How do you etch and cut in the same design

How do you etch and cut in the same design?

You use different colors. This is covered in the getting started tutorial: https://glowforge.com/support/topic/first-three-prints/3rd-print-gift-tag

Also there is lots and lots of information on the forum in the tips and tricks section.

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A design program like Inkscape or Illustrator makes vector lines. A filled shape of one color will engrave. A colored path will cut or score. Each color will be a different operation.

Go to the Free laser design category in the forum and open up a design in your favorite design program or in the Glowforge and see how it works.

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All I am trying to do is make my business card. I uploaded the original art, but can’t seem to engrave the art and then cut the rectangle.

Open the original art in your favorite art program and add a rectangle around it in another color.

I did that. Doesnt let me pick engrave for one and cut for other.

? Sounds like you need to upload it so someone can take a look. Just one item on the left of the gfui?

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I suspect you are working in a bitmap graphics program like Photoshop. To be able to do multiple operations, and anything other than engrave, you need to produce a vector file (e.g. SVG or PDF) with something like Illustrator or Inkscape. If you could share your file, or screenshots of what’s happening, it might help people to provide more focused directions.

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I’m using Illustrator. Tried jpg and worked for artwork, but cant cut border. Tried svg and wont even load.

In Illustrator, you want to Embed the jpeg image with the logo. (Select it, then click on the Embed button in the top row.)

Then draw a rectangle around it. Give the rectangle a stroke color, but no fill. That will be your cut line.

When you save the file, click on Save As …and choose SVG. then in the popup box, use the settings shown below:

Drag the file over to the interface and drop it on the catalog area and it should open. You’ll get a different operation for the engrave part and the cut part.

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If I’m engraving an image that I want cut out, I typically load it as two individual pieces of artwork… the image to engrave, then a SVG path as the cutter. Plus by saving the cut path as a separate file altogether, you can re-use it as a “cutter” for other images as well…

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Many thanks for your help guys! It finally worked right after I switched to 3 colors, and the key thing was changing cutting the graphic artwork to “score” instead of engrave.

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It was vector artwork then. :wink:

There are some tutorials that might help your next project to go smoothly here:

Just read the ones starting at the top and working down. There are some videos too a little lower in the list if you prefer to watch rather than read about it:

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Thanks for pointing in the right direction @chris1, really appreciate it. I’m going to close this thread - if the problem reoccurs, go ahead and post a new topic. Thanks for letting us know about this!