Laser cutting with Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a vector drawing program that is used by many people. In this tutorial we will explain how to create a drawing for laser cutting with Illustrator.

What do you need?

• Basic knowledge of Adobe illustrator
• A design in a vector drawing
• Knowledge of our drawing rules

Optional:

• The Snijlab template with the correct settings

What should you pay attention to?

These things you need to consider if you want to create a laser cutting design with Adobe Illustrator:

• RGB is the correct color mode (CMYK is not read correctly by the uploader)
• Maximum size for most materials is 1200 x 600 mm (some materials are smaller)
• Text must be converted to outlines

How to open a new file for laser cutting in Illustrator?

Open Illustrator and create a new file with these settings:

• Unit millimeters
• Maximum size width 1200 mm by height 600 mm
• Color mode RGB
• No more than 1 Artboard

Laser cutting or engraving text

Text must be converted into outlines before cutting or engraving.

• Select the text
• Go to Type
• Choose Create Outlines

Now your text has been converted into vector lines. Put these lines in the correct color according to the drawing rules.
Check the preview in the uploader to ensure that your drawing has been loaded correctly.

Drawing rules in brief

Create your drawing according to the rules below so that it is read correctly by the uploader.
These are the drawing rules in brief:

	Colour	Layer name	Line type
To cut	Blue (rgb 0,0,255)	to cut	lines, polylines, curves, splines
Line engraving	Red (rgb 255.0.0)	line engraving	lines, polylines, curves, splines
Surface engraving	Magenta (rgb 255,0,255)	surface engraving	closed lines, polylines, curves and splines

Read the drawing rules here

Template and sample drawings

To help you get started, you can view a template or example drawing.

Template

This template is an Illustrator file that contains the correct settings.