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Thread: Illustrator & LaserCut 5.3 - Exporting Layer Colors

  1. #16
    Hmm... I'm using AI CC 2015. I just opened it up to check that setting. There is a "Use Compression" check box however it is checked and grayed out where it cannot be changed when saving to AI version 8. And I have to save in AI 8 or I can't import it into
    Rabbit Laser RL-60-9060. 60 watt.

  2. Make sure you select a legacy version (even older than 7 if you want) when you save from AI and UNTICK the compression checkbox. It's a well known compatibility problem between AI and lasercut when you try to import.
    IEHK IE1200 60w (+ rotary attachment)
    Lasercut 5.3

  3. #18
    Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 will only save back to version 8 or version 3. Nothing in between. Neither 8 nor 3 carry over the colors. As I said previously the compression checkbox is not available when saving to version 8 or version 3.
    Rabbit Laser RL-60-9060. 60 watt.

  4. #19
    Travis,

    I tried something new today and it seemed to work really well. I put each color on its own layer in Illy and then I saved as a DXF and opened in LC and bam, there they were, all 3 of my colors where they were supposed to be.

    Give it a try and see if it works for you.

    Michele
    Rabbit Laser 36 x 48, 80 watt laser
    Full wood shop
    Plasma cutting machine, 4' x 4'
    Vinyl Cutter

  5. #20
    I would swear that I tried that. I'm at work at the moment but will give that another try when I get home.
    Rabbit Laser RL-60-9060. 60 watt.

  6. #21
    Do you know what options you used when exporting to DXF?
    Rabbit Laser RL-60-9060. 60 watt.

  7. #22
    Capture.JPG

    Does this help?
    Rabbit Laser 36 x 48, 80 watt laser
    Full wood shop
    Plasma cutting machine, 4' x 4'
    Vinyl Cutter

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
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    Blaine Mn
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    66
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    My Triumph came with LaserSoft PHSoft/PHCad software to run the machine.
    I've noticed that the basic 'interface' is the same as LaserCut, TruCut and probably many others.

    This is a screenshot of the first version I used:



    This is the updated 7.01 version, which is definitely better, and does look different, but-- still pretty much the same:




    The point I'm getting at is, in either of these versions there "appears" to be a minimal color palette.
    However, virtually ANY color I use in Corel will import and work fine, regardless of the colors in the palette shown...

    The shot below, I just sent everything on this 'job' as different shades of gray, and even though none of those colors is in the PHCad palette,
    they all work, and are individually adjustable, as shown in the 'layer options' panel. And the jobs will save fine too. I'm not saying it does, but it seems your LaserCut SHOULD
    work the same way?

    What your screenshots appear to be is RDworks, -where the color import works as you describe. Lasercut is a different program.

  9. #24
    Michele, that does help. Thanks. I'll give it a try.
    Rabbit Laser RL-60-9060. 60 watt.

  10. #25
    Been a while since I've tried messing with this but I finally found the solution to the problem for anyone else using AI and Lasercut 5.3. I completely stumbled across this. To get the colors to come across you need to create the document as an RGB document and use the basic RGB color palette. You then need to convert the document to the CMYK and save as AI 10. For whatever reason this works.
    Rabbit Laser RL-60-9060. 60 watt.

  11. Travis Reese you've made my day!

    I always saved from Illustrator CS6 to Version 8 opened in LC5.3 and applied colours afterwards as I could never find a way to do it. I sort of got it working with DXFs but never that well!

    Thanks for this tip, it's transformed my workflow

    Quote Originally Posted by Travis Reese View Post
    Been a while since I've tried messing with this but I finally found the solution to the problem for anyone else using AI and Lasercut 5.3. I completely stumbled across this. To get the colors to come across you need to create the document as an RGB document and use the basic RGB color palette. You then need to convert the document to the CMYK and save as AI 10. For whatever reason this works.

  12. #27

    I think I've figured it out.

    Not sure if anyone is still following this thread, but I think I've figured out the color interaction between Illustrator and LaserCut 5.3. I'm using CS2, but I think as long as you save as Illustrator 8 any contemporary Illustrator should behave the same.

    First, it seems to only remember colors when the document is CMYK. LaserCut doesn't seem to respect colors if the document is RGB.
    Second, LaserCut's colors are RGB, but it will find nearby CMYK colors in the illustrator document.
    Third, here's the rub. If you set the colors according to the LaserCut palate, they will get translated to CMYK by illustrator and back to RGB by LaserCut. In short each color goes through RGB -> CMYK -> RGB. Unfortunately some of LaserCut's colors are too close together so the map to the same RGB color. That's probably why people have reported having 5 colors in illustrator and only 3 when imported to LaserCut.

    My advice (this is the way I work) if you are not using too many layers stick to primary and secondary colors as the are "far apart" avoid colors that are shades of each other. If you need a lot of layers, I'd go through the exercise of painting a test illustrator file with objects in each of the LaserCut colors in its palate. Then, import it and hide each layer. When two objects appear in a layer, then the colors are two close together. Keep only one of those colors in your "LaserCut" illustrator swatch library. I was able to pull about 18 distinct colors.

    I've had inconsistency in the order they are imported, so sometimes it is hard for me to distinguish the 18 colors and sort them correctly. But I think you can easily come up with a palate of 10 easy to use colors. With a small investment in time to get your "working palate" you can greatly speed up your workflow.

    This insight has drastically sped up my workflow at the laser. Basically I can import my file, set my speed and power and cut order.

    Hope this helps you all.

  13. #28
    Use "web colours" lasercut won't see anything with an incorrect RGB value and will just read it as black
    You did what !

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