Preparing Files for Laser Cutting in Adobe Illustrator

Bat File

This file is an image by Ed Emberley and was created using this video.

View Outline (command-y)

It takes away all the fill colors and shows what your object is actually made up of.

You can see the hands and teeth are made of lines, not shapes, and something is wrong with the triangle above the right-eye. The laser cutter will cut every line it sees right now, so we need to adjust things like the hands so that they don't create cuts into the body of the bat.

Command-y to see the full view again.

Get rid of the black fill for the bat, by selecting the bat and clicking on the small arrow to swap fill and stroke colors.

Combine the triangle with the eyeballs to make a different outline for the eye.

1. Select nothing by clicking on the white art board.

Select the three parts of the eye

Use Shapebuilder with Option Key to Subtract

Select Shapebuilder tool

Hold down option key to subtract

Use shapebuilder to subtract the triangle and black circle from the green eye

Repeat these steps with the second eye.

Fixing the Teeth: Convert paths to Objects

1. Selection Tool

2. Select the twoteeth

Object -> Path -> Outline Stroke

Remove the teeth with ShapeBuilder + Option Key

1. With the selection tool select the mouth and two teeth

2. Click on Shapebuilder Tool

3. Hold down Option Key and click on all parts of the teeth to remove them from the mouth (but not the mouth)

Fixing the Hands

1. Select the hands

2. Object -> Path Outline Stroke

3. Select all the hands and all the body

4. Shapebuilder tool to add hands to body