I find lots of neat things I think about making on my laser. Lots of the time, the graphic is not in a format that will open or import into Corel laser. One such example is the bird in this picture. It came from Thingverse, but the STEP format does not work with Corel. Can someone offer some tips as to how to go from various drawing formats to workable laser cutting files?
Did you see the attached video? Perhaps helps with the LW4 part of the tool chain.
…also check out the LW4 web site for whatever tool you are using.
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Frankly, I abandoned Corel (I had lot of compatibility problems), could have been the operator ??.
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My tool chain is:
…Source & design …
…Images = Gimp
…Vector based & hybid projects = Inkscape (I can pull images from Gimp imported to Inkscape for hybrid files that include: vector, cutting & engraving)
… CAD= Sketchup + (DXF + Phlatboys CAM plugins)
…Conversion…
123D design = to convert various file types like STEP to STL. Use SU STL plugin to import.
Various online services … http://www.3dtransform.com
…Gcode generation & delivery…
LW4= & I use some of its simple CAM operations
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The STEP file of the bird above would have to be broken into cut-able parts. You can convert directly to separate SVG parts using 123D design. Then load the parts into LW for cutting.
I would have expected the design files to be separate SVG’s vs one STEP file.
Very good, thanks guys!
