I’ve tried a number of tricks to get SVGs exported from PhotoShop to work with the lasers, but I can’t figure it out. The lines I create in inkscape work just fine, but the stroke from the Pen Tool in PS doesn’t seem to work right. The laser just jumps to the bottom of the frame and cuts the same line over and over until I press pause and reset.
Anyone run into this before?
Never tried from Photoshop like that. Illustrator works good though.
Photoshop at its core is raster, not vector. Most likely it’s not doing the same line over and over again rather it’s slowly making its way up the raster image.
For vector use illustrator or inkscape and you’ll find it much easier to get the results you’re looking for.
Yeah, what @apparently_weird said.
If you aren’t familiar with the terms raster/vector,
Raster images are composed of square pixels. If you zoom in on a “line” in a photoshop image, what you’ll find is something like graph paper with individual squares filled in varying shades of color.
Vector images are essentially comprised of mathematical formulas.
As such, a vector curve will be much smoother than a rastered curve.
If the only file you have is a photoshop file, open it in Illustrator and use the Auto Trace feature to get true vector outlines of your image.
Warning: This may require a LOT of cleanup work to get smooth lines… Sometimes, I’ve found it faster to lock the photoshop import in one layer, and manually trace the line(s) for the image.
He said he was using the Photoshop pen tool. The Pen tool creates vector paths (not to be confused with the brush tool, which does not). He can copy them from Photoshop and paste them into Illustrator and then stroke them with 0.001" wide strokes in Illustrator.
I don’t have Illustrator. The app on the laser PC wanted me to sign in. So, I couldn’t use it.
It requires you to sign in, but once you do you can use a DMS copy of Illustrator (from the computers where it is installed). Sign up for a free Adobe account and use that as your sign-in. If it won’t let you sign in, then it’s a local problem on that machine.
BTW, you shouldn’t be using the laser computers for your design work because that prevents the laser from being used. The four (?) design computers in the Common Room have Illustrator installed.
Oh, I know. This was at midnight and there wasn’t anyone else there or waiting. I signed in using my Adobe creds and it kicked me out when I didn’t want to upgrade my membership.
I’m trying to sort out all the design stuff before I even get to the space, but right now it’s been more trial and error than I thought.
Thanks, great info
If you don’t have illustrator at home, I would suggest inkscape. It’s free and I find it easier to use than illustrator.