Adobe Illustrator by Equipment

Project

Date Created

March 23, 2026

Author

Untitled

Tools & Skills

Aiillustratorlaser cutternomad 3dtgzunduv printertinkercadglowforgecricutPCB

[CoF] Careers of the Future

Advanced Manufacturing

Launch Lab Connection

Competency

Status

Complete

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to prepare Adobe Illustrator files for multiple Fab Lab & Design Lab machines, including embroidery, laser cutting, UV printing, and PCB workflows.

💡

This document assumes basic Ai knowledge and familiarity with Adobe workflow.

See Adobe Illustrator Basics

Equipment List

Laser Cutter

~~3D Printer~~

~~DTG~~

Embroidery

~~Cricut~~

~~Nomad~~

PCB

UV Printer

Zund

Ai for Embroidery

File type: .Ai (before exporting)

[Description on what is going to be covered in this step]

Start with a full color vector file.

Here is the File we will be referring to:

Tubs_Embroidery.ai1.2 MiB

If you don’t have a color vector file see Adobe Illustrator Basics: Photos and multi-color traces

Organization

For the embroidery machine, file organization and order matters. The embroidery machine will perform layers starting from the BOTTOM UP

Fill and base colors should be on the bottom of the layers

Any outlines or details should be towards the on the top

Grouping

Like colors should we in the same layer- with the exemption of small details like white in the eyes.

Small details should be the last to be added [moved to the top layer]. That way they dont get lost.

Overlap

To ensure seamless blend on stitches and no fabric gaps, layers need to overlap with each other.

Here you can see that the bottom color extends well over what will be visible

Exaggerated example (but you get the idea)

Outline

Last tip. All details should be a shape with a fill. Strokes with a thick width will not translate.

To fix this go to Object- Path-Outline Stroke

Once your File is completed you can head to the Embroidery i² Design Software on the PC in the Fab Lab Textile Space.

See Tajima Embroidery ABCD’s

Examples: Not Overlap & Not Outline

In this example I did not overlap the artwork fully, the border was very thin and strokes where not all outlined (hat, cheek and mouth).

You can see where the overlap did not happen there is a bit of fabric exposed.

Examples: Overlap & Outine

Now bringing back our first example. We have a large overlap, thicker border and outlined stroke (hat, cheek and mouth).

Ai for Laser Cutting

File type: .Ai or SVG

In this section we will prep Illustrator files for laser cutting by using color-coded strokes for engrave, cut, & score and convert artwork to grayscale for photo engraving.

Engrave, Cut, Score

We use color to help separate what settings we would like to apply to each part of our artwork. (We set these in the software)

Black: Engrave
Red: Cut
Blue: Score

Grayscale Engraving

Laser Cutter is able to self adjust its power to match brightness of colors in an image. I works with between the range of white (255,255,255) to Black (0,0,0). If we attempt to engrave a full image in color, we may get disappointing results due to colors being to close on the color spectrum and not having enough contrast. With this we Convert to a greyscale.

Start with Full color vector art
Convert Color image into a Grayscale

Edit - Edit Colors - Covert to Grayscale

Get Laser Engraving!

Relief Engraving: Gradient

Info referenced from Trotec Relief Engraving. See article for more information

A relief engraving means a deep engraving with differing heights, which are created by gray shades in the graphic. The Trotec laser automatically regulates its performance using these grayscales and thus generates different heights in only one pass. Recommended Materials:

graphic-files-relief-engraving.pdf1.6 MiB

Let’s make our own

Start with Grayscale artwork
Select section to start on
Click on gradient fill [center]

Linear Gradient

In the Gradient setting you can adjust the range of white vs black. To give us a lot of contrast I pull back the black by move the diamond to the right.