We recommend Solidworks, Inventor/ Fusion 360, or Sketchup for engineering/mechanical parts, and Adobe Illustrator, or Inkscape for artistic parts. Use your CAD software of choice to design your part. Some materials that laser cut very well (Like acrylic) are very brittle, and may shatter when flexed or put under a large load. Laser cutters are generally preferred for flat objects, with complex geometry in only 2 dimensions.Īlso consider the material that you are planning to cut, and how it will be used in your project. if your parts will require origami-like folding to assemble after cutting, it may be a good candidate for being made on a 3D printer instead.The laser will heat up your material, which depending on material type may produce visible charring (and even flames!).
Laser cutters cannot cut very think material very well (1/4″ and under is ideal), and will produce tapered cuts as your material thickness increases.Like 3d printing, Laser cutting is a good tool for certain shapes, but sometimes it is not the ideal way of doing things. Attend a training session, or speak to a lab manager to learn more about how to run a laser cut.
This guide is meant to give you a basic overview of the process, and will not cover every step in detail of the cutting process. however, the software and specific steps vary quite a bit. The process required to get a part laser cut in similar in steps to a 3d printer you export your file to cut in a specific format, load it into software to prepare it for cutting, and then run the cut job.
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