LaserCutter Vector Cutting Basic Tutorial

Introduction

In order for the Laser Cutter to cut through materials, it needs a vector line to follow with the laser. Vector lines are created on the computer using various applications such as:

• Adobe Illustrator
• CorelDraw
• InkScape

A vector line in its simplist form is two points on the screen, which have a line connecting them. Images made in these applications might only consist of points and lines. These lines might have a colour and thickness. If these lines enclose an area, the area can be filled with a colour or gradient.

This is in contrast to the images you will be used to which are 'pixel' based. Pixel based images are made up of a large grid of dots, each with a colour value.

Overview

In this tutorial we will take a pixel based image and convert it to a vector image using Adobe Illustrator CS5. We will then edit this to enable the laser cutter to follow the lines we would like to cut. This involves editing the line thickness, deleting all the 'filled in areas' and lines we do not want the laser cutter to cut.

Finally we'll stick it in CorelDraw and laser cut it.

Finding an Image

To make your life easier, it is best to start with images that have only a few colours, and which are flat. i.e. no gradients or noise.

For demonstration purposes I have not made my life easier, I have picked this image:

Although this image has gradients, we can fix it in Photoshop to make it a flatter image

Fine-tuning the image before using Illustrator

I will open the image in Photoshop. To make the image have less colours (I count the gradient as many colours) we can do a few things:

1.  If it is just one shaded colour, you can use threshold
1. Click on the threshold button in the Adjustments panel on the leftIt's in the bottom row of icons in the middle
2. It will add an adjustment layer in photoshop and take you to editing it. This panel should now look like this

3. And your image should now be black and white:
   
4.  Underneath the graph there is a slider, if you slide it around you should be able to get a good black and white image:
   
5. Heres where I moved the slider to:
   
6. If you are happy with it, you can save as a JPEG image and move onto the next Chapter "Converting Pixel Image into Vector Image"
2. If these last few steps didn't bode well, then we will try a different 'filter'
1. We will use the 'Cutout' filter, accessed in the menu 'Filters > Artistic > Cutout...
   
   
2.  You will see these sliders:
   
3. Move them about until you have however many colours you need. Your image should look flat (no gradients) like this:
   
4. Save your file as a JPEG image and close Photoshop.

Converting Pixel image into Vector Image

Now we can open our image in Illustrator and convert it:

1. Open Illustrator
2. Open your file
1. Go to the menu "File > Open" and find your file
3.  It will place your image on a sheet of paper. Click on the image and you will see the top bar change and a "Live Trace" button will appear
   
4. Click "Live Trace" and your image should change to Black and White and the top bar will change once more:
   
5. You can change the "Threshold" and "Min Area" numbers to change how it converts your image
1. You will find that the flatter your image is, the better the results will be
6. To just get the outlines of the image, we need to click the "Tracing Options Dialogue" which is the small button at the top, next to the "Custom" dropdown box. The dialogue box should look like this:
   
1.  Uncheck the Fills box
2. Check the Strokes box
3. Check the Ignore white box
7.  When you click OK, your image should look like this:
   
8. When you are happy, click the "Expand" button at the top:
   
9. You will now be able to see the points and lines Illustrator has created. It naturally strokes the line with a thickness of 1pt. We want make the thickness 0.01pt as this is what the lasercutter likes.
1. Change the 'Stroke' number in the top bar to 0.01pt (it's not in the dropdown box, you have to manually type it in)
10. Now we must Save
1. Go to File > Save as
2.  Save it as an Illustrator Document (.ai)
3. Click save
4. On the dialogue box with more options on:
   
5. Uncheck "Use Compression"

Laser Cutting

Now we are ready to use CorelDraw to layout our artwork and send to the laser cutter

1. Login to the lasercutter computer
1. Username: .\lasercutter
2. Password: lasercutter
2.  Load up CorelDraw X4 (icon is at the bottom next to start menu)
3.  CorelDraw makes you a new document which is 40cm by 30cm
4. Import your image
1. go to File > Import
2. find your image and click import
3. Click OK if it asks you any questions
5. Its easier if you group you artwork lines together.
1. right click on your artwork and select Group
6. Position your artwork so it will line up with the material you put in the lasercutter
7. Now you're ready
8. Before we send the whole thing, we need to do test cuts.
9. Make a small square using the square tool.
10. In the bottom right corner, double click the black box and change the stroke to "Hairline"
11. Click OK
12. go to File > Print
13. Check the box which says "selection"
14. Click on Properties
15. Go to the Advanced tab and find a preset which most resembles your material.
16. Click it and click "Load"
17. Now it should have updated the setting on the previous tab. Go back to this one
18. Make sure the Vector check is marked
19. Have a look at the speed and power settings in the vector section (bottom right)
20. Click OK
21. This takes you back the print window. Click "Print" (make sure the lasercutter is on and connected)
22. Open the lasercutter and put in your material.
23. Click Focus button and use up and down arrows until measuring tool brushes the surface of the material
24. Click the Job button and you should see your file as JOB1:graphic1.cdr
25. Switch on Extractor fan (big green button)
26. Press GO!
27. When machine beeps it's finished.
28. Check whether it was a good cut
29. If not, readjust settings (12.) and retry.
30. When it is a good cut, select your work and go through the last steps to send it.

