Easily Suede

Designing

To design this image, I originally began by making the page the size of the keychain, 2.25x4.475. Once I had the page size, I imported the image of the logo I chose and tried many different bitmaps for it until I landed on the one seen below. After I imported the image, I needed to create a bitmap to fit the size of the actual keychain for reference of where the final logo would fit. I created many bitmaps of this, but eventually due to the bitmaps being relatively inaccurate, I decided to freehand the silhouette of the keychain. Once this was complete, I ran a test print on the big laser cutter to check the scale of the final product. I found the keychain to be a bit small, so I changed the size of the whole thing by locking the dimensions together and changing just one to big slightly larger. After I did this, I changed the wireframe of the design, because there was a double cut line on the outside. Once I had completed all of this, I learned how to format this design for the small laser cutter. I changed the page size to 17.5in x 27in, and measured the cardboard to see where mine would cut. After many trials and errors, I discovered the X and Y coordinates correspond to the top left corner of the design, and I also discovered where my design would need to be placed in order for it to work. I then ran this cut, and it provided me with the middle image above. After this was done, I placed my leather keychain in the slot that was just cut out, and ran the cut again, but without the vector. Finally, I added the rivet and keyring to complete the keychain.

Problems

I ran into a lot of problems with this project. The first problem I encountered was the issue with the keychain's bitmap. I tried with multiple images, but I could never manage to get a clean and consistent line. I fixed this by drawing the outline. The next issue that I encountered was that there were dual lines on the outside. This issue was fixed by changing the model view to wireframe and using the trim tool to remove the outer edge of the design. Once I cut the first prototype, I found that it was too small, and decided to scale it up to more accurately fit the size of the physical keychain. The edges of this design were also sharp, as shown in the image carousel below with the darker engraving on cardboard. I didn't run into any other problems after that until the final design. Once I had ran my final test cut, upon trying to fit my keychain into the cut out slot, I discovered it to be too small of a slot, I simply shoved the Keychain into the slot and ran the cut. As demonstrated below, in my final product, the design for my logo was too low, and very nearly spilled off the edge of the design. The design was also slightly rotated on the keychain, which was likely due to the keychain being shoved into the slot that was too small.