Vector art

Openclipart.org

Modify - used Illustrator - convert fonts to outlines

Why Au?

Make real size

Print a paper version

screengrabs



CNC cutters usually make use of vector graphics. I wanted a sunburst, but didn't want to draw one from scratch. I'm not that good at designing from scratch, but pretty good at altering existing work. OpenClipArt.org is a great resource to get copyright-free vector graphics. I found a sunburst there that I liked and downloaded it. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was a great start.



I have Adobe Illustrator on my computer, but any other vector drawing program like Corel Draw or Inkscape will work just as well.

I deleted out all colored sections of the art. For sandblasting, we are only making a template - a shape that will be masked off. No colors will be used, just shape, so a black and white image is fine.



Next, I deleted out the face in the image, and tweaked some of the points of the suns rays.



I then added the letters A and u in the middle using the text tool.



Once happy with the artwork, make sure to convert fonts to outlines. Not all fonts are the same on different machines. CREATE OUTLINES makes the font into just the shape of the letters.



It's also important to make sure that the artwork is the right size for the object. I measured the cup and decided that round artwork of three inches in diameter was the right size. I scaled the art to 3" square and printed it out on my inkjet printer. I then cut it out and taped it to the cup as a mockup to see how I liked the size and position.



The vinyl cutter uses .DXF files, so I saved my project and exported a file as .DXF.