{"id":397,"date":"2016-10-24T17:33:18","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T00:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/?page_id=397"},"modified":"2019-09-16T14:32:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T21:32:14","slug":"file-preparation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/laser-cutting-and-engraving\/file-preparation\/","title":{"rendered":"File Preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The laser is capable of two different modes of operation: cutting and engraving.\u00a0 A single file can include either or both types of operation.\u00a0 In order to communicate properly with the laser we need to prepare our files in a fairly specific fashion.<\/p>\n<h3>General File Information<\/h3>\n<p>First we&#8217;ll go through some general information on how to get the file set up and then go into detail on how to set up your file.\u00a0 The laser attaches to the computer in a similar fashion to a normal printer and, as such, almost any software can send a file to the laser.\u00a0 That being said, we prefer to use Adobe Illustrator Creative Cloud in order to keep things consistent.\u00a0 We have an <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1-KPeiF_wVsaeRR2SGegUlkWIyuWtt6EO\/view?usp=sharing\">Adobe Illustrator template<\/a> available to download (click the link and then the download icon\/button) that&#8217;ll provide you with a properly sized art board (17&#8243; x 28.5&#8243;, same as the laser bed) and a color palette that the laser can recognize.\u00a0 Note that the template is in RGB color space, the laser will not recognize files in any other color space.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#Cutting\">Cutting<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#Engraving\">Engraving<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#CutEng\">Cutting and Engraving<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once your file is complete proceed to <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/laser-cutting-and-engraving\/using-the-laser-cutter\/\">Configuring the Laser Cutter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"Cutting\"><\/a>Cutting<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1-KPeiF_wVsaeRR2SGegUlkWIyuWtt6EO\/view?usp=sharing\">Laser Cutter Template<\/a> (click the link and then the download icon\/button) for use with Illustrator and open it in Adobe Illustrator.<\/li>\n<li>Use the standard drawing tools in illustrator to draw out your cut lines.\u00a0 Common tools for drawing lines (Pen, Pencil, Line, Shape, etc) are shown in this CS6 toolbar menu. <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-3.33.07-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-399\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-3.33.07-PM.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-3-33-07-pm\" width=\"67\" height=\"76\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>For the laser to recognize lines as cut lines they must be set to a stroke weight of 0.001 inches.\u00a0 To set the stroke weight, select your cut lines and then type <strong>0.001 in<\/strong> into the stroke weight text box.\u00a0 If, for some reason, the box is reading in points (pt) then you may see <strong>0.072 pt<\/strong> in the box afterward which is fine since that&#8217;s actually the same as <strong>0.001 in<\/strong>.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/strokeweight.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-400 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/strokeweight.png\" alt=\"strokeweight\" width=\"555\" height=\"86\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/strokeweight.png 555w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/strokeweight-300x46.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 555px) 85vw, 555px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>In addition the laser will also only recognize your cut lines if they&#8217;re the proper color.\u00a0 The laser color palette is embedded into the template and can be seen by clicking on either the Fill Color or Stroke Color pull-down menus.<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2019\/09\/LaserFilePrepImages2019.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-609 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2019\/09\/LaserFilePrepImages2019.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"649\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2019\/09\/LaserFilePrepImages2019.png 649w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2019\/09\/LaserFilePrepImages2019-300x90.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 649px) 85vw, 649px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>In general we use red (RGB red) for the cut lines.\u00a0 With your cut lines selected, choose the red block from the laser cutter color palette to convert your lines to red.<\/li>\n<li>In case some of your cut lines form a solid you&#8217;ll want to make sure that the solid doesn&#8217;t have any fill.\u00a0 To do that choose the red slash line on white background from the Fill Color palette (as shown in the images above).<\/li>\n<li>Once you&#8217;ve done this then your cut lines should be ready for the laser.\u00a0 For instance, if you started with this:<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.49.50-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-435 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.49.50-PM.png\" width=\"555\" height=\"543\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.49.50-PM.png 555w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.49.50-PM-300x294.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 555px) 85vw, 555px\" \/><\/a>you would end up with this after it&#8217;s all processed:<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.50.15-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-436 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.50.15-PM.png\" width=\"550\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.50.15-PM.png 550w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.50.15-PM-300x295.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 85vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>In certain situations you may want some lines to cut before others.\u00a0 To do this you can create a second set of cut lines making them a different color.\u00a0 In this case the next color the laser sees is the blue in the Laser Cutter Palette.\u00a0 The above file would look like this if we wanted to cut the red circle first and then the blue square after. In addition it would be possible to set different power and speed settings for each cut.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.11.34-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-408\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.11.34-PM.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-4-11-34-pm\" width=\"583\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.11.34-PM.png 583w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.11.34-PM-300x283.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 583px) 85vw, 583px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Since the art board is the size of the laser bed, the laser will cut or engrave your artwork where you&#8217;ve placed it on the art board.\u00a0 In general, assuming your artwork is smaller than the entire laser bed, it is a good idea to place your artwork into the upper left hand corner of the template.\u00a0 This is the zero corner (origin) of the laser bed and it begins drawing from that point when you run you file.\u00a0 Given that we don&#8217;t want to cut right to the edge of the bed place the upper left hand corner of your artwork about 1\/8&#8243; (3mm) to 1\/4&#8243; (6mm) from the upper left hand corner of the ar tboard as shown in the above images.