What file type to use with Chinese laser?

[Bruce Dorworth]

Question Chinese laser owners. What type of file do you export to send to your laser. I've used a PLT for some time but have noticed that my circles are not round they have a bunch of segments if that makes sense. Plus it changes the colors I have chosen for outline.

[Bert Kemp]

I use DXF files

[Scott Marquez]

I normally do design work in a cad program then save in DXF format that I then import into the laser.
I do have to resize to metric and "unite lines" in the laser program before use.
Scott

[Julian Ashcroft]

I use Inkscape for design work, save as svg, then save as dxf to send to the laser software, do final manipulation there including colour assignment, sizing for etc, then save as that softwares normal file type and then send to the laser.

[Balsanu Gabi]

Depends what kind of software you use to control the laser. I have RDCam 6 for my Shenhui. I design all of my files in Rhino 4.0 (yeah I know is old, but is still doing the job right) and export everything as an .AI file (old Ilustrator 3.0 export). I need to do one step more in Rhino and that is to "flatten" - change degrees, but that is 1 sec op and that it is. If I assign colors in Rhino (which I do every time - raster black and cutting red) that will be exported also leaving me doing nothing inside RDCam (which is poor on the design side and not only on that).
I see you have Corel. Use that and export .AI files with color layers. I don't like Corel thinking is more an artistic software than an true design engineering software (Rhino is not on top of that being beat by SW by far).

HTH
Gabi

[Jerome Stanek]

I use Aspire for my CNC and laser for the laser I convert to MM and export as a DXF

[Clark Pace]

I use corel draw or inkscape. I find ai saving as ai 8 works well for me

[Rich Harman]

I use ai V8 or dxf for importing into LaserWorks.

Dxf's, depending on the software creating them, may not import correctly. If that's the case I open the dxf with Corel then export as ai.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Autocad2000 format DXF, some packages as Rich says don't create true DXF's they create the software makers version of the DXF format that can come with it's own set of problems.

[Bruce Dorworth]

Thanks for all the help guys. Looks like I am going to have some experimenting to do. I ran into a problem with a file I made in Corel. I had 4 different outline colors. When I export as a .plt file all the colors are okay, but round objects are not round. They are segments. When I exported as a dxf the shape was good, but the color outlined were mixed up.