CNC Fact Sheet

Hello!!

This post is due in part to the wonderful work of Luke Cook, a level 5 student in modelmaking. He had to create a fact sheet as part of his recent project that highlights a process he undertook, and fortunately for us, he chose the CNC Milling Center.

A link to the PDF can be found here!

Warwick University trip

On Wednesday 25th Jan I went on a jolly all the way up to Warwick, which was one heck of a drive but it all turned out lovely!

Materialise was holding a 'get the most out of our software' event, whilst giving users the chance to leiase and get an idea of whats going on in the world 3D printing.

Rocking up to the International Digital Lab (IDL), it was one of several new, purpose built and massive buildings located on this massive campus.

Inside the IDL, the mezanine floor holds open plan offices and desks for brief meetings, and overlooks labs that houses technologies, hardware and case studies.

After the days activities, I had arranged or a tour around the workshop on campus.

It turns out there were 4 workshops and they were in the process of building their 5th!

The engineering workshop I had the chance to look around. along each edge were offices and workrooms for staff and students. The center strip (left of the above image) is the machine room - quite a lot of floor space indeed!

This image shows only one quadrant of the available workspace and kit on offer there. 

 

This beast of a machine is only two weeks old - and cost a whopping £250,000! As you can probibly see, there is a nice space there with a football table and coffee machine - I think we got one installed in our workshop!

An Industrial robot - this one was used primarily for welding of aluminium

 

One of five CNC Milling Centers

 Still a range of manual machines, tucked away in a side room.

This technician demonstrates a six kilowat laser, that was retrofited onto another robot arm. The laser is  specifically for 3D printing in tianium.

Another view of the multi axis CNC Mill.

  

Another shot of their workshop, this time the back - purly to illustrate the scale of the place!

Lovely little Flow charts

As some forget the process, have some flow charts.

Cutting
Engraving

NO MESS!

Dammit! No mess in the laser room!

Ill delete you off the calendar if you don't comply! Zero Tolerance!!!!!!!!!! The laser room is not a dumping ground for your rubbish! Use Bins! God dammit!!! And don't use the work benches as cutting mats! And dont leave tape ALL OVER THE MACHINES!! Feels like I'm taking crazy pills here!!!!

Inkling is Rubbish

:o Whats that you say?! Yes I said it, along with everyone else that has had a go with it, we all think its rubbish.

That is all

Induction Mondays!

Want to use  the laser cutters for your project?

Not sure about what halftone means?

Then head to the laser induction every Monday morning from 9AM!

Late comers will be beaten with sticks* so make sure your there!!

*not actually true

Speedy 300 Power settings

Hello!

If you head over to www.aucbcam.com/resources you will now find the power settings for the speedy 300 machines for you to download!

Calendar Shake-up!

Hello you lovely technology users!

I'm always striving for feedback - if i'm rubbish I need to be told so things can change....And that is exactly what happened at the Interior Architecture course board!

That said, however, I would have liked to have had a discussion before it went 'official' and admittedly it took me by surprise, but then hey ho - things have to be done. And I'm pleased to announce the new method of self booking of the laser cutting facilities! (insert applause here!)

You can watch the very unprofessional video here. The video talks about using the Google calendar to access the laser cutters. 

You will need to create an account with Google in order to do so! Click here for a tutorial on that!

If your a newbie and want to use the cutter, then email me and i'll book you on as usual. Perhaps I'll introduce Newbie Mondays where I have an induction a week, and then its up to you to use the machines after that....In fact that's what i'll do next!

So there you go, initial reactions are good. It allows you to just use the laser cutter, easy peasy.

Massive 3D print sale!

Half of 3D printing guys! Get in quick! Max Z height is 85mm and files need to be in by Wednesday 1st!!

New Year, New Workstation!

A question often asked is 'what is a good computer to buy for CAD stuff?'

I know your all dying to buy a MBP, but there are others out there guys! I have a first gen MBP and its OK, its getting on a bit now though at 4 something years old and suffice to say it doesn't get used. Anyway, if you have already decided that you want your computer to tell everybody how individual you are by all having the same laptop, then good for you! But wait, There are others out there!

The main thing to get sorted is what type of pixel pusher are you!?

Mobile, or stationary! My school of thought says that the money you spend on a good mobile workstation/ notebook would buy a killer desktop machine. Arguments for buying a notebook are pretty strong, being able to carry your own machine around with you and all, but don't forget services like skydrive, mobile me and dropbox are all here to help you have your work anywhere and everywhere you go.

