Laser cutting

**Snowball** · 07-10-2017, 16:08

I assume the laser cutter is in house so I am wondering if it will be available for custom work (for a fee)?
How big is the “bed” (cutting area LxW) anyway? Maybe it’s too small for my ideas.
Perhaps there could be a side business if the machine has some down time

**ripstopbytheroll** · 07-10-2017, 16:27

Originally Posted by Snowball

I assume the laser cutter is in house so I am wondering if it will be available for custom work (for a fee)?
How big is the “bed” (cutting area LxW) anyway? Maybe it’s too small for my ideas.
Perhaps there could be a side business if the machine has some down time

There's an official announcement coming here. We just have so much going on right now that there's a queue. That's a good thing though!

**Carter21** · 07-20-2017, 18:39

Originally Posted by ripstopbytheroll

There's an official announcement coming here. We just have so much going on right now that there's a queue. That's a good thing though!

What type of file is preferred and how should we design for the laser cutter?

If we were to want a large pattern cut from base (120"x60), does the cutter read line geometry or edge geometry?
eg: if I wanted to cut some circles, should the file be white background with a thin 1pt black line? or white background with a filled in black circle? does that make sense?

**Snowball** · 07-21-2017, 04:58

I can’t speak for RSBTR but typical file format for cutting machines is .dxf (AutoCad format) and drawing with Polylines. If so colors doesn’t matter. If there is a line a cut will be made including if its text arrows or measurements (its lines). Back in the days I supplied 2 drawings, 1 clean with the contours and 1 with text and measurements and other information. The difference between Polylines and other line types is if they are connected or not. Polylines are typical connected all the way around regardless of the contour meaning there will be one continues flow when cutting. If its other line types the cutter will typical stop at the end of every line and has to start again at the beginning of the new line. The last part is not efficient and will often be more time consuming and can cause the machine to jump from line to line.
.dxf files can be divided into layers and sometimes the drawing has to be on a specific layer. Also the drawing has to fit a scale 1:1 (mm, cm, inch) otherwise the machine won’t know how long a given cut should be.
This is most likely just like any other CNC machine, it cut and moves in a coordinate system according to the information it has been programmed to (the drawing).
It is my own experience from the metal industry.
I expect these fabric laser cutters are very similar but let’s see what Kyle has to say when and if…. I could be wrong.