Make an SVG File for Glowforge to SCORE, CUT & ENGRAVE

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SUMMARY:
In this video I give a tutorial of how to make an SVG file for the Glowforge laser cutter
WATCH NEXT:
○ 10 Ways to Make Money with a Glowforge - • 10 Ways to Make Money ...
○ How to Make Earrings | Glowforge Tutorial - • How to Make Earrings |...
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[@wilsonricharda]

OMG! Who would have thought that it was that simple. Thank you very much for your informative and insightful tutorials.

[@VicTacToe]

You’re so welcome! Glad you found them helpful 😁

[@kathyhaansbucketlistadvent1054]

When I tell you it too me DAYS to find this. I watched at least a dozen other videos to try to figure this out, and even bought a course. Wish I found you first! It took me like five min to finally get my file and then make the cut. THANK YOU

[@VicTacToe]

Yay!! I"m so glad the video was helpful, I know how frustrating it can be!

[@DrawerFullofRocks]

Solid! Thank you. Exactly what I've been looking for. Took me 2 days to find you. Now I can go crate the file to be ready to meet the laser engraver guy tomorrow.

[@VicTacToe]

Yay!! So glad it was helpful :)

[@highvibemysticallifestyle]

Thank you for this!!!! I'm a newbie to Illustrator and got frustrated today trying to figure it out. I went through 10 tutorials today but this is the best one yet!!!

[@VicTacToe]

You’re so welcome!! I’m glad it was helpful 😊

[@Vonlongmire]

I agree! Great Video. I have more experience with Photoshop and this helped a lot.

[@VicTacToe]

@@Vonlongmire I'm glad you liked it! :D

[@penandpixel]

This tutorial is absolute GOLD! Thank you!!!

[@VicTacToe]

Aw, thank you!! ☺️

[@kellycd8185]

Thank you so much for this. I’m so grateful… you are awesome for sharing what you know. I pray great things and much success for you.

[@VicTacToe]

Aww you’re so welcome! Thanks so much 💕

[@EverydayReady]

This was immensely helpful, thank you!

[@VicTacToe]

Yay I’m so glad! You’re very welcome 😊

[@dalgonacovfefe]

Thanks!!! Really helpful

[@VicTacToe]

You’re welcome! So glad you found it helpful! ☺️

[@kahadin]

Very helpful video

[@VicTacToe]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@kindtumbler7075]

good tutorial

[@VicTacToe]

Thank you!!

[@sysphotography]

A+ video

[@VicTacToe]

Thanks you!! ☺️

[@Knmoxley]

Thanks so much! Appreciate the info. When I import into glowforge, each line shows up individually. I made sure it was grouped when I exported. Do you know what I'm doing wrong?

[@VicTacToe]

You're welcome! :) That can happen if all of your lines are not connected to each other. So for example if your design is a star, and the outline of the star is in several different pieces, you'd have to connect them together in your vector program before saving so the star is all one piece. It's kind of hard to explain... I hope that makes sense!

[@redjulie1]

Thanks for the video! Which of the two ways do you find the most easiest/quickest to vectorize?

[@VicTacToe]

I personally like to use the pen tool because I like the amount of freedom it gives to make design tweaks along the way if you need to. But it seems like most people prefer image trace!

[@thebraysnbadger4333]

I realise this is an old video so maybe you can’t comment but I am really struggling with creating the image trace. I am ignoring the white however for some reason some of my back ground becomes different shades of white. So some of the white is remaining behind after image trace. It will not let me ignore a second colour (if I swap it the rest of the white returns) can you change the tolerance at all? If I move it into the glowforge programme there are so many tiny dots it’s hard to know what to ignore and it’s messing up the design. Any help really appreciated 😀

[@heidirabideau2318]

I have a Windows computer. What do you suggest to use

[@VicTacToe]

Illustrator is also available on Windows so I would suggest using Illustrator :)

[@juanitaonthego7745]

Questions: is there a specific stroke width that has to be used to the parts that are going to be cut? Can you, instead of group the different outlines, just create a compound path with all of them?

[@VicTacToe]

Hi! There is actually not a specific stroke size that has to be used. And yes, instead of grouping you could definitely create a compound path out of them. I tend to use the grouping method because it makes the design easier to edit in case I want to go back and make changes later.

[@juanitaonthego7745]

@@VicTacToe Thanks for answering!! very helpful info :)

[@juanitaonthego7745]

@@VicTacToe One more question: why is it important to save the artboard when you save an svg for Glowforge?

[@erectile-dysfunction-man]

I've been trying at this for two or three hours now and I just don't get it. I have a box template and I used live trace, turned the score colours blue like yours and exported both the cutting and the score together like yours, but it comes out as a clusterfuck of bajillion pieces in the GF app that's a mix and match of the cut + score lines at random. I can't use "Join" because it gives me an error that they are invalid objects. I used all the default image trace settings like yours.