The machines invested by the University are second to none, very high end workstations.

This year over 50 new Workstations were brought for the School of Design and these are some serious kit, If I were to build one with off the shelf products, it would cost over £1300. They're currently rocking Xeon E3s @ 3.1ghz, a Quadro 2000workstation card costing over £300 and a lovely 8Gb of ram - so anyone's  opinion of their machine being faster at home - I'm afraid are unfounded ;) .

In an ideal world, I'd take a beast of a workstation (or battle station) at home, and a notebook for commuting and light work around and about the place. But that might be something you work towards; a desktop at least allows for upgrading incrementally throughout its life.

Lenovo u300s in Orange - WANT!

The rising popularity (and rightly so) of Intel Ultrabooks, and of course the MB Air, are giving us mobile computing with pretty decent performance, especially for the price point. Personally I'm pining over the Lenovo U300s.

Edit: Brought one! (in grey) :o

Anyway, on with the post! What about your needs, requirements, and wants!

As a nerd I'd personally try and shy away from buying a PC from a high street store, such as PC world or Comet. They often have an inflated price tag for what they are, and come pre-installed with a load of rubbish that will hamper performance from the outset, it is of course possible to format the machine and re install a clean version of Windows.

Some information about each bit:

Processors:

Currently Intel are marketing consumer I3, I5 and I7 processors, and professional Xeon E3, E5 and E7 processors these are the 'brain' of the computer where all the calculations are taken place. This as far as your concerned, is how fast a command will run in Rhino (such as a Boolean), updating a parameter in Grasshopper or 3DS Max. Preparing a model for the RapMan would be prepared faster with a high end processor, as would the calculation of toolpaths for CNC milling.

If your running scripts it will certainly help spit out the calculations with the better processor you have. Typically though, you should find yourself doing OK with a mid range option, such as the I5. The I7 would add a hefty tag onto the price but it should be considered if you were to take up computational modelling in a big way.

Graphics Cards:

There are 3 types of graphic outputs on the market today, and this is very important to know the difference within this industry. The first is what typically called 'on board' (read 'rubbish'!) this generation of Intell chips have integrated graphics output, which means its doing two jobs (processing and outputting graphics). There are also two types of graphics card(s) available also: Gaming and Workstation. These are two very different types of card and often a cause for confusion. In a nutshell, the graphics card makes the images you see on the screen. The more powerful the card, the better the visuals, the smoother CAD and 3D models will run, update quicker and make your work a breeze to complete!

NVIDIAQuadro workstation cards - lots of cash! :(

Even web browsers now use whats called hardware acceleration to speed up the rendering of web pages and YouTube videos. The workstation cards are notoriously expensive however, due in part to having had countless hours spent in R&D to get the most bang out of it in software environments such as 3DS Max, AutoCAD, etc. Typical Gaming cards are different in operation, as the software written for them enable them to render graphics already generated by creative people such as yourself.

Yeah MLP!

Maybe an analogy might help. For example, the latest My little Pony video game would perform better on a gaming graphics card (found in gaming PCs and games consoles), but the studio that made the game in the first place, would have done so on a workstation card.

That being said, I partake in a little PC gaming, and the complexity of my 3D modelling isn't high enough to warrant the cost of an expensive worstiaiton card, so I opt for a mid / high end gaming card which does both jobs sufficiently for me.

Mobile Graphics cards:

In laptops, they have striped down versions of their desktop counterparts. It still appears in the brochure as graphics card 'X' (EG Mobility Radion ), but it may have a slower clock speed, temperatures may increase when under load as the fans and cooling are restricted in the smaller space. The graphics cards in Imacs are also Mobile versions of their desktop counterparts for their form factor allows them to fit. As mentioned above, the new range of Intel cores output graphics, so allow non intensive and general use be run from the on board chip, and graphic intensive output is run through the dedicated graphics cards - pretty clever stuff.


Ram:

The more the better! This is usually the bottleneck in the speed of current PCs and creative software such as the Adobe suite and the array of CAD packages out there. More than likely you will be running a 64bit version of either OS X or Windows 7, which will require at least 2GB to run. Most hardware brought today will come with a minimum of 4GBs. This will be sufficient for light and general use, editing the odd image ere and there, or creating specification drawings and even simple 3D models. If however, you find yourself getting into the whole CAD thing, this is the easiest and cheapest method to get more performance out of your machine. I am currently running 8GBs, and adding another 8 would currently cost only £45. Give it 12 months and I'll be able to run 32GB of ram for around £80 - (which is amazing BTW!)

