Sizing in Illustrator / NewlyDraw.

[Kris]

Hi,

Trying to design a few things in Illustrator CS6 and convert them to dxf for use in NewlyDraw. It's all worked fine up until now, I can do the process fine, but now I want to cut something at a specific size.

Before if I was making something like a badge, I could select the whole thing and enter the size into the width and height boxes in NewlyDraw. Now I want to make components, so I know I want to make a 3.6mm gap on one piece because that's how thick my material is (we'll ignore kerfing for now).

So, I can set a 3.6mm grid in Illustrator, turn 'snap to grid' on, and knock something up very quickly, but when I load the dxf into NewlyDraw, it's enormous and I have to resize the entire page. How can get it to force a 1:1 scale in Illustrator? I get an option for units / pixels and cm / inches but can't seem to get it to produce a dxf at actual size.

I'm aware of things like resolution and dpi for photo images, but how does it work when moving vectors between formats?

[Daven]

I don't use AI so can't help as such but I had a file from a client recently like this - think you will find AI 'unit' is set to inches by default so 1:1 is 1 unit is 1 Inch - have a look at this

Cheers
Dave

[Spooky]

To be honest Kris, use Draftsite, Illustrator has several issues that make it a problem when laser cutting

If you want to continue with Illustrator then save the file in DXF from it then open with Draftsite to verify and change sizes.

best wishes

Dave

[Kris]

Thanks for that guys, links are appreciated, based on what you've said, Daven, I've messed about a bit and this is what happens:

Export to DXF
1 cm = 1 units.

A 5cm square in Illustrator produces a 12.7cm square in NewlyDraw.

Long story short on this one is that I played around with some ratios but couldn't produce a 5cm square dxf at the end of it.

-----

I can change the measurement, so if I change cm to inches, it automatically changes the values, and comes up:

0.3937 inches = 1 unit

And as expected, a 5cm square again produces a 12.7cm square in NewlyDraw.

------

So, change this value:
1 inches = 1 unit

And this produces a 5cm square in NewlyDraw.


My artboard is set to A4, which is in cm, my on-screen grid is in cm. More importantly, and probably more relevant, my preferences clearly state I'm using points for stroke and type, and CM for my units. So Illustrator defaults back to inches for export, which is just downright frustrating. But you're right Daven, 1 unit = 1 inch and there's nowhere that says this is the case and no way of changing it?

Anyway, I lasercut a square and it only took, like, 3 days.

[Chris]

i know this is old but i thought id comment because i know the answer and it may help future searches.

when you export out of illustrator make sure you are exporting in INCHES as opposed to MM. all of the CNC software ive used in the past uses 1 inch = 1 unit, and this is also the case for newlyDraw.

[endcan]

When you export as dxf from illustrator use the oldest selection
I think it's r13 in options
Then set 1 unit =1 mm
Then preserve appearance
Then maintain aspect ratio
Should work
Good luck:)

[Chris]

cad version 2004/2005/2006

[keithwright]

having just had a visit from Chris (MK2) to solve a problem with our machine (6840) he recommended we try illustrator as we have CS6. His simply instructions where, 'Save as Version 10 without compression'.

I have just tried the drawing he left us. The printout and laser cut are the same size.

No NEED FOR DXF file. Just import Illustrator file.

Cheers

Keith