importing illustrator colors in Laserworks V8

[Arjen Abbestee]

Somewhere in the past year I upgraded my Laserworks software from V5 to V8. Since I do mainly cutting with maybe one part engraving this problem never came up before today.
I tried to import an Illustrator file with 10 different colors. Each color should represent a different speed/power setting. I have used this same file in the past and then it created all the layers from the Illustrator colors, but now when I import this I only get two colors. Is this a new 'feature' in V8? Do I need to set something somewhere to make it recognize all the differnt colors again?
For now I solved it by making ten separate files and importing those one by one, but that is a lot of work...

[John Noell]

I just tested this with RDWorks v8.01.18. (I think they stopped calling it LaserWorks in V6.) Just to be safe, I save as Illustrator CS4. The 10 colours in my AI file imported to RDWorks as 10 layers for me.
FWIW, I have almost entirely stopped using RDW now that Lightburn (www.lightburnsoftware.com) is out. It is still a beta for the moment but should be officially released before the end of January.

[Arjen Abbestee]

Hi John,

I always save as Illustrator 8. I'll try 3 tomorrow (4 is no longer an option in my version).
And I'll have a look at Lightburn. Any alternative to RDWorks is worth investigating ;-).

Thanks,

A

[Matt Williams 407]

Arjen,

Did this solution work for you? I've just upgraded to RDWorks V8.01.24 and can't find a way to get imported .ai files come in as separate layers either. I tried saving in the older formats and no luck.

[Arjen Abbestee]

This is embarrassing, I promised follow up and I totally forgot about it.
No, saving in another AI format did not help. So I tried the other suggestion, Lightburn. Despite it still being beta, it works fine for me.
And, most important (for me), it works on a Mac. No more switching between Mac and PC anymore. And yes, different colours in AI are separate layers in Lightburn. Of course it is not free like RDworks, but to me just the fact that I can work from my Mac(s) is worth the fee.