Best way to run a Chinese laser from Windows 10/Illustrator CC

[Bob Crimmins]

I have an 80W Chinese laser that I've been running for about 6 years off of an ancient Dell Optiplex using CorelDraw 12 with the RDCAM/Laserworks plug-in. I bought the laser used and that was it's setup and so it's all I've ever known. The Optiplex just died so I'm building a new controller PC to run the laser. I do all of my design work in Illustrator so I always had to export drawings in to Illustrator 8 and then import into CorelDraw in order to cut. I don't want to do that any more.

What I want to build is a Win 10 machine with Illustrator CC and whatever laser control software makes sense, preferably as a plug-in to Illustrator. I know RDCAM/Laserworks really well and so I'm tempted to stick with it, but I can't get it to install on on my Windows 10 machine and the plug-in to Illustrator doesn't work either.

When I run the RDCAM 6.0.45 install, it completes and says it was successful, but when I try to run Laserworks, I get this error:

2018-04-29 13_07_46-Start.png

The Illustrator plug-in installation also appears to run successfully, but when I open Illustrator, I get this error:

2018-04-29 13_23_06-Start.jpg

So...

If there is a straight-forward way to get Win10/Illustrator/RDCAM/Laserworks stack to work, then I'm all for it.

If it's not possible or if there's a clearly better software stack choice, then I'm all for that.

Any advice?

Thanks!

[Bill George]

Windows 7 Pro and after its running like it should, Automatic Upgrades off.

[Bob Crimmins]

Windows 7 Pro and after its running like it should, Automatic Upgrades off.

Thanks, Bill. Just to clarify, are you saying that you are running Illustrator with RDCAM on Windows 7 without a problem?

[Doug Fisher]

Your controller may be too old but you might download and try the 30 day free trial of LightBurn. The software works well for many things. Just keep in mind it is still very "beta" in many respects. You get 30 days to see if it will me your needs in its current form.

[John Lifer]

What model controller do you have? You can get various version of RDworks that will work with Illustrator at their Chinese site, or the FB RDworks Community Support if you want a US site. I'd go with 8.01.17 as first try.

[Kev Williams]

My Triumph (3-1/2 years) came with PHCad/LaserSoft software, and they've since produced about 5 more updates. I've tried every one, but I still use the original...
I still use Corel x3 and x4, I've tried my BIL's x6, it does nothing extra for me...
Gravostyle is up to at least a version 8, I have the bargain-basement 7 version, but my favorite is 5.3..
As for Corel Trace and Gravostyle's vector program, when it comes to creating toolpath vectors from art, my 1991 and 1995 versions of Casmate put them both to shame...

The reason I keep using the older stuff, is simply because I know exactly how they work and what to expect, and when trying to keep up with my customers, knowing what to expect can save hours a day in dealing with "the unexpected"...

I mention all this because: "I know RDCAM/Laserworks really well and so I'm tempted to stick with it..." --

There is very much to be said for knowing anything 'really well'. Makes life much easier.

Computers, on the other hand...

[John Lifer]

Mentioning computers...... And Windows 10 (guess I should put on the thread about Fibers crashing. I delayed my updates a while back. At the same time, I turned my settings to Metered Internet.

So far NO UPDATES. One is pending but won't download because I have Metered Internet. (which is true btw.)

[Bill George]

Thanks, Bill. Just to clarify, are you saying that you are running Illustrator with RDCAM on Windows 7 without a problem?

No I do not run Illustrator, but get rid of Windows 10 there are a few people running without issues but running our machines is more important than the forced upgrades with W10.

[John Noell]

+1 for Lightburn. Technically it still is in beta but it is more polished than RDWorks. There is a constant stream of new features and bug fixes. The developer is very responsive. There is a Corel macro for Lightburn that sends just the selected part of the CD file to LB. Quite handy.