I am trying to get this up and running. This workflow worked fine on the Epilog but learning Lightburn I am having trouble properly importing PDF files.
For instance, I export PDF from Adobe Illustrator. If I print on paper it looks exactly like the PDF does. Not extra artwork hangin off the sides.
However, when I import into Lightburn, all this other artwork comes with and I need to know how to not have that happen. Messing around with boolean operations to trim the excess is not a scalable workflow.
If all the shapes that go out of bounds are closed, using Boolean Intersection would do what you want. With any open shapes, the only answer at present would be to manually break the shapes at the boundary using node editing.
The issue is that PDFâs exported from AI are including all the stuff outside the artboard in the file, and just not showing it to you because itâs relatively easy to do as âpaintâ but much harder to do as operations on the shapes.
We will have a way of clipping an entire design to a boundary (itâs a planned feature) but itâs not done yet.
If you save as legacy AI format does it behave any different?
The âlowest formâ of AI file is AI 3.0. That is incredibly simple, so it might clip because Iâm not even sure it included art boards at that point.
AI 2020 format with compression enabled isnât supported by LightBurn yet, so it just falls back to the PDF preview content, so if you save with âUse Compressionâ turned off youâre getting the âtrue AIâ content from the file. Try one of each just to see if it works - I canât say that it will, but itâs worth trying.
What is the source art (topographic layers) you are working with? In Illustrator CC they provide both a raster crop along with the pathfinder tool for vector editing/cropping. What version of AI are you using?
If you are an experienced C/C++ programmer familiar with Qt and 2D geometry, trigonometry, and algebra, possibly. Otherwise, probably not. (this is in no way intended to belittle, by the way, itâs just a complicated problem - it will happen, and weâve had a bunch of internal discussions about it already - likely for the 1.0 release)
Donât have Illustrator to try this to confirm, but a google search turned up this as a possible solution. You could position the correct parts of the desired results inside an appropriately sized artboard and use the export process described in the post below.
Hello Everyone
If you want to export Only artboard area in illustrator CC.
Go to Export> Export As >Check âUse Artboardsâ.
And choose desired formate. And then Click On Export.
Oz, I can program but probably not at that level. I feel awkward having to ask for a feature that should already exist but I mean more like donate. We have a brand new laser and a top notch project but canât seem to find any software (AI included) that is capable of working. We had an Epilog laser that could handle this workflow just fine but C19 shut down the makerspace so here we areâŚ
Moving forward I really feel like there is a way to do this in either Lightburn and/or AI. Itâs wild how after 20 years of Adobe there isnât a way to clamp an artboard and ONLY export that art. Baffling. Still tryingâŚ
I think this example produces a png file. As I said, I donât have Illustrator to test this, but you do. Does this process also provide for other export file formats? What would be your ideal format to work with, Vector or Raster?
Having AI will be essential to assisting in the original export as we are deep in nuances of exporting. I have been up and down the basic tree and what you referenced will not work.
The problem is that although you can follow those steps, and although it might look correct in Adobe Acrobat, or even print correctly on a paper printer, once imported into Lightburn (or god forbid RDWorksâŚ) the deep and hidden groups of connected lines and other art are expressed. Since there are sooooo maaaany layers I really anât spend the next week individually clicking them, boolean, and removing them by hand. It must be done at a higher level.
However, you donât really need AI to simulate the frustration. Download the PDF in the link. Drag into Lightburn. Then you will see the discord.
If you have some cropping solution up you sleeve for rectifying the lines and shapes that pop-up once dragged into Lightburn then you are the new hero. If not. Iâll be here until we do.
OK, I do understand and have no doubt the PDF is not truly cropped. As mentioned, we will provide a solution within LightBurn, but as Oz says, ââŚit will happen, and weâve had a bunch of internal discussions about it already - likely for the 1.0 releaseâ
Coreldraw loads the file like you want it and you can save as ai v8 that imports nicely into lightburn.
Still do not understand why you not trim inside adobe as it is your artwork.
(this is in no way intended to belittle, by the way, itâs just a complicated problem - it will happen, and weâve had a bunch of internal discussions about it already - likely for the 1.0 release)
Does this process also provide for other export file formats? What would be your ideal format to work with, Vector or Raster?