Preparing Vector Artwork for Laser Engravers | Adobe Illustrator for EZCAD and Lightburn
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- Опубліковано 30 лип 2024
- This is a beginner friendly tutorial on vector graphics for laser engravers. We talk about a ton of different tools and tricks to get your artwork just right for EZCAD and Lightburn! The tutorial is written for Adobe Illustrator but the same principles apply to CorelDraw and InkScape as well so hopefully everyone can get a little something out of it! This video is the first in a series that will increase in complexity as we go so keep an eye out for follow up videos down the road!
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0:00 - Intro - Overview
1:06 - Creating a New File
1:40 - Creating Text
2:08 - Expanding Text
2:50 - Envelope Distort
4:38 - Type on a Path (Circle Text)
10:04 - Type in a Shape
11:52 - Negative Text (Stamps)
14:17 - Basic Shapes
14:27 - (Pathfinder) Unite Tool
15:15 - Shape Builder Tool
17:15 - Basic Plaque Outline
18:37 - Customizing Corners
20:36 - Reflections
20:21 - Photoshop Upscaling
25:00 - The White Background Warning
25:25 - Image Trace Tutorial (Complete)
28:12 - Bringing It All Together
30:30 - Exporting for EZCAD and Lightburn
31:43 - Blob Brush Tool
32:50 - (Pathfinder) Merge Tool
33:38 - Wrapping Up
34:21 - Outro - Supporting the Channel
Listen up! Laser engraving machines are inherently dangerous. The content this channel is for educational purposes only. Laser Everything LLC can not be held liable for any harm caused to any individual or personal property related to settings, activities, procedures, techniques, or practices described in whole or part on this UA-cam channel. By watching this video you agree that you alone are solely responsible for your own safety and property as it pertains to this content. Do your own research before purchasing machines, materials or accessories. LE is viewer supported and probably earns commission when you buy stuff we link. - Наука та технологія
Hey guys, just wanted to give a quick tip and add on to this video, since I ran into a problem during this process and I'm a total noob at PS and Illustrator.. I took a friends image to practice on.. when I thresh....held? the image and played with the scale, my image kept some black where I didn't want it to...but when I decreased the threshold to eliminate the black, it would then eliminate some black that I didn't want it to eliminate... Well, after a while i figured out that some parts of my image was too dark, and it wouldn't take the black away where I needed it to.. so an easy fix is to draw a box over the darker parts of the image, go to Image > adjustments > curves.. drag the line inside the box toward the upper left area and the part you selected will lighten up while keeping your dark borders... I then when ahead and tried the thresh hold again and it came out beautiful. Anyway.. super dope video as always, love the discord and everything you do!
Pinned, pro tip is always in the comments. Thanks Ryan!
Watching this channel for awhile. the live streams and all that I have to say thanks for taking the time outta those crazy jobs to do this for us just now learning the craft. Very informative and much needed in the laser world as people hang on to the knowledge likes its top secret documents. looking forward to more Ai tutorials.
Thanks so much for being a fan and watching the show! The Artwork for Engravers Part II is on deck just waiting for some time to sit down and film it but I have a long list of things I'd like to include in the instructions so it won't be too long.
I've been waiting for some Adobe videos! Thanks so much!
More to come, thanks for watching!
Excellent video mate, I learnt a lot of new tricks from it! I find that if you open the image trace window and select black and white logo from the drop down list of presets then it’s provides a bunch of options to get a perfect trace without the need for resizing etc….select the view as image with outlines and click the preview button and it shows you exactly what is being traced and what needs to be refined using the sliders :)
Cool tip! I'll definitely check that out! Glad you got something out of it too!
Dude totally dig the little yellow hot key pop ups! AI is a huge system to learn thanks for taking the time to do this !!!
Thanks for watching 😊
Dude, your videos are the best! I learned alot from this video on illustrator! Thank you for your contact.
Glad you're enjoying them and they're helping you!
Your teaching me so much! Keep it coming! Thank you for your time!
Youuuuu got it!
You rock fella! This is a huge help for what I was looking to do, keep up the good work! I'm subbed thanks for what you do!
Thanks for the sub!
Lets gooo!!🔥🔥
Ai is my favorite for vector work! Thanks bro
Ditto, hope it helps!
