Mac users

**Sarah Holbrook** · 10-08-2009, 7:12 PM

Creekers,

My VLS 4.60 50W arrived last week -- hurrah! Since I'm a Mac user I put off buying Illustrator for the PC since it was $700 I wasn't keen on spending (I already own it for the Mac). If you similarly like to design on the Mac, here is a tip to save $$:
1. Save the file from Illustrator on the Mac as a PDF
2. In the Windows virtual machine, open the PDF in Acrobat Reader
3. Print to the laser

So far it works like a charm. I've only tried vector cutting & scoring since that's my primary use.

Thanks for all of your help and informative posts.

**Dave Garcia** · 10-09-2009, 4:23 AM

Sarah,

What am I missing here?

I am a Mac user and am in the process of ordering a laser. Noting and having been told that the "standard" for most lasers (except the Illustrator driver that the LaserPro folks have for their lasers Mac compatibility) is the PC running Windows (preferably XP) with CorelDraw, how do you make this work again? You must still have a dedicated laser PC, right?

If I can run Illustrator, there is a Mac version, and have my laser connected to my Mac via USB cable, create Illustrator files in PDF and then send those same PDF files to my laser, do I still need a PC for the laser?

I'm more than totally confused with this. Would sincerely appreciate you dragging me into the 21st century here if possible.

Thank you very much in advance.

Dave Garcia

The Wood Block, Ltd

**Dan Hintz** · 10-09-2009, 6:43 AM

Dave,

She mentioned a virtual machine... most likely Parallels (or similar). Still a Mac, just running Windows to control the laser.

**Doug Griffith** · 10-09-2009, 11:00 AM

The way I work is:
1) Design in Illustrator on a Mac using Illustrator
2) Transfer the file to a cheap PC running Windows via sneakernet
3) Open the file on the PC in Illustrator
4) Print to the laser via ethernet

(I have the 2 networked but it is quicker to throw the file on a flash drive.)

It's very easy and works great. Sarah's option removes the need for a PC version of Illustrator and uses Acrobat instead.

Cheers

**Clyde Baumwell** · 10-09-2009, 11:57 AM

Sarah
I'm not sure how you are accomplishing this. I have never been able to send a vector to the PC as a PDF. Acrobat via PDF only sees the vector, created in illustrator and saved as a PDF, as a raster image. I have tried this in the past and tried it again today---raster only no matter what the weight of the red outline is.

**Sarah Holbrook** · 10-09-2009, 11:59 AM

Yes, what Dan & Doug said. I still had to buy Windows and the virtual machine to run it in (in my case VMWare), but not CorelDraw or Illustrator for the PC.

**Dave Garcia** · 10-09-2009, 9:21 PM

Sarah,

Understand and thank you.

You stated that you have a VMWare virtual software package loaded on your Mac. Is that VMFusion? And if so, why did you elect to forgo Boot Camp? Have you had any problems with your setup?

Dave Garcia

The Wood Block, Ltd

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**Dave Garcia** · 10-09-2009, 9:23 PM

Dan,

Thanks for point the "virtual" part out. Totally missed that in Sarah's note. I'm now rethinking how I'm going to set up my laser computer interface.

Dave Garcia

The Wood Block, Ltd

**Dave Garcia** · 10-09-2009, 9:30 PM

Creekers,

I need some advice from those of you with wireless connections in your business.

Has anyone used a wireless setup between their computer and their laser? If so, and you're a Mac user, what hardware and software did you have to purchase to do this?

Dave Garcia

The Wood Block, Ltd

**Bob McGinn** · 10-09-2009, 9:52 PM

VMWare seems to play very nice with windows software ISO images within Mac OS. Running the ISO image version with VMWare opens up additional software features the can be useful. Running both the BootCamp image and an ISO image, the ISO is now default.

Have not tried wireless connection.

**Dave Lock** · 10-09-2009, 9:57 PM

Originally Posted by Dave Garcia

Creekers,

I need some advice from those of you with wireless connections in your business.

Has anyone used a wireless setup between their computer and their laser? If so, and you're a Mac user, what hardware and software did you have to purchase to do this?

Dave Garcia

The Wood Block, Ltd

Dave,
I would have thought it would be no different than having a printer connected wirelessly to your network.
All you would need is a wireless router to plug your lasers network cable into. This would be configured to connect to your man router. I'm not a mac user but i would think the set up would be the same.

Dave.

**Dave Garcia** · 10-09-2009, 10:38 PM

Bob and Dave,

Thank you both for your responses. The laser is just another "printer" so why should it be any different. Will check this out with the Apple folks just to make sure.

Dave Garcia

The Wood Block, Ltd

**donald bugansky** · 10-10-2009, 11:17 AM

If you need to connect your laser to a Mac (either by bootcamp or a virtual machine - I find that bootcamp works better and if needed to be virtual machine, Parallels will see the bootcamp partition and work with it) and the connection is USB as in the case with Trotec, so you'll be best served with an Apple Airport device since it has the connection and drivers for wireless usb and can be shared on the network. There are plug-in usb wireless devices (Hawking makes a good one) but the drivers can sometimes be buggy depending on what service pack you have in XP. If you laser has Ethernet, then any standard router will work.

I tested my Trotec via the method described above and it worked great. I went back to the cable method just because I had an extra Mac Mini ($600) and just installed it in the shop. Since you need to be by the laser after submitting the job, to me wireless loses it value since you have to keep going back n forth between the laser and computer, so a cable connection was what I used.

**Sarah Holbrook** · 10-12-2009, 11:41 PM

Double check that your stroke is thin enough (I use 0.01) and that the color is set to the correct RGB value. I made a new swatch palette specifically with the Universal colors to make sure I could use them all. I tried to attach my palette for you to use but apparently .ai uploads don't work.

Originally Posted by Clyde Baumwell

Sarah
I'm not sure how you are accomplishing this. I have never been able to send a vector to the PC as a PDF. Acrobat via PDF only sees the vector, created in illustrator and saved as a PDF, as a raster image. I have tried this in the past and tried it again today---raster only no matter what the weight of the red outline is.

**Sarah Holbrook** · 10-12-2009, 11:54 PM

Yes, VMware Fusion. I don't use Boot Camp because it requires rebooting the machine. Since I'm doing my editing in Illustrator, it's necessary to be able to easily switch between the two environments for editing and printing.

The only problem I've had is that I have to remember to switch to Fusion before plugging in the laser so that the Universal software recognizes it correctly. With Fusion whichever environment you're in will be the one that picks up devices. (I work on a laptop so I'm frequently plugging/unplugging)

Originally Posted by Dave Garcia

Sarah,

Understand and thank you.

You stated that you have a VMWare virtual software package loaded on your Mac. Is that VMFusion? And if so, why did you elect to forgo Boot Camp? Have you had any problems with your setup?

Dave Garcia

The Wood Block, Ltd

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Thread: Mac users - try Acrobat Reader instead of buying PC vector software

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