Basic ConsiderationsThe laser cutter that we have is an Epilog Zing 16, 30 watt.
It has a maximum cutting area of 12 x 16 inches. It can cut and/or engrave a variety of materials. These include: cardboard, wood, acrylic, leather, cork and fabric. It can also engrave some metals. The maximum thickness of material to be cut is 1/4 inch. We have had the most success with materials that are 1/8 inch thick. Raster engraving can be done with a variety of file types. Vector cutting requires .svg files with lines to be cut set at "hairline" width. If you would like a brief overview on how laser cutting works, this Instructables article is very good. I use parts of it with our students. To print successfully a design must:
This is a link to the Zing manual--it has recommended settings and considerations for different materials and types of designs. Ponoko is a company which will laser cut images on a wider variety and thickness of materials than we can offer. They also have many project ideas. Inkscape: Free Like Free KittensNote: "Free Like Free Kittens" is explained down there at the bottom of the page in that Nerd Moment aside. Ignore it if you wish. Now, on with the important stuff.
Inkscape is a program I want to love. It is a full featured graphic design program which is open source and thus free and constantly being upgraded and developed. But sigh, it is difficult to learn and apt to do really weird stuff...and Coreldraw hates files made in Inkscape. That said, Inkscape can be used to make vector graphics that you can tweak so that Coreldraw won't spit them out. And, if you are very lucky and design just right, you can actually send jobs straight from Inkscape to the laser cutter. Theoretically. I did it once. I am not sure how, but it worked. On an Epilog. At Generator. Oh well. Inkscape is on every computer in the lab (free!) and some kids love it. Recently (last week) Ponoko published a great set of tutorials on using Inkscape to design for laser cutting. I am determined to follow them and see if I can recreate my success. I have provided the link so that you can too! NerD Moment: Free like kittens?"Free like free kittens, not free like free beer."
This is an old criticism of open source software in general. Open source software is free making you think "Yay! Free is good." Sure, free BEER is good. Yum with no cost. Most excellent. But free kittens? Yes, they are adorable but wow, are they a lot of work. They are messy, erratic, destructive and claw-y and no matter how much you love those little balls of fur, you have moments where you think "Good God, why did I let these things into my house?" So complex, mind melting, often buggy open source software is frequently described as free like free kittens-- perhaps worth the work but you are GOING to have to work. And boy howdy, Inkscape is free. Like. Free. Kittens. |
Getting Started with CorelDrawSo far, the easiest program that we have found which communicates with the laser cutter is Coreldraw.
Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape are both supposed to be able to communicate but are expensive (Illustrator) or complicated (Inkscape, see info on left.) We have six lab licenses for Coreldraw and I have one on my personal PC, which you are welcome to use. Coreldraw is a full featured graphic design program. The more you know about it the more you can do, but even without knowing a lot you can still design amazing things. Below is a video with very basic information to get started with Coreldraw. You can freehand draw in Coreldraw, but you can also import and manipulate shapes.There are a number of tutorials below that that include more advanced information. More tips:
It would seem that the easiest thing to do would be to find an .svg file and just open it in Coreldraw, right? Nope. Here is the why in a nutshell: SVG is a vector file format that is compatible with all modern browsers -- it's part of the W3C standards. SVG images and their behaviors are defined in XML text files, meaning they are scripted in a very specific code. CorelDraw is a commercial, vector-based illustration program that has been around since 1989, long before the current XML standards were set. CorelDraw is not the best modern vector-based application on the market but it has been around for so long and is easier to learn than compliant SVG creators like Inkscape, so it has become the de facto standard in the laser cutter world. Thanks internet. Good to know. But ouch, tech talk. Let's just say that Coreldraw is a cranky grandparent annoyed by all this newfangled scripting. Often, it is easier to save the .svg as a .png or .jpg file then import it to Coreldraw. Then grandma will get to printing without complaint. Many tutorials for Coreldraw can be found on the Coreldraw site. Some that seemed particularly helpful are: Other PossibilitiesThere are some online tools which create vector graphics. They are good places to start and to try out designs, even if you end up recreating your images in Coreldraw. Some that are worth looking at are: LibreOffice also has a vector graphic tool.
There are also some sites designed just for laser cutting specific items: |