Hard Drive:

Currently these are very expensive due to recent flooding of production factories. But the specs are still the same! You want a high speed HDD, around 7200RPM, I can manage with a 500GB but if your continually running high res or complicated CAD models then that might go quite quickly. A technology called Solid state drives or SSD is really making an impact. They have a very high data transfer speed, making boot up times fast on operating system and applications. These are currently expensive as they're a new tech, my 64gbSSD cost £85. 8 months later however the cost has reduced to around £70.

Monitors!

Its the actual part of the PC you'll be looking at whilst doing your work, and stuff! The market leans heavily towards the 'HD' 1080p resolution - which is fine and all if your going for a monitor around 19 or 21 inches, anything more than that and you'll notice the limitations of the hardware. My biggest issue with monitors is that all the panels are typical 1080p, but getting larger and larger; because of this, your pixels becoming bigger!

U2711 27" 2560 x 1440 at a cool £550! Thanks Amazon!

The Pixel per inch or PPI is something I really nerded out over when I brought my monitor. It is something Apple is very good at, and i'd be very reluctant to purchase a monitor online without checking it out before hand. If you look closely at your monitor you'll see all the little pixels that are making up the image, the larger number of pixels the better, with high PPI and resolutions such as 2560 x 1440. Casual use you'll be fine with an off the shelf monitor, but again, if you get into your digital cad stuff with any passion and direction for your career, it's something you might want to invest further in. If you go over 24 inches you'll be looking at a Dell IPS or Apple Cinema Display, all others will be a compromise.

Re-sellers:

The obvious PC world, and they're every where. Sometimes you can get a good machine and a fair price...usually I walk into the store really hoping they have something to tempt me into buying it, but mostly I leave thinking that they're still useless and selling to idiots. I just had a look online and I wouldn't give their desktops the time of day - but if you need a laptop then they may be able to deliver!

www.pcworld.co.uk

Your local independent PC shop!

I had a hard time trying to beat their prices on an I7 workstation a month or so ago on a build from EZcomputers in Winton.

http://www.ezcomputers.co.uk/

Online

My first port of call would be

www.scan.co.uk (who I love)

or

www.Overclockers.co.uk

or

www.dabs.co.uk

Overview

A lotof it comes down to personal preference, and of course the types of work you Will ultimately be doing during your time at University and beyond.I got through my degree on a first generation MBP, looking back I'm not sure how I did manage that. Now I am earning mega bucks (HA!) I was fortunate enough to buy a pretty nice workstation at home, and over the months I have been adding the upgrades piece by piece to make it the machine it is today. A machine for CAD is an investment, that can easily be paid off with a couple of lucrative contracts. As machines get more powerful, and you get more proficient at using the software, then you will expect a machine that can run with high res models and images smoothly without crashing. Of course there are budgets to contend with also, but a lot of people don't have an issue getting their filthy hands all over Apple's products, and a very powerful desktop PC can be brought for even the entry level prices of a MBP!

Any questions or if you find this information confusing, please leave a comment and it will be helpful for others!

2012

Hello!

I heard the world is going to end this year, so I didn't bother cleaning any machines or nothin! I'll mostly be hiding with my head in a bucket, avoiding as many of you as possible without drawing too much attention to myself.

Overall - nothing much has changed, as long as we're happy that's what counts eh ;) I should get onto implementing the online booking system thingy but I'm a bit scared that I might break the whole thing!

One thing that I can say though, is that we have some equipment that you can use should you be inclined, and I also brought it in from home! We have the following for you to have a play with:


iPad 2!

Yeah that's right, have a play with this guy to see if there is anything you can create and then either print or laser!

Camera

Its a bit rubbish, but it takes good macro images, useful for when you want a HQ pic right there and then!

David Scanner

Have a go at scanning sing this rudimentary setup

Microscribe Digitising arm

Belongs to Modelmaking, but if we ask nicely I'm sure we can set you up using it ;)

Inkling (Wacom)

I heard we had one of these on campus, if you kick up a big enough of a fuss I'm sure we can go grab it

RapMan

Maybe I'll bring mine in from home - get some use out of it ;)

Well there is a bit of a list! Let me know if you fancy having a go with any of it, I'm sure we can accommodate you all!!