Cheers

No Windows installed in this Computer Suite sign

Thought I'd share this with everyone. Change as you see fit.

No Windows. Windows is not installed in this computer suite

Here's a link to the pdf of it.

Let me know if you use it. Cheers!

website widths

Whenever I start making a website I'm always looking up what the current standard is. Here is an example of some peoples opinions.

General consensus is that in 2012/13 min size screen is 1280, but people don't necesarily use full screen browsing. So perhaps 980px is fine.

Another person has posted up some more fluid designs alternatives:

http://framelessgrid.com/

http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/

http://www.getskeleton.com/

These look good

Creating cogs in Illustrator

Thought it worth remembering (although it is very easy) but I wanted to create cogs in Illustrator. Luckily there are lots of youtube videos on the subject, here are two good ones:

and also this one:

The first involves making a circle, drawing a box whose centre is lined up with the circles but is draw on the edge of the circle. This box is then rotated around the centre of the circle by clicking on the box, clicking the rotate tool, and 'alt' clicking on the centre of the circle.

The second involves cutting a circle using rotated and copied lines and circles, and deleting the cog bits from the outside.

I prefer the first method, as cog notches do not wedge shaped the wrong way.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 - keeps asking for serial number

I recently installed Adobe CS 5 on a Windows Vista laptop. During the initial stage of the installation it did ask for a serial for which I put in the correct numbers. It told me everything was fine and installed.

I then tried opening Adobe Photoshop and it came up with the a dialogue box asking for the serial. I put it in, it gave me the green tick and told me everything was fine. The dialogue box disappeared and then reappeared wanting me to put in the serial, in a continual loop.

I tried serveral logins' including the administrators but none worked. I also tried a reboot.

I must mention that this laptop had Adobe CS3 installed previously which had stopped working due to a licensing error.

After trawling through the internet I initially found this post, and he posts again to say he has found a forum and found the only fix was to delete a database file. He failed to say which file, or even which post he had found!!

After some more looking, specifically for Adobe CS databases, I found this post. It mentions deleting:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache\cache.db



I found the file, renamed it and tried Adobe again. Put in the serial and it works beautifully.


My conclusion was that this file had either gotten corrupt or had the wrong permissions.

Printing cost for the Epson Stylus Pro 7600 on A1+ Roll of Luster paper

We're going to start charging per page for the use of the Epson Stylus Pro 7600. I've been asked to work out the cost. So I've found this webpage which describes the costs in $'s per ft squared inc media! So a little conversion is necessary:

Premium Luster - $1.22 per ft squared

1ft squared = 30.49cm squared

A1+ = 91.4cm x 61.55cm = 5625.67cm squared

A2 on A1+ = 61.55cm x 42cm = 

2 x A3 on A1+ = 61.55cm x 42cm

2 x A4 on A1+ = 61.55cm x 21cm




Scrap that.


Just found that Derby University have a Printing Bureau, and have prices showing how much they charge on a pdf document.


They charge £15 for an A1 print. As a rough estimate they must double the cost for overheads and a small profit.


So:
A1 = £7


What I was thinking was charging for the whole length:

Basically just estimated the rest.


If the student brings in their own paper, we will simply cut the price in half. So:


A1 = £3.50
A2 = £1.75
A3 = £0.80
A4 = £0.40

Illustrator Can't Locate the Startup Proiles

A tutor was having trouble on her machine. Whenever she loaded up illustrator it would come up with this error message:

Can't locate the Startup Profiles. Please try after installing illustrator again.
Illustrator will now attempt to create a default document

I noticed that it also happened on any networked login, but not local logins.

Her machine was a little different then the typical set up. I had enabled "Force Local Home" on the active directory accounts.

After a bit of investigation I eventually ruled it down to NHR. I had just installed it on all machines (see how I fixed NHR) including hers (even though it didn't actually need it). I found that the directories inside - ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe were symbolic links and the "Force Local Home" option didn't work with this very well (I don't know why though).

