Problem : exporting to Scorchworks

[John Harris]

My Co2 machine does not like Affinity Designer2

I am currently using ADOBE Illustrator (MAC)  - exporting to a Windows machine running scorchworks. This Works fine.

I want to move to Affilinity designer2 - problem is,  scorchworks does not display red lines - (redlines are required. to work the CO2 machines). So I think the problem is on Affinity's side.

My question is this :

What are the correct export setting on Affillinity designer2 to read Scortch works 

Any advice is much apprecated.

John Harris

[thomaso]

What file type(s) did you export? What are the requirements of "scorchworks" for this file type(s) and for "redlines"? Is scorchworks able to read native .AI files with or without PDF included with a wanted result?

Can you show screenshots, a.) of AD (including layers panel with 1 redline object selected with Move Tool) + b.) of Scorchworks with an exported AD file opened?

[John Harris]

Thomaso thank you,

I exported SVG and followed the suggestions from ‘Laser Everything’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYhY2sBTNjQ

I am able to export .AI files to scorchworks. The problem is, when I export .SVG files using Affinity the ‘scorchworks’ software does not display the artwork with red lines. One needs to see red lines in order to get the CO2 laser to work.

I’ve contacted scorchworks the developer of K40 Whisperer - they had no answers, which is very disapointing.

Can you suggest a suitable alternative to scorchworks>

If I can't use laser cut there is no point in using affinity - I may need to move to Inscape

[thomaso]

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with laser cutting software and don't know what exactly "red line" means in this case or why "K40 Whisperer" does not display them after your creation in Affinity. If it displays artwork with other colours, maybe it wants the red to be defined as a spot colour, as it is used for instance for printed + cut-plot media. Or are there other requirements for the line(s) in your specific app, for instance regarding stroke width, the type of curves (open/closed) etc? Compare: https://onlinelasercutting.com.au/file-setup/

Unless a user with laser cut experience pops up, maybe you find a useful hint in a related thread in the Affinity forums,
e.g. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&q="laser cut"

Nevertheless, I think there are quite a few alternatives, depending on your conditions for "suitable".
If you don't find one with a simple search, e.g. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=lasercut+software
… you might get more info in a laser cut forum, for instance: https://www.cnczone.com/forums/cam-software/