Might go hide for as long as I can, take care y'all!! x

Ed

Wednesday Workshops

We welcome you to a practical 40 minute demonstration run during Wednesday lunchtimes. Our intention is to explore practical application of the use of technology within existing disciplines and contexts.

From now until the end of term, we will be trialing out these sessions to gauge interest and develop content for further workshops in the new year.

• 23rd  November - Printmaking - Explore how, through the use of Vector and Raster graphics can create engravings onto sheet media, or create the stamps / presses for further use in the printmaking studio. In this session you will be shown  file creation and setup, and the types of typical outcomes that can be expected. 

• 30th  November - Metal Embossing - Emboss onto sheet metal through the use of  laser engraving and traditional metalworking techniques and processes. Engrave complicated and geometric shapes and transfer them onto a range of sheet metals.

• 7th December - Digital Terrain Modeling - A lot of traffic comes through to this page of the blog, so lets make some more content for future visitors! A selection of methods to create accurate or somewhat exaggerated landscape models, followed by a range of processes to realise these phisically in a range of materials, from laser cut card to milled foams and composites.

• 14th December - Closing off the year with a session in pewter casting!  Learn how to make a mould using the laser cutter and create stunning metal casts in minutes. Used previously for coins, medals, jewellery and architectural representation. 

Spaces will be limited and will be a first come - first served approach. Sessions will start from 12:40 to 13:20 in the ground floor digital machine room!  I look forward to seeing you there as it should comprise of an interesting few weeks!

RhinoCAM in your studio!

Well after much moaning we looked into why RhinoCAM wasnt loading on your PCs in the studio - and it is installed but required locating by yourselves when you open Rhino for the first time. TBH I'm not sure if this is a local issue - so if you log into another machine another time, you will have to locate the plug in once again. 

So here goes: how to find and use RhinoCAM for the first time....

1 - Open Rhino ;)

2 -  From the tools menu select Options, then select plug ins from the list on the left. In this window, press the install button. [or type in 'plugin manager']

3 -  In the file name box type  

       “C:\Program Files (x86)\Rhinoceros 4.0\Plug-ins\RhinoCAM 2.0\RhinoCAM 2.0.rhp”

       [not including the quotes] and press Enter.

Enjoy your RhinoCAM :)

Boom - thanks to Nigel our lovely IT guy for the fix!

Hi Guys!

We've had a few changes this past week, and that means a few changes to the way things are running as far as the lasers are concerned.

We Finally got the new PCs installed, that means several things for you guys!

• Faster! 
• Overall things should be smoother now we're running on 4GB of ram and a faster Core 2 Duo processor! Sending files should be a breaze and not take as long to appear in Trotec.
• Better Looking!
• Yes they're still HP PCs but at least tehy all look the same and have matching ketyboards and mice ;)
• USB FUNCTIONALITY!
• Yes that's right folks, no longer are you bound to using online storage (I still recommend it though!), Anti Virus has been installed and Auto Run has been disabled, so for you guys that means that you have to open 'my computer' or  'file open' in illustrator' to get to your files on USB sticks! :)
• New version of Trotec Job Control has been installed. Again, this is a 64bit piece of software so will be taking full support of the new PCs. The software is new to me so ultimately we'll provide you new features as find them - initially however, you will notice they have implemented a timer feature - which gives you an estimated time of completion!!

New Filters in the Laser's Extraction units.

• No more beeping
• No more toxic fumes!
• Better surface finish
• No more toxic fumes!

If yuo notice continued beeping or visiable / smellable fumes contact a memebr of stff immediatly!

This leads me onto another big change - I'm going to get 'stricter' on the types of materials we can cut, in practive I think this will be a list of kknown materials we cannot cut!

So far we Have:

• Styreen
• Even though the new filters should get rid of the fumes, we aint gonna be cutting that no more! At all, EVER!
• Vynal 
• Any type, any thickness, any anything - no Vynal at all.
• MDF 
•  Ok some MDF we will cut, such as anything less than 6mm in thickness, any thicker and we wont be cutting it on the laser cutter. 
• Will add more as we find them1 :)

A big change is ahead of us as far as booking laser time, the use of technician time, and inductions.

We're to pilot a system where by you can self booking laser cutters without having to email and wait for a reply! 

We have grown out of what (the great) Google Calendars can offer, as there is a general increase in numbers of users from a range of courses and skill bases. 

