Illustrator Keychain and Vinyl
Illustrator is a vector design software that creates 2D images that can be used to create projects with the laser and vinyl cutter. (Vector art allows for images to scale up and down without distortion; vectors are images composed with lines and not points of light like pixels). For this program we were tasked with creating a laser cut keychain and a vinyl with our name on it.
Laser Cut Keychain:
After exporting the illustrator to a flash drive, insert the flash drive into the computer for the laser. Then, open the illustrator file, select File, then select print. Change the printer the printer to VLS660, then select set up (and hit continue). For preferences, select the extended acrylic (under acrylic which is under plastic). Then, grab the caliper next to the printer, and use it to measure the thickness of the material being used; change the thickness on the computer to match this material. Then, (after making sure to name the file with your name), click apply, ok, and print.
Then open the UCP (universal control panel) program; this is the program that actual controls the laser. When one opens this program, they must make sure to turn on both the laser and the exhaust (figure 2). After doing so, select the relocate tool (above left) and use it to move the laser around to the material one is trying to cut. Once the laser is above the proper material, select the red "to pointer" tool to move the design to where the laser is currently located. Reselect the locate tool, and move the laser to each of the corners of the design, and check to see that the laser is still pointed toward the material. This ensures that the whole design will be cut out and that nothing will be missing. After doing so, close the top of the laser and push the big green button to start laser cutting.
Vinyl Decal:
I learned that Illustrator is a good tool for creating 2d images because of the vector design. One can reshape the images and they won't distort themselves because the images are created with lines. This is incredibly useful for designing something because I can not remember how many times I have tried to resize a pixel image only for that image to become blury and unusable. Before this class, I had no idea how to use the laser; now I know that one has to select the laser as if it were a printer in order to start the process of laser cutting. I also learned that printing large things off on the vinyl is easier than small things, and that the hardest part about printing vinyl is actually the weeding of the smaller pieces, not the construction of larger ones.