Welcome to the Laser Cutter FAQ! All frequently asked questions are answered here. For answers to infrequently asked questions, please email us at LimaLabLaser@gmail.com.
Before proceeding, please read the Laser Cutter Rules.
No.
The laser bed is 32 x 18 inches wide; we can cut materials up to .25 inches thick.
The lab has plenty of scrap cardboard and a limited amount of scrap acrylic for small parts. For large acrylic parts, buy your own. Canal Plastics is usually a good choice.
41 Cooper Square, room 706. Also known as the Materials Science Lab. Affectionately known as Limalab.
See our Google Calendar to see when the laser cutter is free. Then email us at LimaLabLaser@gmail.com with your preferred time slot (1 hour slots) and we'll help you out. To improve your chances, include as many possible times as possible.
There are no official lab hours; anytime the school is open and operators are willing to make an appointment is fair game. This includes weekends.
Schedule multiple appointments or request a longer appointment. If your appointment ends up being too short, the operator may extend your time or ask you to schedule another appointment later.
The easiest way is to draw your parts in AutoCAD.
Copy them into the AutoCAD Laser Cutting Template (available at the bottom of this page) and follow the instructions on the template. You should also read the Laser Cutter File Preparation Instructions before coming in.
No.
Yes. See the Laser Cutter File Preparation Instructions.
Yes. Export your drawing from Illustrator as a .dwg file, then open it in AutoCAD and clean it up according to the Laser Cutter File Preparation Instructions.
Yes. Paste your raster image into the template, and AutoCAD and the laser print driver will generally take care of the rest.
AutoCAD treats grouped objects differently. You may also have this problem if you created parts using the ARRAY command. Select your parts, EXPLODE them, and make sure their Color, Line weight, and Line type are set to ByLayer. You may have to select small sections of parts and move them between layers individually.
You'll need to convert all your 3D objects to 2D polylines. Select your parts and use AutoCAD command FLATTEN. Then, use PEDIT to convert your objects to polylines. Finally, OVERKILL to get rid of any leftover overlapping lines. AutoCAD will indicate near the command line how many segments were successfully exploded and/or deleted.
Find a computer with the full (non-educational) version of AutoCAD and open your file. Save it as a .dxf using DXFOUT. Then, use DXFIN to open the new file. Save it as a new .dwg. The watermark should be gone.
Choose the latest template file you can open in your version of AutoCAD.