Drawing Setup Guidelines for Laser Cutting and Engraving _ CorelDRAW _ Cut Laser Cut

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CorelDRAWThe following guidelines give a detailed step by step overview of how to set up your drawings for us in CorelDRAW Software. Youcan download a demo copy for free that you can use for up to 30 days.

How to set up a file in CorelDRAW

Using our drawing templatesIf using your materials or not using a templateLaser cutting linesVector engraving / scoringRaster engraving strokes & fillsNesting components & minimum cut widthsMaintaining continuous vector geometryReducing nodes / simplifying drawingUsing text - converting to curvesEmbedding images within a drawingTracing image bitmapsCleaning up drawing / removing overlapping linesSaving your file

Using our drawing templates

If using our materials, we recommend downloading our drawing templates, they help to verify scale and material type. Materialscome in all different sizes depending on the maximum sheet size supplied from the manufacturer.

Templates for CorelDRAW can be downloaded from the corresponding material page in the materials gallery. Once downloaded,select and open the sheet size that is large enough for your components.

Drawing setup guidelines for laser cutting and engraving | CorelDRAW ... http://www.cutlasercut.com/resources/drawing-guidelines/coreldraw

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Working with the drawing templates

Multiple files from same materialIf you want all your parts cut / engraved from the same material, arrange into multiples of the same templates and draw as many asrequired .

Multiple files from different materialsIf you want parts cut / engraved from multiple materials, Use the corresponding templates for chosen material

Template sizesTry and use templates that suit best the scale of you drawings. i.e if your components can fit within a 1000mm x 500mm template,dont position your drawing on a 2000mm x 1000mm template with lots of excess.

If you have lots of small components from the same material its best to draft these on a series of smaller templates approximately1000mm x 500mm rather than on one large template. Cutting & engraving densely populated files over large areas can cause thematerial to warp during the process.

If you have elements of your drawing that will only fit onto a large template but dont need to use a whole sheet, just leave theremaining areas blank. Well only charge you for the amount of material you need.

If using your materials or not using a template

Select File > New > Create a new document from the top menuSet Measurements to mmSet page dimensions to the size of the material sheet in mmAllow 5mm from the border of the material

Configuring units & colour mode

Set Primary colour mode to RGBDraw components at actual size you require. 1 unit = 1mmIf copying and pasting vectors from another file, make sure that they are at the scale you require within the page dimensions


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Laser cutting lines

For everything you would like to have laser cut draw out your lines in:

Red: RGB: 255,0,0Line width: to 0.01mm

Vector engraving / scoring

We have established optimized vector / scoring settings for all our materials to achieve a consistant result with the best clarity. Thedepth is very shallow and cosmetic just scratching the surface. The Strokes & Fonts engraving sample (line weight 0.25pt)demonstrates the clarity on each material. These can be viewed in the materials gallery.

For everything you would like to have vector engraved / scored draw out your lines in:

Blue: RGB: 0,0,255Line width: to 0.01mm


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Raster engraving strokes & fills

While we can raster engrave thin vector strokes, its advised that you vector engrave/ score them. All vectors you would like rasterengraved must be indicated by a vector fill.

To turn a stroke into a filled shape:

Set strokes to a minimum of 0.40mm. / 1pt (anything thinner wont raster engrave)Select Arrange > Convert outline to object command from the top menu

Set all fill colours to:

Black: RGB: 0,0,0

Arrange parts economically

When arranging artwork for engraving that have a few components on one sheet, its best to keep all of the raster engraving as closetogether as possible and in horizontal row. See more on nesting components for raster engraving

Raster engraving standard appearance & depth

We have established optimized settings for all materials. In raster engraving terms the marking is cosmetic, shallow and typically abalance between legibility and cleanliness. The Strokes & Fonts sample on the material pages demonstrates the clarity achievable oneach material.)

Bespoke depths / treatments:

If you would like to achieve a deeper result or an engraving a little heavier let us know your specification. In laser terms depth isusually specified in microns.

Up to 2mm is considered deep for most materials:

It is achievable, but the laser has to run slowly meaning the concentrated heat build up makes the material appear quite burnt or heatscorched. It is also more expensive to process. Raster and vector engraving is not absolute science in terms of depth specification andtherefore not suitable for making mechanical grooves or any features requiring precise depths. Achieving a certain depth is balance invariation between the laser power and speed. A depth of engraving will always be within a tolerance of +/-0.2mm.


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Nesting components & minimum cut widths

Nesting:

If compiling a file with lots of components on one sheet of material, make sure there is a gap of at least 2mm between thecomponents.

