Software notes

Laser cutting - tracing lines from photos

1. Open photo in Photoshop, create extra layer, use magic wand to select bits you don't want, delete.
2. Paintbucket on new layer (eg. black) then save as PDF
3. Open in Illustrator and select Live Trace, technical drawing to get outlines.Then 'Live Paint' (not sure why but...)
4. If Illustrator doesn't recognise these as lines then may have to do this:
1. export as dxf and open in a CAD programme or Rhino to explode
2. eg. in Rhino, select and type "explode" and should explode out all the lines
3. Then reselect and export as dxf file.
5. Open back up in Illustrator and make the lines:
1. 0.01 pixels line weight,
2. RGB blue (255, 0, 0) for cutting lines.
6. Send to printer (make sure you give slightly more material to cut than needed)

Laser cutting - general
Cutting:

1. 0.01 point size for the line weight for illustrator files, (or 0.05pt for AutoCAD files)
2. RGB blue (255, 0, 0) for cutting lines.

Engraving:

1. 0.01 point size for the line weight for illustrator files, (or 0.05pt for AutoCAD files)
2. RGB green – (0,255,0) for engraving lines

NB. if you have both cutting and engraving, put on separate layers

Your materials should not be larger than 810mm x 450mm. Leave about 5mm around outside edge for tolerances.

Name files:
[UPI][filename][number of copies]copies.ai     e.g. awat122_contours_1copy.ai

Video tips

• When saving images in photoshop to overlap, save as png files so they don't have a background
• AE - save as Quicktime (.mov) to get a smaller file. NB these will play in the VLC movie players. OR use H.264 format for compressed file.
• Audio, remember to turn the audio on when doing the render (Output module window)