Engravings and Inlays with Laser Cutter

If making an engraving for a wood piece, it's usually easier to engrave a large uncut piece and later handcut your piece (after engraving.) . Otherwise, it is very tedious to perfectly center a pre-cut piece on the laser cutter. Hence, you should include the shape of your piece with a thick line to be engraved. See below. Note that I'm using an art board the size of the Epilog laser cutter. (600 x 300 mm). All lines are thick.

If making an inlay, it will all be cut into 3 mm wood and acyrlic. See below.

If using the vinyl cutter for stickers or stencil making, you want all artwork to be filled in shapes. No thin lines. I would also recommend setting the stroke width to "none." I also recommend using a 600 x 300 mm art board to help gauge size. Before exporting and transferring to vinyl cutter, you'll convert illustrator file to .jpeg. See below.