Laser cutting is a process that uses a high-power laser to cut through or mark the surface of materials. In order to have a file laser cut, you need to submit a PDF that has been properly designed to specs listed below. Before submitting your first file, please read the information provided here in full. While most jobs can be completed on the day of submission, be sure to allow for at least 48hrs for job completion.
The Design Lab is equipped with a CO2 laser cutter:
Trotec Speedy 400, 130 watt CO2 Laser cutter with a 39" x 24" sized bed
Students are able to laser cut and/or engrave* a wide range of materials up to a thickness of ¼”. This includes plywood, acrylic plastic, leather, various fabrics (canvas, denim, felt), cardboard, cardstock, and paper.
*many materials can be both cut and engraved, but some can only be cut or only be engraved
If you are looking to work with any other material not listed on this page, please discuss on a case by case basis with the lab facilitator. Materials that are highly flammable (ie. foamcore) and materials that exhaust toxic gasses (pvc, vinyl, styrene), are not to be used with the laser cutter.
For material information specific to year 9 PRODUCT unit 2 (designing footwear), click here
You will need to create a vector file using Adobe Illustrator in order to make a file for use with the laser. You are required to save your files as PDF before you submit them through the submission form.
[Have any questions? The Lab Facilitator is available to show you any step of this process after school every day until 5pm.]
Here is an Adobe Illustrator template that you can use to get started. This template is embedded with instructions for preparing a file for the laser.
Use the pen tool to create vector paths that can be read by the laser cutter as cut or etch lines. Click here for a tutorial on using the pen tool.
2. Once you are finished designing your object, resize your art board to fit your object and eliminate any white space. If your project has multiple objects, orient them so that they fit nicely together on the laser bed. This may mean that you have to rotate certain parts or move things closer together. This will eliminate material waste.
As you are designing your products, keep in mind that it must be able to fit on the machine. Our laser cutter has a maximum bed size of: 39x24”, and many of our stocked materials are smaller than this maximum bed size. Consult your design teacher or the lab facilitator if you have a project that will not fit on the laser bed.
3. If you haven’t used the provided template, be sure to set your document colour mode to RGB. To do so, click on FILE, then DOCUMENT COLOR MODE, then select RGB. Now that you’ve changed your file to RGB mode, please ensure that you are using the correct colours for engraving, cutting, and scoring your file.
4. Make sure you are using the proper colours when setting up your cuts, scoring, and engraving:
A. Outer Cut lines have to be RED (RGB 255,0,0), with a stroke of 0.1pt
B. Inner Cut lines have to be BLUE (RGB 0,0,255) with a stroke of 0.1pt
C. Score lines have to be GREEN (RGB 0,255,0) with a stroke of 0.1pt
D. Any objects you would like to ENGRAVE should be in black. These do not have to be 0.1pt lines.
Inner cuts will be cut out before outer cuts. This means your outer outlines should be red, and any elements inside your red outline should be blue. Scoring is a process of engraving a fine line through a low powered cut, anything in green with a stroke of 0.1pt will be scored.
5. In order to engrave a design into your chosen material, you must provide a black filled object. A deep black (RGB 0,0,0) will provide the deepest engraving, whereas a medium grey will appear lighter. You can play with different shades of grey to achieve different depths of engraving.
6. Outline your text! If you have any text in your file, right click it and select “change to outlines” from the drop down menu. Please note that this will remove your ability to further edit your text.
7. Remove hidden cut lines! Make sure no vector lines are hidden by white shapes or lines. The laser will see all cut lines in your document - even the ones you visually hide with white elements. If you need help cutting out unwanted cut lines, please see your design teacher or the lab facilitator.
8. Embed your images! Make sure to embed any images you include in your project file. If you do not we will not be able to see an image on our end, and it will not get engraved. To embed an image, select it, and then select the button labelled "embed" on the top left of your screen.
9. Cutting out text! If you are cutting text out of your material rather than engraving it, consider how your text might look once cut. If you use a stencil font, you won’t lose any nested elements inside your text which could make your text challenging to read. Alternatively, you can add small bridges that hold in place the elements that would have been cut out.
10. If you are having trouble viewing your cut lines when inspecting the PDF export of your design, try center aligning your cut lines. First, select all of your cut lines. Secondly, go to the stroke menu (view > stroke) and select Align Stroke > Align Stroke to center.
Click here to access a library of flexible hinge patterns to try out in your designs!
To create a perfect 1mm dashed line for laser cutting and sewing leather, create a stroke (a fine vector line) and open your stroke menu (window > stroke). Input the following details:
Afterwards, select your dashed line and go to OBJECT > EXPAND APPEARANCE. Then select OBJECT > EXPAND > OK.
Now you are able to edit your dashed line to a 0.1pt red outline, and remove all colour from the fill.
