving
Create a new layer and call it “Vector Engrave”. Set the line to True colour BLUE (RGB 0,0,255) and make line weight as thin as possible.
Raster engraving (images, jpg’s)
Set anything you want raster engraved black, RGB 0,0,0. For raster engraving you need to have a fill and stoke applied then separated, and placed in their own group.
Text
Text to be cut or engraved which has a specific font must be converted from text format to vector lines.
Nesting components
When arranging several parts to be cut from a single piece please ensure that there is at least a 2mm gap between each design. As a general rule the gap should be at least the thickness of the material e.g. on 3mm acrylic; the gap between each design is advised to be 3mm.
Join all vector lines
Please join all lines that appear to be the same line so they are continuous vector lines. This will help speed up laser cutting and make a smoother line.
Curves and Arcs
Any primitive shapes/Arcs must be converted to vector lines before exporting.
Reduce the amount of points in your design
Try and keep the amount of vector points to a minimum. Delete any unnecessary points.
Delete all duplicate or overlapping lines as the laser cutter will cut these lines several times,
potentially destroying your design.
Save File: Select File>Save as either:
- DXF (Autocad and more)
- AI (illustrator)
- CDR (CoralDraw)
- SVG (Inkscape)
- PSD (Photoshop)
- JPEG (Image)
- BMP (Image)
- PNG (Image)
Please use the following name format for your files: Your surname_material_colour_thickness_quantity.
If you are sending several files cut from the same material add a letter to the end of file name:
Smith_Acrylic_Yellow_3mm_x5_B
(You can use you own naming system as long as you provide clear typed instructions)