[@VicTacToe]

I usually prefer to use the pen tool instead of image trace. Starting at 4:40 in this video I show that technique.

[@dogfriendlyliving]

I’ve done all of this but I get a no artwork in the error?? Please help?!

[@VicTacToe]

When does it say no artwork? When you upload to the glowforge app? The file could be too big…

[@sirsmalls4565]

In Procreate what is your dpi usually? And what brushes do you use? I just got an iPad Pro and been messing around with it a bit.

[@VicTacToe]

Hi! The DPI I use is 132. My 2 fav brush sets are "cartooning brush set" by BeeJayDel and "colorado brush set" by Holly Pixels, and in that set I really like the brush called "colo mono".

[@sirsmalls4565]

@@VicTacToe does dpi depend on how large your cut is going to be? Not sure if you set yours to 132 because they’re earrings.

[@VicTacToe]

@@sirsmalls4565 As long as you're able to vectorize the drawing without it looking blurry you will be good to go! I just use 132 DPI because that's the default for ProCreate and I haven't had any issues with it :)

[@CandaceMedvetz]

What size is your canvas on procreate?

[@VicTacToe]

I just use the standard screen size canvas: 2388px x 1668px

[@hannahfranklin7819]

Hi! How do you prevent the cut lines from showing up as two outlines when you import the art to the glowforge app?

[@VicTacToe]

Hi Hannah! I have not experienced having 2 outlines, so I'm not sure what would be causing that. You could try outlining the cut lines and creating a compound shape. Assuming you're using Illustrator, with the cut lines selected you would go to Object - Path - Outline Stroke, and then with those cut lines still selected open up pathfinder and use the "unite" tool to create that compound shape.

[@hannahfranklin7819]

@@VicTacToe Yes I am using Illustrator! That tip worked for me :) Thanks so much for the help!! In case anyone here has the same issue: when I outlined the cut lines as you recommended, I could see that the line I drew was categorized as a "fill" rather than a stroke, which Glowforge automatically reads as an engrave. I changed the fill to none and stroke to the red color I was using, then used the unite tool to create a compound shape. This solved the problem for me!

[@VicTacToe]

@@hannahfranklin7819 Yayy I'm glad it worked! and thank you for sharing! :)

[@deniseteague8203]

Hi Vic, I want to use a few different clip arts to create a scene. I won’t be hand drawing anything so would I use the same method to create SVG files using non hand drawn images?

[@VicTacToe]

Hi Denise! Yes, you should be able to image trace your clip art, the same way you would a hand-drawn image. If you’re using Adobe Illustrator you’ll have to click “embed” after importing your image, before you image trace.

[@deniseteague8203]

@@VicTacToe Thank you Vic!

[@victoriamyrand]

@@deniseteague8203 You’re welcome! 🙂

[@natalicarolina4544]

Hi! i have a question, because in the first option, yo expand those lines, and in the second, you don´t. So at the end, it doesn´t matter in glowforge? is the same result anyway?

[@VicTacToe]

Hi Natali, good question! I expand the lines in the first technique since I used image trace and the lines needed to be converted to paths. In the second technique, I'm using the pen tool to create the paths, they don't need to be expanded to turn into paths because that's what they already are. :) If the lines were not expanded in the first technique, Glowforge would not read it as a vectorized file. I hope that makes sense!

[@natalicarolina4544]

@@VicTacToe ok! so is very different from other machines, like cricut or any 3d machine, if you expand or not you have different results. If i make an svg with a stroke without expanding, the machine interpretates only to have one path to cut, so it would be a fill circle, but if that stroke has outlines , now it has two paths to cut, with the result of a non fill circle. As a DXF file in sillhouette, also has different results. Thank you!

[@VicTacToe]

@@natalicarolina4544 Yea, if you don't expand the stroke the Glowforge reads it as a cut line! But you can always change it from cut to score or engrave. It would be much simpler if all machines were the same! lol

[@bdepompei]

Trace left a bit of white in my drawing in between some lettering. I reduced the number of colors until the white disappeared and drawing was not impacted. Hope this helps someone having trouble:)

[@VicTacToe]

Nice!! Thanks for sharing 🤓

[@bdepompei]

@@VicTacToe thanks for the tutorial!

[@pensychan]

What is the difference between engraving and scoring? 👀

[@VicTacToe]

Engrave is darkening a filled shape and scoring just draws a line :)

[@JessShoemaker]

What if the bar at the top doesn't come up to "Expand"? How do I get it to come up?

[@VicTacToe]

You should be able to open it from the menu… object - image trace - expand 😊

[@JessShoemaker]

@@VicTacToe Thanks! I found it!