Do you have a hand-drawn design that you want to laser-cut, but don’t want to deal with the hassle of converting it to a digital file? Have no fear! The Glowforge is able to take a photo of your hand-drawn designs and convert them into digital files, so that you can go from sketch to cut in a matter of minutes! Follow the steps below, and you’ll have your new laser-cut treasure in no time.
Video Demo
Want to see what this is all about? Take a look at this video before you begin!
Setting Up Your Working Environment
In this Tutorial you will learn Adobe Illustrator design basics for the Glowforge Laser Cutter:
Getting Started having a mouse will be helpful! *Control + Z is undo!
Step 1:
Laptops will be ‘ready to go’ with Adobe Illustrator, just open the App:
Step 2:
On Right Side: Change Untitled to: YourName_Laser_YourClass
Change PIXELS to INCHES
Change Width: 5 in and Height: 5 in (this is the size of the “artboard” or canvas you will design on)
Select Create
Step 3:
Along top bar: Window > Workspace > Automation
Creating Your Name Tag
Now its time to make the actual name tag.
Making the Base
Along the Left Panel there are drawing options. Each option has more tools within; left click & hold to see.
Select: Rectangle and simply CLICK onto your artboard. Width: 3 in Height: 1.5 in
Alternate way to make the shape: Click and Drag a box on the artboard and select the Transform option along the top bar to adjust W and H)
To Round the corners of your keychain click & drag inwards on any of the blue circles in the corners:
PRO-TIP: If your rectangle (or shape) appears as a SOLID black box and you want it to be outlined you need to make the FILL none (red bar) and the STROKE black 1pt. Two ways to do that:
Option 1: Flip stroke and fill button (along left panel)
Option 2: Change Fill to none and Stroke to Black 1pt (in the top bar)
Adding Text
Adding Text:
Select the Text Tool ‘T’ from the left panel and simply CLICK on your artboard and start typing
Modify the Size and the Font:
Size: use the Selection tool to select the text at a corner, hold SHIFT, and scale up or down
Font: Select a font along the top bar as shown:
Alternate Way: you can also adjust the font size along the top bar
Convert the Font to a Shape: right click on text and select Create Outlines
Alternate way: Select text then Object > Expand (check Stroke and Fill and select okay)
Adding Shapes
Sending your job to the Glowforge
See a S-Team member if it’s your first time
See Cutting to run your job on the laser