We have identified an online e booking resource which allows you to book time on any one laser cutter for up to 2.5 hrs at a time. You will have to create an account, which you can log into to access the laser cutters calenders and assuming that you have completed an induction you can get yourself on a laser cutter all by yourself!

New users will still be required to contact me to arrange an induction. If you feel a need to have a technician support you at the beginning of your slot, you can do so by requesting their time, again, using the same online form.

Hopefully the move will be smooth and pain free, but lets assume there will be issues sent to test us from all angles!!

Well, one wall of text later! I think its going to be OK!

ED!

Here be prints

As promised, the results of yesterdays digitising and printing. I guess better pics will  happen eventually.

Solid surfaces

Polygon Inset

With Meshsmooth 

modifier

Microscribe Digitising arm

I had a chance while Paul from Modelmaking want looking to steal his microscribe digitising arm!

I had previously made a shape upstairs using the spot welder, with the intention  of using this magical device to input the geometry directly into Rhino in order to further edit it, and include it into visualisation and 3D models for milling / printing. 

Basic Rhino knowledge is required, but shapes can be plotted out almost straight away and / or exported to other software packages for further editing and manipulation. In the following series of images you can see the initial shape, the interaction of the arm with the object, and a set of screen shots taken of the outcomes.

I left the printer running overnight to realise some of the forms for us, so i'll follow up this post with pics of those!

The spot welded object

Typical setup

accurate placement of points taken from the model

physical and digital model can be seen

Wireframe build from simple 2D lines

Shape replicated using 3 / 4 sided surfaces

Surfaces turned into a low res mesh and offset / solidified

Point cloud data joined with interpolated curves

Curves used to create 3 / 4 sided surfaces 

The mesh imported to 3DSMax, with polygons inset

Inset mesh, offset and solidified

Mesh smooth modifier made it transform dramatically

The three meshes i sent to print

From setup to hitting the print button, took a couple of hours. The technology lends itself to being accessible from either a reverse engineering perspective, as as in this case a simpler and more tactile way of creating digital data which can be further manipulated in software environments.

The plans for these models will be further exploration of form once printed, and added to with soft materials such as clay, and harder denser materials such as styreen metals. From here, the process can start over again being re digitised, manipulated, rendered and critiqued. 

See you on the other side ;)

Rhino CAM

Video uploaded, no audio so make sure you have your notes handy!

PDF to follow soon, let me know how you get on with this video to help shape future tutorials.

Ed


Untitled from warderoid on Vimeo.

Axon 2

Axon is the name of the software that we use to prepare 3D models for use on the Bits from Bytes range of 3D printers, the 'RapMan 3.1' and the 'BFB 3000'.

The software is simple enough for new users to get around but it does offer a few more advanced settings when you want to go a little further and try out some new things. 

The function of the software is to 'slice' the 3D model and generate both a fill structure and the outer peramiter of the model, the resulting code (called Gcode) is then read by the machine in the form of linear coordinates and settings required to print the model.

 

We start by opening the software. The interface is simple, with a Toolbar and Ribbon along the top, coordinates on the left, and the main window in the center.

 

When you first open the software, we have to assign the type of machine we are running. Open the settigns Tab, and under machine type, choose either Rapman 3.1 or BFB 3000 depending on the machine you choose.

This drop down window lets you choose the amount of extruders the machine has. The rapman 3.1 has 1 (but can be upgraded to 2 ), and the BFB 3000 has up to 3! So check your machine to see how many it has and choose the appropriate number.

Materials: the list is extensive, and i'm sure there are more materials out there than are on the list. The common types are ABS (white) and / or PLA (clear).

Check to see what materials are available, or specify which material you want to use for your job from the list.

Hit OK ;)

Back in the home tab, you will now notice the graphic has changed for the type of 'bed' the machine has, also the build area will be specific to the machine. The most top left icon on the ribbon is 'open', press this and select the .STL file that you intend to print. 

Select the Build Gcode icon from the ribbon, this opens a dialog box which allows you to configure your print settings. 

 Leave the build style to 'default'

Layer thickness:

  0.125 is a very fine surface finish 

 0.25 is a standard default layering

0.5 is a courser / thicker layering

The layer thickness also has an impact on the length of time the print will take to complete - a finer layer will take longer than the 0.25, and the 0.5 will be quicker than both the first two. A typical print will use 0.25, but feel free to have a play with these settings. 

