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1 Mil Line Weight for Laser Cutting


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I'm working on how to deliver Vectorworks to higher education students over the next academic year. We're trying to streamline the software that we deliver and get rid of unnecessary CAD sessions. One of these is the use of illustrator in order to send Vectorworks drawings to our laser engraver. It's the only time that we use Illustrator at all, and the conversion can be a bit of a hassle at times. I'd like to be able to cut directly from a Vectorworks document, so that we can integrate physical model making as part of a Vectorworks package. Our engraver wants to work with line weights of 0.0254 or less, which should be equal to 1 Mil, which is available as a line weight in Vectorworks. I've set up a test image to try it out.

 

So far in my attempts, the engraver treats the drawing as a raster image. It will shoot left and right, engraving in horizontal strokes like an inkjet printer, rather than following the vectors. This is what would happen in Illustrator should the line weight be set too large.

 

We use a pair of Universal Laser Systems engravers, which are two different models. Both get the same result.

 

I'm wondering if there is a way I can either achieve a thinner line weight, or if 1 Mil should be working for a laser cut, if there are any steps I don't know about to make sure that the engraver is receiving actual vectors (I know there is an option to rasterise images before printing, but that's switched off).

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Thanks for the quick response!

I did read through that one (I actually missed how recent that one, else I'd have continued that topic), and someone implied they got it working with 1 Mil line thickness did the trick - which theoretically it should. I'm wondering if I'm missing some other settings that send the correctly weighted vectors to the engraver.

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