By Sean

Due to bugs in CutStudio, if multiple objects are selected, and the group is scaled, individual objects will not have consistent scaling. This procedure shows how to send jobs to the cutter with negligible error.

N.B. If the drawing opens correctly in Autocad or DWGEditor, go to step 2; if it is already in .dwg format, go to step 3.

Step 1: Simplify the drawing
 
The .dxf files created by LayoutEditor are based on Autocad Release 12, which came out in 1992. Since then, the dxf format has undergone some revisions, so the exported designs will often not open in newer progams. To fix this, we need to simplify the design.

Open the design in layout, go to the primary cell, and flatten the cell (Cell > Cell Flat Multilevel). You should have a main cell were all the objects are polygons (not cell references). Save as a .dxf.

Step 2: Convert to .dwg

Open LayoutEditor's dxf file in DWGEditor, and save it as a .dwg. Illustrator should now be able to open the file without any problems.

Note: If you still have difficulty opening the document, try deleting all cells other than the primary cell from within LayoutEditor - this should not affect the primary cell since cell references should have been replaced polygons.

Step 3: Open and Edit in Illustrator

Open the .dwg in Illustrator (it supports dwg natively). Make any changes (including scaling) that you would have previously made in CutStudio from within Illustrator.

Hint 1:When you select an object, you can control its size and position from the properties bar at the top of the screen.The ability to enter an exact position for an item makes it easier to ensure overlapping items are aligned properly.

Hint 2: You can call up guides/rulers in Illustrator by going to View > Show Rulers (or hitting Ctl + R). You can right click on the rules and changes the units on the document.You can also drag a ruler onto the document to create a guide line (objects can snap to guides if smart guides are enabled; you can enable smart guides by going to View > Smart Guides).

Step 4: Send to CutStudio

To send the document to CutStudio, use the CutStudio plugin for Illustrator (if you don't see it, you can make it visibly by going to Window > CutStudio Plugin from Illustrator). Click on the large R; this will transfer the document into CutStudio with the (almost) correct dimensions and place it at the origin. You can then cut from CutStudio as you would normally (though you shouldn't make any changes to the document once it is in CutStudio).

Caution: When transfering documents from Illustrator to CutStudio, there is a chance some objects will have a 1 micron error. If you care about a 1 micron error: print/cut directly from the Illustrator (File > Print; select the Bren). Though this may sound simpler, I've found it is harder to control the position of the cut on the material when cutting through Illustrator, and would strongly recommend using CutStudio whenever possible.