File Preparation Checklist

Follow the below order of checks when preparing files for laser cutting;

Colour Mode = RGB

Function Colours & Strokeweights have been set correctly

All Groups have been ungrouped

Clipping Masks have been removed

Artwork Positioned within the document artboard

Floating or Stray Points have been removed

Dashed Lines have been converted to individual paths

Duplicates and overlapping lines have been removed from the document

Text has been converted to outlines

Before checking your file, dFab recommends changing your workspace view to Essentials Classic.

Window> Workspace>Essentials Classic

Colour Mode: RGB

1. Change the colour mode to RGB File > Document Colour Mode > RGB Colour

Function Colours & Stokeweights

1. Select all Objects Ctrl + A

2. Recolour Edit > Edit Colours > Recolour Artwork or select the recolour artwork icon

3. Select Advanced Options...

4. Double Click the new color swatch to edit a colour

5. Modify the colour value and cilck Ok

6. When all colours have been corrected click Ok to save.

7. Select all black fills or objects intended to be etched. (if no etching is required, complete steps 10 and 11 only) Select> Select Same menu

8. Change the fill colour to Black000 and ensure there is no stroke colour.
9. These objects can then be hidden Object > Hide > Selection or Ctrl +3

10. Select all remaining objects Ctrl + A

11. Change stroke weight to 0.01mm

12. Show all objects

    Object > Hide > Selection or Alt +Ctrl +3

If colours other than Red, Green, Blue or Black are present in the document they will need to be located in the file and converted to the correct colour value or alternatively, deleted.

These can be located quickly by using the Select> Select Same menu

Groups

1. Select all objects

   Ctrl + A

2. Ungroup Objects Object > Ungroup or Ctrl + Shift + G

3. Continue until no groups remain

Clipping Masks

1. Select all objects

   Ctrl + A

2. Release All Clipping Masks Object > Clipping Mask > Release

If clipping masks are present in the document, further modification may be required before proceeding.

Artwork Position

1. Move artwork within artboard or resize artboard using the artboard tool Shift + O

An illustrator artboard should not exceed the laser cutter bed size (800 x 500 /1000 x 700) Ensure all artwork is placed within the usable dimensions of the material loaded in the laser cutter

Floating or Stray Points

1. Select > Object > Stray Point

2. Use Del/Delete/backspace to delete stray points

Dashed Lines

Dashed line types are not supported by the Epilog print driver. This means all paths will need to be converted into individual line segments.

dFab recommends doing this in your CAD software of choice or using the below breakDashes script in illustrator.

breakDashes.jsx

4KB

breakDashes.zip

archive

Downloading & Installing

1. Close Adobe Illustrator

2. Download and Unzip breakDashes.zip

3. Move breakDashes.jsx to ... >Program Files > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator [20..] > Presets > en_Us > Scripts

4. Open illustrator. The script should now be available under the File > Scripts Menu

Running Script

1. Select all dashed lines within the document

   If selecting multiple, Select> Select Same> Appearance

2. Run Script

   File > Scripts > breakDashes

3. Ungroup all objects

   Object > Ungroup or Ctrl + Shift + G

Duplicates

Duplicate Engrave paths may result in a cut rather than a surface engraving

Duplicate Cut paths have a significant risk of fire as the laser will fire directly into the vector, potentially igniting debris already in the laser tray.

If a significant number of duplicate objects are present, we recommend using Rhino to consolidate objects and remove duplicates.

Consolidating Paths with Illustrator

If there are a number of overlapping or intersecting unjoined lines in illustrator, the shape builder tool can be used to construct continuous polygons.

How to create shapes using the Shape Builder tool in Illustrator

Removing Duplicates with Rhino

1. Download & Open Rhino

2. Open your laser .Ai file in rhino and double click Top Viewport

   skip to step 7 if there are no etched areas within your file

3. Use SelHatch to select all etched areas within your file

4. Use DupBorder command to create outlines of these areas

5. Once outlines have been created, use SelHatch again and delete all hatches.

6. Select All objects Ctrl + A and use Explode to deconstruct all objects.

7. Make2D Ensure maintain source layers has been turned on.

8. Invert and Delete all original linework

9. Press Esc to deselect all artwork

10. Joining lines of the same function

    1. Select a red path

    2. Enter command SelColor

    3. Enter command Join

       repeat for green and blue strokes if present.

11. Select All Ctrl + A and Export as an Adobe Illustrator File.

    File > Export Selected

    Name the file and change Save as type to Adobe Illustrator (*.ai)

Text

All text should be converted to vector objects

1. Type > Create Outines or Ctrl+ Shift + O

2. This text can then be ungrouped, Object > Ungroup or Ctrl + Shift + G

If you are unsure if your file has been created correctly, ask a dFab staff member to review your work. The majority of laser cutting issues originate from incorrect file setup.