Thanks for using Illustrator. I learned several things from the video and I think most of the laser people are trying to use just inkscape ore corel and there are enough differences to make your videos that much more useful. I have a 60W MOPA and a 80W Trotec co2 (run a makerspace). Signed up for the patron to support doing more videos. If you get enough to think about getting a MOPA that would be awesome as no one is doing settings for those and you can do quite a few more things with plastics vs standard qswitch fiber. Almost as much as UV for much less cost.
Yes definitely on my to-buy list. Hopefully the patreon continues to grow and we can bring in all of these awesome machines :) My dream is to just have a nice row of them we can bounce between each video! Thank you for supporting the channel, it means a lot to me.
What 60W MOPA do you own? Thanks.
This should have 100K views! This is perfect for the stuff I need to do! Thank you!
You're welcome! G lad it helped you!
Dude AMAZING video! My ezcad kept hatching the entire file no matter what I did and couldn't figure out why! Works perfect now. Will follow and see what else you have. Thanks!
Glad it helped! Thanks for watching!
For the Type on a path / Inner circle portion you can go into Type > Type on a Path > Type on a Path Options > and under Align to Path select Ascender and it will place the tops of the letters on the line so there's no need to make a larger circle, you'll just have to play with the letterspacing a bit but you'll have the same sized circle for both lines of text.
Nice badass! Great tip!
Great trick by making an active object and aligning the other object with it. I am using Illustrator for 16 years and I didn't know that. Thanks!
Me too, had to look it up. I couldn't believe there wasn't a way to center something to something else without moving both lol
@@LaserEverything Haha okay. I worked for an year or so in Corel as well and I always thought Corel had better alignment options until now haha
Thanks Alex, this was a great tutorial!
Thank you sir!
You have made my life much easier ! Thank you so much for all the great content on here and your patreon account !
You're most welcome, thanks for your viewership and support!
44ďdď
Did you fall on your keyboard?? Lol
@@LaserEverything actually yes fell asleep! Lol
LMAO that's hilarious
I've been trying to learn Ai for months now, watched countless videos and nothing really helped. This video was beyond helpful even if I weren't making things for the laser. Thank you!
Awesome glad to hear it! Thanks!
Absolutely just what I needed thank you
You’re welcome 😊
Awesome video so many great tips in this one
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Excellent, thanks, man! You earned a subscriber!
Awesome, thank you!
Your voice reminds me of Father Mark Mary who is a super cool guy. I really appreciate the video too btw!
Thank you! Thanks for watching
25:30 --> The key for all the designd in illustrator for laser cut/engrave! Weeks lloking for it! Thank you!!
You're welcome Rafa, glad it helped!
amazing amazing, thank you for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
Thank your for this very good video
Super welcome glad you enjoyed it!!
excellent video thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Been looking for that tips! 13:00
Looks like you are a fellow UofR guy! First time to the channel just starting out with learning lasers Thanks!
We love UofR but I'm just a Rochester-ian!
your videos are a god send. thank you!
Glad they're helping you :) if you really love them consider supporting the channel over at masters.lasereverything.net/ :)
@@LaserEverything any suggestions on how I would adjust the positioning of my red light? it's off by a couple MM and it's throwing my engravings off. they aren't centered perfectly.
F3 Param > Other > Red Light > Offset
Did you ever make the video for the intermediate artwork prep? I am an artist and would love to see an intermediate video to help me turn my detailed artwork into vectors. Awesome video, thanks so much for making it!
Not exactly, but we have expanded on our artwork tutorials quite a bit - you can check out the playlist here: ua-cam.com/play/PLoBR3k35202bA9wXbtGDk45JpUszvXNUz.html
amazing
Thank you! 🙂
Thank you for the great information. Please help me with something, though. You did a lot of the work for the college logo and mascot in photoshop. Is that what I should get if i want to convert jpegs into vectors for my laser? Or is Illustrator the right answer?
Thanks, your tutorials are very helpful. I'm exporting .dxf file in Ezcad which was created using solidworks. On screen the dimensions of desired pattern are fine but when i mark it the engraved result is actually larger in size. Like if i draw a circle of diameter 28mm the laser will mark it as 36mm.
Sounds like you need to do lens corrections: ua-cam.com/video/llflAf0G62Q/v-deo.html
Thanks man, i already saw your video and fixed the issue. Now I'm facing another problem. Can you guide me where can i post my question?
I'm literally on day one.
This is so daunting for me right now.
You got this!!! We've all been there! Feel free to join the FB group or Discord!
@Laser Everything™ Thank you man. Maybe I will
Thank you! A great foundational lesson. Question: What is the title of the follow up video to this one that you mentioned? Thanks again.