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><a id=\"Engraving\"><\/a>Engraving:<\/h3>\n<p>When engraving, the laser behaves much like an ink jet printer.\u00a0 The head moves back and forth, working its way down the image until it&#8217;s complete.\u00a0 Imaging is accomplished by the laser modulating the power it applies as it passes over the material, much like a printer modulates the amount of ink it puts down at a given spot to control color strength.<\/p>\n<p>The laser can engrave images of almost any type but it performs more consistently with vector images.\u00a0 This means that images like jpegs and pngs are best converted into vector files using Image Trace before sending to the laser.\u00a0 Not all files require tracing, some will print fine as-is so please ask if you&#8217;re not sure.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1-KPeiF_wVsaeRR2SGegUlkWIyuWtt6EO\/view?usp=sharing\">Laser Cutter Template<\/a> (click the link and then the download icon\/button) for use with Illustrator and open it in Adobe Illustrator<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;re drawing your own artwork in Illustrator or just engraving text then you can skip a few steps down.\u00a0 If you&#8217;re using a file you downloaded or scanned then you&#8217;ll want to trace the image first.\u00a0 Drag and then drop your image file (assuming it&#8217;s a jpeg or some other bitmap-type file) onto the Laser Cutter Template.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.26.55-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-410 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.26.55-PM.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-4-26-55-pm\" width=\"719\" height=\"595\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.26.55-PM.png 719w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.26.55-PM-300x248.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 719px) 85vw, 719px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Click the <strong>Embed<\/strong> button to insert the image into your template permanently.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/LaserFilePrepImages3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-411 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/LaserFilePrepImages3.png\" alt=\"laserfileprepimages3\" width=\"631\" height=\"593\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/LaserFilePrepImages3.png 631w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/LaserFilePrepImages3-300x282.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 631px) 85vw, 631px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Now we need to trace the image to vectorize it for easier engraving.\u00a0 With a simple image like this you can probably get away with just clicking the <strong>Image Trace<\/strong> button to the right of the <strong>Embed<\/strong> button.\u00a0 This applies default settings and generally works well for black and white images or logos.\u00a0 For more complex images, including photos, you can follow the directions found at <a href=\"https:\/\/helpx.adobe.com\/illustrator\/using\/image-trace.html\">Adobe Help<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.45.05-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-413 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.45.05-PM.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-4-45-05-pm\" width=\"591\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.45.05-PM.png 591w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.45.05-PM-292x300.png 292w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 591px) 85vw, 591px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Clicking <strong>Expand<\/strong> will trace out paths around the solids in your file and may allow further manipulation if you&#8217;re wanting to do more with your image.\u00a0 If you find that your traced image doesn&#8217;t appear to have as much detail as the original then it may have to do with the size of the original image.\u00a0 It helps to work with the largest image you can when starting out, you can always scale it down later on.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.48.32-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-414 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.48.32-PM.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-4-48-32-pm\" width=\"593\" height=\"603\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.48.32-PM.png 593w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-4.48.32-PM-295x300.png 295w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 593px) 85vw, 593px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Since the art board is the size of the laser bed, the laser will cut or engrave your artwork where you&#8217;ve placed it on the art board.\u00a0 In general, assuming your artwork is smaller than the entire laser bed, it is a good idea to place your artwork into the upper left hand corner of the template.\u00a0 This is the zero corner (origin) of the laser bed and it begins drawing from that point when you run you file.\u00a0 Given that we don&#8217;t want to cut right to the edge of the bed place the upper left hand corner of your artwork about 1\/8&#8243; (3mm) to 1\/4&#8243; (6mm) from the upper left hand corner of the art board as shown in the above images.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><a id=\"CutEng\"><\/a>Cutting and Engraving<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>A single file can include artwork for both cutting and engraving.\u00a0 A sample file with cutting (red box) and engraving (griffin image and Reed text) might look something like this.\u00a0 Text is treated just like any other image, as an engraving.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.31.54-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-427 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.31.54-PM.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-5-31-54-pm\" width=\"612\" height=\"616\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.31.54-PM.png 612w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.31.54-PM-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-24-at-5.31.54-PM-298x300.png 298w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 612px) 85vw, 612px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Since the art board is the size of the laser bed, the laser will cut or engrave your artwork where you&#8217;ve placed it on the art board.\u00a0 In general, assuming your artwork is smaller than the entire laser bed, it is a good idea to place your artwork into the upper left hand corner of the template.\u00a0 This is the zero corner (origin) of the laser bed and it begins drawing from that point when you run you file.\u00a0 Given that we don&#8217;t want to cut right to the edge of the bed place the upper left hand corner of your artwork about 1\/8&#8243; (3mm) to 1\/4&#8243; (6mm) from the upper left hand corner of the art board as shown in the above images.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The laser is capable of two different modes of operation: cutting and engraving.\u00a0 A single file can include either or both types of operation.\u00a0 In order to communicate properly with the laser we need to prepare our files in a fairly specific fashion. General File Information First we&#8217;ll go through some general information on how &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/laser-cutting-and-engraving\/file-preparation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;File Preparation&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1015,"featured_media":0,"parent":267,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-laser-cutting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":611,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/397\/revisions\/611"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/digital-fabs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}