The Use of This Laser Cutter Is Restricted to Academic Work of the GSFA Only

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Graduate School of Fine Arts

Fabrication Laboratory
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Laser Cutter

Guidelines

Scheduling

File Formatting

Suitable Materials

September 2002
General Laser Cutter Guidelines

The use of this laser cutter is restricted to academic work of the GSFA only. You may not use it for personal projects, work for professional firms, or for academic work outside of the GSFA.

Students may not operate the laser cutter. Only trained personnel may operate this machine.

In order to budget time efficiently and reduce errors and re-cuts, students must be present while their work is being cut in order to answer any questions that may arise or to do any remedial CAD work that may be required.

All work must be completed within your scheduled time slot. Corrupt files, unsuitable materials, experimentation, etc. all count against your time.

Only materials posted on the “Laser-Suitable Materials” chart may be cut in this machine.

Students must supply all materials. The GSFA supplies no materials.

Students must remove all off-cut from the room and clean up after themselves when finished.

You may not bring work to the laser until you have read and agreed to all notices and guidelines posted in the laser room.

Students are expected to maintain a high level of respect for the laser operator. Disrespect will result in immediate suspension of laser privileges.

Laser Cutting Scheduling Guidelines

Sign-up sheets for laser cutting will be posted in the Fabrication Lab. Sheets will be posted on the Friday preceding the week to be scheduled.

Students may sign up for only TWO thirty-minute time slots per week. All work must be completed within those time slots and may not run over into some other student’s time. Please plan your work carefully.

If there are open time slots on the scheduled day, any student may sign up for one additional thirty-minute slot.

Please show up promptly for your scheduled time. If you are more than five minutes late, you will forfeit your time to the first available student.

If you do not need the full thirty minutes, any remaining time in your slot will be assigned to the first available student. This time will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis.

Come prepared to your scheduled time. File errors, experimentation, and lack of appropriate materials all count against your time.

Please remember that it is not the responsibility of the laser operator to complete your cut list within your scheduled time.

Dennis Pierattini will resolve all scheduling conflicts, not the laser operator or the faculty member.

Students are reminded that disrespect to the laser operator will result in suspension of laser cutting privileges.

Laser File Formatting-AutoCAD

AutoCAD Versions 2002 and earlier are supported.

All drawings should be at 1:1 scale expressed in inches.

Draw in 2D only; using World Coordinate System, in Model Space.

For setup purposes, draw a rectangle on the ‘0’ layer that is 32” x 18”. All parts to be cut or scored must be ¼” within the edges of this area to avoid bleed problems.

Erase all stray lines.

Remove all overlapping and duplicate lines. The laser will re-cut overlapping lines with very negative results.

Parts to be cut must be placed on different layers from parts to be scored. Name layers ‘cut’ and ‘score’ respectively.

For smoother cuts, all continuous line segments should be joined using the PEDIT/JOIN command.

All line widths should be set at zero thickness. If you want scored lines to be thicker, do multiple .004” offsets.

Note: If this is unacceptable, the laser system is capable of scoring any thickness line. However, this involves raster cutting rather than vector cutting and requires more laser time.

The laser kerf is approximately .008” centered on the line. This will cause the cut parts to be slightly smaller than drawn. This is normally insignificant. However, if it is critical to your work, please make a note of it.

Group parts to be cut from the same material by layer.

Note: Rule of thumb for spacing between parts is to allow half the thickness of the material or more between relatively parallel cuts, particularly on acrylics.

It is best to draw everything in AutoCAD. Files from other programs imported or pasted into AutoCAD can cause problems, which have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Nested shapes should be placed on different layers, and the innermost shapes cut first. Name layers accordingly: innercut01, innercut02…

Use only the standard seven AutoCAD colors: Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Magenta, and White.

Laser File Formatting-Illustrator

Illustrator Versions 9 and earlier are supported. However, save all files as Version 7.

All drawings must be expressed in inches.

In Document Setup, set Artboard Width to 32” and Height to 18”. All parts to be cut or scored must be ¼” within this area to avoid bleed problems.

Lines and parts to be cut through material must be expressed as vectors. Stroke weight must be set to zero and fill must be the default white. (Do not set stroke to “none”. Open Window/Show Stroke, then select line or object, click on the “Weight” pull-down arrow in the Stroke dialog box, type in “0”, then press “Enter”.)

Lines and parts to be scored/engraved must be expressed in raster mode. Stroke weight should be set to anything except zero or none. Fill can be set to any color except white.

Parts to be cut must be placed on different layers from parts to be scored. Name layers “cut” and “score” respectively.

Erase all stray lines.

Remove all overlapping and duplicate lines. The laser will re-cut overlapping lines with very negative results.

The laser kerf is approximately .008” centered on the line. This will cause the cut parts to be slightly smaller than drawn. This is normally insignificant. However, if it is critical to your work, please make a note of it.

Group parts to be cut from the same material in the same drawing. The rule of thumb for spacing between parts is to allow half the thickness of the material or more between relatively parallel cuts, particularly on acrylics.

It is best to draw everything in Illustrator. Files from other programs imported or pasted into Illustrator can cause problems that have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Laser File Formatting-FormZ

Form-Z Versions 3.8 and earlier are supported.

All drawings should be at 1:1 scale expressed in inches.

Draw in 2D only; using World Coordinate System, in Model Space.

For setup purposes, draw a rectangle on the ‘0’ layer that is 32” x 18”. All parts to be cut or scored must be ¼” within the edges of this area to avoid bleed problems.

Erase all stray lines.

Remove all overlapping and duplicate lines. The laser will re-cut overlapping lines with very negative results.

Parts to be cut must be placed on different layers from parts to be scored. Name layers ‘cut’ and ‘score’ respectively.

For smoother cuts, all continuous line segments should be joined using the PEDIT/JOIN command.

All line widths should be set at zero thickness. If you want scored lines to be thicker, do multiple .004” offsets. Note: If this is unacceptable, the laser system is capable of scoring any thickness line. However, this involves raster cutting rather than vector cutting and requires more laser time.

The laser kerf is approximately .008” centered on the line. This will cause the cut parts to be slightly smaller than drawn. This is normally insignificant. However, if it is critical to your work, please make a note of it.

Group parts to be cut from the same material by layer.

Note: Rule of thumb for spacing between parts is to allow half the thickness of the

material or more between relatively parallel cuts, particularly on acrylics.

It is best to draw everything in FormZ. Files from other programs imported or pasted into FormZ can cause problems, which have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Laser Suitable Materials

Cutting and Etching Etching Only

AcrylicGlass

PolycarbonateStone

WoodAnodized Metals

StyreneCorian

Felt

Paper

Leather

Mylar

Matte Board

Banned Materials

Rubber (all forms)

Casting Resins

Polypropylene

Any material in the chloride/chlorine family (i.e. PVC-polyvinylchloride)