Here's a link to the entire artwork series playlist: ua-cam.com/video/7WadJiuH7Iw/v-deo.html
What is happening if, when I import a dxf file into EZCAD2, the file shows up in the object list with its name and Type (Vectorfile) - but no image elements or curves. There is a bounding box. I can rsize the object. But only a bounding box displays in the on-screen workspace - no image. And when I Light(F1) it - all that shows up is a bounding box (regardless of whether Show Contour is selected). Are there revision levels of DXF files that are not supported by EZCAD2? Anyone else ever run into this?
O.T. - Have you demonstrated removing/cleaning lenses in a galvo head in one of your many videos?
We've removed them a few times but I don't think we've done a cleaning. Nbd really, lens wipes and/or compressed air. No sprays, nothing fancy.
Dude, you make some awesome video full of useful information.. I have learned a lot from you.... thank you..
So glad it's helping you!!!! :)
When you made your first circle, you got rid of the FILL in it and changed the STROKE size to 0.5pt. does that 0.5pt specification come in to EZCAD as a 0.5pt thick line (curve)? Or does it get converted to a line with no thickness (as a true vector is).
just a line with no thickness. I just set to .5pt cuz it's easy for me to see.
I WAS EXPECTING TO GIVE SOME INFORMATION ABOUT HOW TO MAKE A FILE READY FOR ENGRAVING
At the end of this video the file generated is ready to be imported into Ezcad 2, Ezcad 3 or LightBurn. No additional preparation is required.
Thanks for the tutorial. This worked great for months and today for some reason my Ezcad 2 program quit importing my Vector files from Adobe Illustrator. I've saved them over and over again in both the 8 and 3 version formats and tried importing them and they aren't working. Any ideas on what could have caused it to stop working? I'm been stumped all day.
Sorry, just saw this. Super weird. Can you shoot me or one of the other members one of your files on Discord or the Facebook group? If we can import it it will rule out ezcad. If we can't import it, it will rule out AI and then we can look for more clues.
When I save as Ai file v8 - (Im on CC) it brings in all the lines. How do I save the HATCH to engrave the invert?
Anyone have the link to the follow-up video Alex mentioned in this video? I was hoping to find out what file format he saved the finished work to for direct import into EZCAD. Was it AI? DXF?
AI Version 8
most excellent stuff. Can I just ask - whats the exhaust ventilation setup you've got there and the link to it :-) thank youuuuu!
For a CO2 I'd recommend something like a Cloudline S8 adapted down to 6" with 6" hoses, for a Fiber I'd recommend a Cloudline S6 adapted down to a 4" hose. Fan goes at the exhaust point so window, door, whatever. Cover the door/window with some plywood and cut a hole for the fan, stick the fan in the hole and seal it off with some duct tape. Run the hoses from the fans to the lasers, done.
Cloudline S8: www.acinfinity.com/hvac-home-ventilation/inline-duct-fan-systems/cloudline-s8-quiet-inline-duct-fan-system-with-speed-controller-8-inch/?ref=zdrp9v5jcc
Cloudline S6: www.acinfinity.com/hvac-home-ventilation/inline-duct-fan-systems/cloudline-s6-quiet-inline-duct-fan-system-with-speed-controller-6-inch/?ref=zdrp9v5jcc
@@LaserEverything Thanks Alex. bought it!
Solid! Good choice
Hi, your video is really instructive, thanks for this good job. I’m using Ai on Mac to prepare my graphics but when I’m using them in EZCad 2.0 with the laser engraver it only makes a full square burned !?! What can be wrong ? Do you have an idea ? Thanks for your help 😉
For this particular problem I think it would be best to ask in our free discord server or facebook group (links in the description) or on our forum over at www.lasereverything.net/forum/ so you can include some screenshots. Being able to see what the file looks like, the settings and the results will help us diagnose the issue.
HI. Just a little message to said thank you. I tried at least 12hours to do a banner I am an illustrator beginner. I was missing expend and parthfinder. Have a good day !
Glad I could help!
thanks,
Thank you for watching!
what is your window on the top bar I can't figure it out and I'm constantly searching for the tools you're using on top
In the top right corner there's a workspace layout button, click it and click "Essentials Classic" to get the same layout.
In image trace you can click ignore white, so it wont fill white
Great tip!