Anyway, as the NHR thing fixes the problems she was having with her networked home, I've just unticked the "Force Local Home" on Active Directory accounts.

I also had this problem with another machine and to fix it I removed NHR from the com.apple.loginwindow.plist file:

sudo defaults delete com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook
sudo defaults delete com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook

It basically means it doesn't load at login or logout.

Adobe CS 5 Error 16 - uninstall and reinstall adobe product

Just came across this today on a staff machine. When they tried to use indesign it would crash almost immediately. I then logged in under a local account and tried to use any of the Adobe Creative Suite products, all of which showed this error straight away.

I rebooted, reseting the PRAM and running /sbin/fsck -yf. No changes were made to the operating system and Adobe CS 5 still came up with this error, so the problem wasn't here.

I read up on it and it looked like it has something to do with licensing. I finally logged in as Root and tried all the Adobe products, and IT WORKED!

After running this it worked on all local logins.

Coincidentally, when the staff member logged in and ran indesign, it crashed straight away (no error). After this the error 16 occurred on all logins!! So it was something with her account which much change something somewhere. I shall look into this!

Can't place images in Illustrator - blank box - OS X 10.6.6 Active Directory

I had this problem a few years ago, and it's recently popped up again. The problem is that when Active Directory Users (with home drives on Windows servers) try and place a picture within an Illustrator document, they just get a blank box with an X through it.

The way I found in fixing it previously was to install NHR (previously documented in my blog), which basically replaces the ~/Library/Caches folder with a symlink to a temporary folder on the local hard drive. It then deleted this when the networked user logged out.

The trouble I'm having now is that I can't get NHR to work with OS X 10.6.6. It simply doesn't want to run on login, maybe not even at all. The work around that I'm formulating is to simply make a little shell script which runs at login and does what NHR did.

I've now made a little Automator application which runs the terminal script:


mkdir /Users/Shared/temp
mkdir /Users/Shared/temp/Caches
rm -R ~/Library/Caches
ln -s /Users/Shared/temp/Caches ~/Library/

This has fixed the problem with the users who run the Automator Application, although when they login to a machine which doesn't have this "/Users/Shared/temp/Caches" folder they will encounter problems.

I shall make a new post describing how I made the startup script.

OS X 10.6.6 Active Directory login Illustrator Print.ai is an unknown format

Well, this is the continuation of Active Directory home drives and software troubles related to it. At the moment when most members of staff and students open a new Illustrator file they get the error message:

The file "Print.ai" is an unknown format and cannot be opened.

If you click OK a couple of times it then gives you the make a new document type window, where you can select a template etc. When you click OK to this you get one more of the errors above, and after this you finally get this error:

Can't create a new illustration. The command was canceled.

Just thinking about it, I've not actually tried opening an existing Illustrator file, but I shall when I next get the chance. Interestingly, this does not happen to all Active Directory logins. I've not been able to deduct what is the difference between logins that can and can't.

I've updated to the latest version of Illustrator - 11.0.2. We used to use NHR (Network Home Relocator) which relocated the "/Library/Caches" folder, and sorted out a lot of troubles. One in particular related to illustrator showing images placed in a document. Unfortunately I can't get NHR to work on 10.6.6.

If anyone else can add to this, whether they also have this problem, or they have suggestions, all is welcome.

Creating Stripes in Illustrator using Patterns and Live Paint

I recently wanted to fill in a circle is some stripes in Illustrator, but alas it was not self explanatory. After looking it up on the old reliable internet I found quite a few posts describing a technique of copying and pasting lines throughout. Not really what I wanted to hear. The process I wanted was something along the lines of:

Mythical solution (does not really work this way, although I would like it to)

1. Get the fill tool
2. Select "Stripes"
3. Fill object

I decided to investigate myself. I finally came up with a pretty close technique.

Making two lines into a "Pattern"

1. Draw a line and make it a stroked colour of some thickness
2. Copy and Paste it next to the first, making it stroke a different colour
3. Select both lines and go to - Edit > Define Pattern
4. Click on "Live Paint" from the left toolbar
5. From the Fill Colour box at the top you can select the striped pattern you just made
6. Click on the object you want to fill with stripes

Star filled with striped pattern

To change the colour of the stripes:

Changing the colour of pattern using
"Recolor Artwork"

1. Select the fill (double click on it).
2. Select "Recolor Artwork"
3. Go get the option to change each of the colours in the fill:

Just found this post which describes a similar process using boxes, and dragging the boxes into the "Swatches" to create a pattern. Also how to rotate it, simply right click > Transform > Rotate  and tick "Pattern". Nice.

Rotating a pattern