Laser Cutting from Rhino 3D

Settings and steps to cut and engrave from Rhino 3D. These are abbreviated instructions that apply the basic file preparation workflow to Rhino 3D, so other tutorials and documentation may need to be consulted.

Version

If working in Rhino8 or higher, down-save a version of your file to Rhino7.

Entity Print Color

Color, advise all entities set to ‘by layer’

Refer to this table of recognized colors and their corresponding RGB values:

Color Name	R	G	B
Red	255	0	0
Green	0	255	0
Blue	0	0	255
Cyan	0	255	255
Magenta	255	0	255
Yellow	255	255	0
Black	255	255	255
Orange	255	0	0

Vector Objects

All objects you’d like to treat as VECT, with either through-cut or etching settings, must have a print width: hairline (default can also work, depending on what the default setting is set to)

Objects such as paths or shapes with no fill that have another print width will be considered raster objects and so may be skipped if their corresponding color is set to VECT in the ULS printer settings. 

Raster Objects

Colors set to RAST in the ULS printer settings will always be run by the laser cutter before any VECT colors’ objects, regardless of the order the colors appear in the ULS settings.

Any path or shape that has a print width other than “No Print” can be set to RAST for corresponding etching treatment. Paths with thin print widths, and similarly narrow or small raster entities may not be engraved as continuous shapes, appearing dashed or disconnected.

When to explode things like hatches to make raster – or how to make an image printed as the image (and not a filled-in block)

Artboards

To avoid placement issues when printing, place all work you intend to laser cut or engrave within an rectangle that is 32″ wide and 18″ tall. Include that path in a separate layer whose print width for all entities is set to ‘No Print’

If the media you are cutting is smaller than 32″ x 18″, it’s often helpful to draw its extents around the objects you do intend to cut, so that you have a better sense of where the cuts will be within the media. Include that path in a separate layer whose entities’ print width is set to ‘No Print.’ This helps to align the media to the rectangle representing the laser cutter bed, drawn earlier, and then to the edges of the cutting table in the laser cutter, mapping the file’s (0,0) to the machine’s (0,0) to better predict where the cutting and engraving will take place on the media.

Print Settings

Make sure all layers you intend to laser cut or engrave are visible and make sure the “Print only selected” option is not enabled in the Print Dialog.

Window

Scale

1:1

Next, choose “printer properties…” to indicate how to treat the entities’ colors. 

If this is not done through Illustrator, some colors may be skipped or treated as RAST or VECT unintentionally and you will not be able to change those settings in the UCP.

Under the “Manual Control” tab, assign VECT and RAST and other settings as appropriate. Refer to Laser Cutter Settings and the cards at each laser cutting devices.

Regardless of whether you are printing any entities as RAST, the “Raster” tab in the manual settings must have the Image Density set to 5 or 6, any higher than that causes the Engraving Field to be resized and distorts the size and scale of the entities.

Doing this should return you to the Rhino Print settings, but may have changed the Media Size and Orientation, so set that now, to “User-Defined LANDSCAPE”, and Portrait:

Select OK and then Print to proceed through PaperCut authorization and into the UCP to start cutting/engraving.