Cutting From a PDF

[rcpilot82]

Hello,
this may be a stupid question, but I am gonna ask anyway. I have a rabbit laser with lasercut 5.3 and want to know how to take a PDF or JPG and cut it out. attached is a JPG and PDF of a airbrush stencil that I need to cut out. can anyone help guide me through making this work? Up till now all I have cut out were DXF's. Any help would be good

Thanks

[zax15uk]

Your image is very low resolution and simple, so I would just redraw it but you could also vectorize it. Here's a really quick vector conversion, it needs cleaning (node reduction) at the very least before you attempt to cut it.

I don't have access to my usual tools right now (I'm travelling) but if you have Corel I am sure you could achieve better results.

Zax.

[rcpilot82]

Thanks, I do not have corel. I have a bunch of these and other items that I would like to cut out and need to come up with a way to do it.

[notexpert]

I don't know if this will help you at any way... ?

Regards,
Hannu

[zax15uk]

I don't use it, but I believe Inkscape has vector conversion built in and it's free.

Zax.

[rcpilot82]

zax and notexpert, what software are you using?

[zax15uk]

Originally Posted by rcpilot82 zax and notexpert, what software are you using?

I use ArtCAM or GSP Omega, but didn't have those applications available as I am currently travelling so I used an older sign program (which didn't produce the best results).

Zax.

[Litografa]

Corel is one of best tools to extract any vector image from PDF and use for lasering. Of course you must pay some $$$ for Corel but this is standart for this business.

[rcpilot82]

Thanks, I guess I'll have to see about learning Corel then.

[notexpert]

I use mainly CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator. Somehow I feel it's easier to explode PDF files with Illustrator and I'll also get better tracing results with it.
From Adobe it is easy to export the files in eps, dwg, dxf, jpeg, bmp, etc... format. But still the main software for me is CorelDraw.

Regards,
Hannu