Smart Laser CO2 Manual
Smart Laser CO2 can perform two types of operations:
vector cutting, cutting along an outline and raster engraving, depth adjusted engraving.
When the unit is reading the SVG file, the size changes based on the dpi. Changing the dpi when making an SVG file allows you to engrave your desired size.
If you do not select a dpi, when the unit is reading the SVG file, The size will be automatically set based on paper size or based on the SVG file creation software’s settings.
If there is a unit in the page size, the dpi will be set as follows
If you do not establish a unit for the page size, the dpi will be automatically set based on the software as follows
In addition, it is also possible to directly set your desired dpi and then load the SVG file.
The following explanation is based on the free software Inkscape.
Lines and curves can be created using the pen tool. The unit will cut along the lines and curves drawn in the software.
With multiple lines or curves on the screen, it is possible to differentiate them by color, set the machines parameters(like laser strength and moving speed) for each color, and this laser cutter can cut and engrave based on those different parameters.
Rectangles can be made with the rectangle tool, and ellipses can be made with the circle/arc tool.
The laser cutter will cut along the outline of the created shapes.
Even if you create shapes with the fill tool (see below), Smart Laser CO2 will NOT detect the filled area and will only cut along the outline. Only the outline(stroke) will be detected.
When loaded into Smart Laser CO2
The Smart Laser CO2 cannot detect the SVG text. However, the text can be changed into a path that can be loaded by the following process. Only outline(stroke) data will be detected.
Normally, the software can cut based only on the outline of shapes, and will not engrave based on the filled objects. You must install, the fill function in Inkscape, and then you can do fill operations with this laser cutter.
Installing the fill function
How to use the fill feature.
The fill feature can process shapes such as ellipses and rectangles. The following is an example of using the fill feature with text that has been converted from into paths.
To do fill, click the “extension (N)” → “EggBot Contributed” → “Hatch fill.”
You can change the hatch angle, hatch spacing, and do cross hatching with the settings menu shown below.
With hatch angle 0, hatch spacing at 5, and crosshatch unchecked the filled text looks like the image below:
With hatch angle at 45, hatch spacing at 3, and crosshatch checked the filled text looks like the image below:
Engraving with raster cutting by pasting an image into an SVG file.
Note: The image must be in BMP or PNG format, in addition, the maximum image width is 1023 pixels (with illustrator 511 pixels).
The image should be loaded into the program and cannot be a link. In Inkscape a window like shown below will appear please select “embed” and press OK.
Embedding image in SVG.
When imported into Smart Laser CO2
In addition, SVG files with large images may take much longer to load.
Converting an image into SVG format
It is possible to engrave an image with raster engraving simply by pasting it into an SVG file, however for vector cutting It is necessary to convert the image itself to an SVG file.
To convert an image into an SVG file, you can use one of the online services below.
PicSVG
PicSVG
The converted image does not yet have an outline(stroke) set. So please use Inkscape or similar to set the stroke colors.
Compatible SVG elements with Smart Laser CO2 is bellow.