Small details / cut widths:

The laser burns away a portion of material which ranges from 0.1mm 0.4mm depending on a lot of different factors. Thismeans any areas in your design where cut lines come closer than 0.5mm together they could burn away entirely. Any detailsnarrower than 1mm are likely to be very fragile and in some cases can cause the material to warp whilst cutting. You need to beaware of this when drafting your drawing:

As a benchmark, we recommend that minimum cut widths be no smaller than the thickness of the material. E.G. If cutting from3mm acrylic, its best not to allow cut widths less than 3mm. We can go smaller but we cant be held responsible if you yourcomponents become fragile for you application. You can browse the minimum cut width tests in the materials galley.

Maintaining continuous vector geometry

Try and make sure that all your vector paths are continuous. If lines are drawn from more than one path, make sure that you combinethe paths.


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To do this:

Select the lines you would like to join using the Pick Tool (hold down shift to select multiples.)Select Arrange > Combine from the top menuIf there are gaps between nodes, select the desired nodes using the Shape tool and drag to join to the node you want to join

Reducing nodes / simplifying drawing

Draw with the least amount of nodes possible without sacrificing appearance. If you can reduce them, we suggest you do. Themachines will process you drawings quicker. Too many nodes can also have an affect on quality.

Drag over all the lines you want to reduce the nodes using the Shape toolSelect Reduce nodes button from the top tool bar to increase the smoothness of lines by automatically deleting nodes withinthe selection

Using text - converting to curves

All text used needs to be Outlined / converted to curves.

Select Arrange > Convert to curves from the top menu

This is to convert the text to vectors and preserve your font. If you dont do this and we dont have your font installed on ourcomputers, the file will open in default font Myriad or Arial. The middle islands of some letters will fall out when laser cut which canmake the text difficult to read. If you would like to prevent this one option is to use a stencil font.

Embedding images within a drawing

There are 2 options when working with images in CorelDRAW, embedding and using live trace. In both cases images need to be atleast 300 dpi and in grayscale. We recommend you carry out any image editing in photoshop or Gimp or any other image editingsoftware.


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Select *File*>*Import* from the top menuSelect the image you want to import and place inside your pageYou can lay vectors over the top of the image for laser cutting of vector engraving.Remember to Embed colour profiles when saving your image

Tracing image bitmaps

You can also trace the bitmaps of your image you want to incorporate within your file.

To do this first select the inserted image:

Select Bitmaps > Trace Bitmaps command from the top menu barExperiment with the tracing options for the desired effect.If using CorelDRAW x6 Select either Quick trace,Centerline trace* or Outline trace and experiment with the options untilyou achieve the desired effectMake sure your traced shapes are a solid Black RGB 0,0,0 colourDelete original image from behind the traced image when completeTo directly edit the traced elements ungroup them, Select > *Arrange*>*Ungroup* command from the top menu bar

Cleaning up drawing / removing overlapping lines

When drafting your drawing ensure that there are no duplicate vector strokes stacked up on one another. If you dont get rid of themthe laser will cut / score these lines repeatable, ruining the material and damaging the laser bed.

If you have placed components directly beside each other you are likely to have parts of the vector shape with duplicate lines. Besure to double check this as they can be hard to see in CorelDRAW.You will need to break apart these nodes manually so that theyshare the same line. In the example shown the middle line between the rectangles will be broken and shared.

Select the Arrange > Convert to curves command from the top menu bar


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Select the Shape tool and select one of the nodes you want to break from the object. It will turn blue when selected

Select the Break curve button in the top toolbar

Select the node on the other side of the line to be broken from the path. (it will turn blue)

Select the Break curve button again from the top tool bar


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Select the Arrange > Break Curve Apart tool from the top menu bar

Click away from the objects to de-select them. Click on the line you have just broken from the object with the Pick tool andpress delete

If you move the rectangle aside you can see that the line is now broken from the rectangle

Saving your file

Select File > Save AsFormat CDR CorelDRAWRemember to Embed colour profiles if you file includes an image

File nameSave your files in the following named format, replacing the fields with the relevant information:


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MATERIAL_THICKNESS_PAGEDIMENSIONS_DRAWINGNAME

The material drawing templates already have the material category name and page dimension by default, you will just need to enteryour drawing name. Make sure you give easily identifiable names to your drawings:

For example:BIRCH PLYWOOD_3MM_1200x600MM_ARCH MODEL1OF5

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Drawing Setup Guidelines for Laser Cutting and Engraving _ CorelDRAW _ Cut Laser Cut

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