Thank you for the video! I am having the same problem again and again. I am making geometrical designs that fit together like a puzzle. but when I glue them they get mm larger than the background plate though on drawing everything fits perfectly. do you have any suggestions, shall I shrink my design or is there any perfect way to design it!
So, you're cutting out the shapes, and when cut out, are larger than intended vs the digital design intended? that could be a scale issue for the output itself (so for example, on a fiber laser, the scale is controlled by the corfile/scale in device settings, but also the physical focus affecting the output size, kind of like moving a projector further from a wall), or alternatively could be a kerf issue, which we would sometimes see being an issue when doing box cutouts on a gantry co2 as an example. I would suggest looking into those (for whichever laser is relevant), but if you're still stuck, join one of our linked communities where you can create a thread and everyone can brainstorm and work together to help.
I love this video. I am a beginner at AI and the tips I have learned are great. I haven't been able to delete the fill color. When I select same -fill color and delete the whole image clears. Can somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Probably skipped the ungroup step. Gotta ungroup first! If you can't ungroup that means you skipped the expand step.
@@LaserEverything Thanks, that's what I missed. Got my jobs out and they look great!
Hmmm, i doing something wrong. when i do group and select>same>fill colour the whole thing disappears! I cannot drag out the white background either :(
You need to ungroup, not group 🙂
you ever make a part 2 to this?
We have a playlist with Artwork tutorials that follow up on this, check the playlist tab out!
Is there another app besides photoshop to edit logos before vectorizing it?
GIMP is a pretty good free alternative.
I'm using Adobe capture every image I save as an svg and run in ezcad2 comes out with a million extra lines. What am I doing wrong
Adobe Capture doesn't keep vector elements united so there's probably a bunch of stuff overlapping and causing issues. Ezcad can't handle overlapping elements at all. That's a guess I'm not 100% positive but it would be a good thing to check.
16:27 that is defiantly baby yodas crib from Mandalorian
lol that's hilarious it totally is!
Anyone have a link to the next video tutorial on AI?
Hasn't been one yet, I'd like to make another but laser stuff has just been consuming my time. There are a lot of amazing youtube channels on AI in the meantime though.
After photo shop, I go to ai and I have a box inside of the picture, how do I get it off?
Post a screenshot to the discord or facebook group so we can see
I don't have the area type tool on my menu 😒. Help?!
Just the regular type tool is fine
Any one on one training? I purchased an engraver for jewelry. Busy with running my business and would like hire a friend of mine to run the machine for me.
can you do a simple internet logo and convert to vector graphics for fiber laser engraving ?
Like in a video?
@@LaserEverything yeah
@@LaserEverything simple
Totally dude we can definitely cover that.
Hello big fan,
Im new too the laser family is there a way i can send you a file for ezcad2 ..im willing to pay you..im having trouble coberting image.
Join the discord and I'll be happy to help you with support over there, link in the description! Very hard to give support in youtube comments :)
Is illustrator better than corel draw
When it comes to prep work for laser engraving
They're both really old and very powerful. I think it just comes down to personal preference. They have their quirks and ecosystems.
noice
Thanks for watching :D
Can I ask how you went about learning AI? School or course?
Trial and error :P I got a job where I needed it and just kinda had to figure it out over the years. Lots of practice and youtube.
So…. Maybe a dumb question. Why not just use lightburn from the get go?
This was filmed long before Lightburn being available for galvo, so this was just a good option still for importing into ezcad. Even with that, while there is now a good amount of overlap in artwork prep capability, there are still some tools or situations where Ai is just better suited to put things together sometimes. All depends on what you are prepping, your workflow, and preferences.
I used to watch your videos by translating them into Arabic, but now when I activate automatic translation, the subtitles do not appear. Why??? 😞😞😞
you need to create a new art board if you want the align tools to work properly. 29:42
How did you Learn AI ?
99% practice. Searching for UA-cam when I hit roadblocks and remembering the fixes and processes, then practicing some more. Still learning literally every day.
My first galvo was from FSLaser, After 2years I still am learning. I see lots off people bad mouthing them and I get it, their customer service suck B#lls! But their GUI is leaps and bounds over My new 100watt Fiber from Wuhan Keyi Optic. I loath EZCAD LITE. I would sacrifice a lamb if it would help LightBurn come out faster. Thank you for your videos and very clear instructions. It will help when my BOSS HP3655 lands when they find the servo motors for it. Kind Regars, JB
Haha, one man's "annoying trait" is every other graphic designer's "useful tool."
Definitely true!