- #Corel vs illustrator for laser engraving install#
- #Corel vs illustrator for laser engraving software#
- #Corel vs illustrator for laser engraving series#
Draw the shapes to be cut and engraved in Illustrator.The basic process for sending a file from Adobe Illustrator to the ULS laser cutter is: both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop a raster-based program such as Adobe Photoshop The raster drawing program would store the image as a bitmap, an array of dots that create the shapes.
#Corel vs illustrator for laser engraving series#
The vector program would create a mathematical representation of the shape and store this as a series of vectors, lines and arcs. If you were to draw a square or similar shape in both a vector drawing program and a raster drawing program the resulting images might look similar but the model used to store these images would be very different.
#Corel vs illustrator for laser engraving software#
Using a vector drawing program is important for the cutting and scoring operations done on a laser as this allows you to draw an object to exact dimensions - much as you would do with a more specialized computer aided design (CAD) software package - and to have this object sent to the laser as a precise vector to be cut. Since AI is a vector-based drawing program with raster editing features it is a popular choice for preparing projects to be cut on a laser cutter as laser projects often combine vector lines to be cut (or scored) and raster images to be engraved. This page does not discuss importing Illustrator files into the Glowforge web application.
Use of these other software packages will not be discussed in this page.Īdobe Illustrator may also be used to prepare projects to be cut on the Glowforge laser cutter but many projects may instead be done completely within the Glowforge web application. It is also possible to use a CAD program such as AutoCAD or Fusion 360 to create a laser project. Other popular software used to prepare projects for laser cutting are Corel Draw, which is similar in functionality to Illustrator, and Inkscape which is primarily a vector drawing program. AI file to be cut and engraved at Sandbox.
#Corel vs illustrator for laser engraving install#
You can install Illustrator and create designs on your own computer and bring the completed design as an. Sandbox has elected to focus on the use of Adobe Illustrator for laser projects in part because this program is available at no cost to all current UMD students via the Terpware site. The purpose of this page is to explain the important subset of Illustrator features useful for creating projects to be cut and engraved on a laser cutter as well as to explain some of the specifics needed to prepare an Illustrator drawing to successfully cut and engrave on the ULS laser cutters used in Sandbox. Books, online tutorials and how-to videos often focus on the use of AI for creating commercial art projects.
Because of this robust feature set it can be difficult to learn. AI provides an enormous range of functionality for drawing vector-based art and combining these drawings with raster-based bitmap images. 3 Setting Colors in Illustrator to Specify Cutting/Scoring/Engraving Action on ULS Laser CuttersĪdobe Illustrator (often shortened to AI or Illustrator) is a graphic design and illustration application widely used by artists and graphic designers.