Illustrator
Illustrator is an image editing site. It is similar to Inventor however Illustrator only works with 2-D images. Illustrator files can be uploaded to a Vinyl cutter or laser. This allows you to cut out or engrave the image made on Illustrator into an object like a key chain, or it would allow you to engrave images onto a water bottle.
Now here are some step by step instructions to create a key chain.
1. Open a new file in Adobe Illustrator
2. Make a rectangle the size of your key chain. Round the corners to your liking. 3. Add a small circle somewhere near the corners or the side. This is so it can be added to a chain of stuff. 4. Turn the black lines to red with the thickness being 0.0001pt 5. Add anything you want to engrave, such as text or pictures. Make sure they are black so they will engrave. (The red line is hard to see, but the text and dog is in the red line.) 6. Use the Laser to create. |
The Vinyl notebook project involved printing everyone's name in the Vinyl cutter and applying the Vinyl decal to a notebook cover. To the left is the Illustrator file with everyone's name.
Then the Illustrator file is formatted to fit and work with the Vinyl cutter.
I learned a lot of new things about Illustrator. For one, I learned that the Laser and Vinyl cutters read thin red lines as something to cut and black lines as something to engrave. I also learned how to make basic shapes with the tools on Illustrator as well as how to change the color of the shapes. In addition to making shapes on Illustrator I also learned that you can upload pictures like clip art into you Illustrator file. I also learned about Thingiverse, a site that has many cool files for the Laser and Vinyls cutter, and how to upload files from Thingiverse to Illustrator. Overall, Illustrator is a great thing to learn about and I hope to use it more in the future!