Raft Material: As we currently only have 1 extruder, it has to be set as the same material as our model will be built from. A raft is built to help the model adhear to the printing surface, and to help alievate warp with larger ABS prints. PLA typically doesn't warp, but there is no 'no raft' option with the current version of Axon 2 (Version 2 Beta 1).

Support Material: If your model has overhangs of 60 degrees or less, or has to bridge large spans (EG Doorways) then support material may be required. This automatically creates a scaffolding strcture around your model. It can print with the same material, but this isn't reccomended. This process is more suited to a machine with multipul extruders, with the primary part being printed in ABS, and the support in PLA. Again, feel free to experiment with these and find a solution out for yourself. 

Part Material: This will be defined as the same material that we chose in the printer configuration tab.

Fill Density: Determins how solid you want your object. This will be dependent on the project and its geometries, and the function of the part once its been printed. I'd suggest to start at 10% and adjust it from there.

Fill Pattern: there are 4 to choose from, and the most left hand side is the newest provided by Axon. Its quick and efficient, granted, it doesnt look as cool as the hexagons, but the structure of the prints are very good with this infill. Using this will also speed up the print whilst using as little filiament as nessesary.

Speed: Default is set as 1, this will produce a tidy print.  For small or complicated geometries it may be required to be slowed to 0.5. For a quicker print, it can be set to 1.5 or 2. Use 3 if your really want a quick outcome and the quality doesnt matter too much. This setting has knock on effects with the extruder motor, gearing and print head as they all work together to create the perfect print! ;)

Thin Wall: Activate thin wall to have the machine print one peramiter loop opposed to the default 3, this is quicker but your model can take a hit on rigidiity. 

Advanced Settings: Extra skins; again, this sets the amount of paremeter loops per layer, the default I think is 3, click the thin walls button and the result is 0. For really rigid parts, set to 3, 4 or 5!

Number of surfaces: This is the amount of surfaces on the base and top of the model, depending on the geometry ths can be set frrom 1 to 3, or 4 or 5! The type of model and your requirements will determin the amount of layers.

Once the data is set, hit the build button! now the software is slicing, infilling and getting your model ready for printing. 

Once done (this could take some time, so grab yourself a 10 mins away from the pc, have a stretch) it gives you an estimated printing time, cost of material and overall weight. Take  a note of these as once you click the screen they will disapear forever!

Once you click it, you get the toolpath of your model. Select the view tab, and deselect the 'view all layers' button. This will then allow you to use the Z slide on the right hand side to check each layer and view the tool path for the job. 

Move the angle of the viewport to get a better angle to the toolpath. if you zoom in you will notice the renders are rough - but this isn't an indication of the final print. 

Finally, reselct the home tab, and choose the save build gcode button (dont hit the build gcode button again!) Save to somewhere safe and then transfer it to the SD card used by the printer. Give the file a practical and sensible name (your name / project name etc).

Happy Printing :)

CNC Queue

To alleviate some of the confusion of getting on the CNC mill that we encountered last year, a list has been taped onto the side of the machine.

Its really quite simple - get your work ready for milling, add your name to the list and wait your turn!

Simply thinking of using the mill for your project doesn't grant you use of the machine when you want it!!

The process goes something like this:

Get 2D / 2D data ready

Run the job through Rhino CAM

Get the simulation animation checked

Put the posted gcode file onto the PC next to the mill

Source and prep your material

Add your name to the list

Wait your turn!

Don't forget that several courses use the CNC mill to realise their work, so it may take a while for your turn to come around.

Any one job can take a long time to complete, let alone a list full of them! We can only run the machine 8 hours per day, so carefully consider your time and the direction of your project before using the mill.

laser process tutorial

Have fun with this handy tutorial!



Start with a circle, choose a heavy stroke!





Click and drag whilst holding the alt key to duplicate, press the shift key to allign anchor point to anchor point.

Press Ctrl + D to duplicate the command, and make an array of 8 x 8.




Outline the stroke via the edit tab > path > outline stroke.



Window >  Pathfinder > merge

This joins all those individual shapes together!




Give the artwork a black fill





Ungroup the artwork and release the cliping mask, the artwork has two layers - choose one and move it to the right. Increase the size of the artboard if nessesary.



Ok - this image has it all!

All black data will engrave

All red data will mark

All blue data will cut

Cyan will cut




Black circles, blue outline



Black infils, blue outline



Blue strokes, cyan outline



Red srokes, blue outline



The four together - look how happy they are!



Speedy 300 firing its red laser at the card below




overview of the process



Hot close up action!



Might need a better camera!