BIOEN 472 – Biosensors for Cancer

Albert Folch, Arman Naderi

FROM DRAWING TO DEVICE: A

GUIDE FOR LASER CUTTING
CREATED BY: ARMAN NADERI

SUMMARY: Laser cutting is a rapidly-developing fabrication technique for engineers,

designers and manufacturers. Its emerging popularization for engineers is a result of a laser
cutter’s ability to have a relatively high level of resolution, low material cost, and high-
throughput device production. In addition, because it is a digital manufacturing technique, the
time from design to device is very small, making rapid-prototyping possible. With your ability to
create designs in AutoCAD, you are now able to “instruct” the laser cutter to create a device with
your desired features. This guide will teach you how to use the laser cutting facilities in the
Dabble Lab Makerspace in Area 01.

FROM DRAWING IN AUTOCAD TO DRAWING IN RHINO

The laser cutter in the Dabble Lab uses the CAD program Rhino to interpret drawings.
We have made our drawings in AutoCAD (free for UW students) and we need to transfer them
into Rhino. In order to do this, the drawing file in AutoCAD must be exported out of the program
as a .dxf file; this file type can be read by Rhino, and many other drafting programs. In order to
save your drawing as a .dxf simply click the AutoCAD icon at the top of the screen, click on the
Export tab and specify that the exported file type as .dxf. Once you have exported your drawings,
put all of your .dxf files into an accessible storage space such as your Google Drive or a USB
stick. These .dxf files will need to be loaded directly into Rhino on the laser cutting computer.

In order to load a file into Rhino simply click the “File” button at the top left of the
program, and then click the “Import” button. If you decide to load multiple .dxf files to cut at one
time, move your drawings away from the origin so that they do not overlap when they are
imported in.

Once you have imported your files ensure that your drawings have the dimensions on the
scale that you intended. Do this by checking the model units of your Rhino file. At the bottom of
the screen you should see the units being used for the model. If it is not in millimeters, (or
whichever units you used to design in AutoCAD) you can change the units of the model file by
right clicking on that unit of measurement, clicking the “Unit Settings” button, and changing the
“Model units” to the appropriate setting. Then, ensure that the length of your device is what you
specified it to be by typing the “length” command in the command bar, and selecting a line in
your device that you know the length of.
 BIOEN 472 – Biosensors for Cancer

Albert Folch, Arman Naderi

Once you have your drawings properly imported, you must change some of the properties
of the objects that you drew. You should have predefined layers that should have also been
imported into Rhino. Ensure the Print Color matches the Layer color and the line width is
set to Hairline. Save these Rhino files in an accessible place like Google Drive or a USB stick.

LASER CUTTING FROM RHINO

Once the files are loaded and ready on the Laser Cutter Computer, all you have to do is
press Print. The print interface should automatically default the files’ printing location to the
laser cutter (VLS4.60). On this print interface screen it is important to note that the scale matches
the units you are using in Rhino. If you have problems with scaling, please speak to one of the
Makerspace technicians. Within the print dialog box is a properties button – clicking this button
will open up the ULS Control Panel. Under “Manual Control” in this ULS Control Panel you
will be able to assign the power, speed, and type of cut (vector/raster) for your drawing. All
colors, even if no objects in your drawing have that specific color, should have a z-axis
height of 0.065 inches (rounded up from 1/16”).

With this control panel, colors you assigned to specific geometry in your drawing can
have different power and speed settings associated to them. The settings you use is dependent on
your characterization of what is appropriate for your project; however, I will attach a spreadsheet
of previous work done characterizing the laser cutter. Use the characterization excel spread sheet
to get approximate power and speed settings that match the channel geometry in your paper as
close as possible. This previous characterization was done with the laser cutter directly on
PMMA, not with the adhesive that you all have to cut through. The spreadsheet of power and
speed settings should be used as a starting point for your characterization. For through-cuts,
I recommend using 80% power, and 20% speed. Once you are done modifying settings in the
Manual Control Panel, click Apply, and close; you should be sent back to the print dialog in
Rhino. With the settings complete, click Print, and your drawing will be sent to the ULS Control
Panel.

LASER CUTTING WITH THE ULS CONTROL PANEL

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS DURING YOUR TIME USING THE LASER
CUTTER PLEASE ASK A DABBLE LAB MAKERSPACE TECHNICIAN FOR HELP.

Follow these steps to ensure that the laser cutter is on and ready for your cut.

1. Turn on the laser cutter.

2. Turn the switch on behind the laser cutter computer to turn on the fume extractor.

Double check to see if the settings you put in Manual Control in the Rhino print dialog
box match the settings in the ULS Control Panel by clicking settings.
 BIOEN 472 – Biosensors for Cancer

Albert Folch, Arman Naderi

From this point, you can move your drawing on the interface to where you have your
material placed in the laser cutter. Use the laser indicator function of the laser cutter (while the
lid is open) to help place your drawing in an appropriate position.

After using the laser cutter for your project, please go into the laser cutting settings menu
within the VLS interface, and apply the settings for any random material in the Materials
Database. This will act to refresh the settings so that other Makerspace users won't have unusual
settings because of your work in Manual Control mode.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS DURING YOUR TIME USING THE LASER
CUTTER PLEASE ASK A DABBLE LAB MAKERSPACE TECHNICIAN FOR HELP.

CHARACTERIZING YOUR CUT

While you are cutting, you should also be cogniscent of which settings you are using to
create your devices. This means recording the power and speed settings that are associated to
specific channel geometry in your device, and recording the number of laser passes you did on
your device. Using a confocal microscope and a specially cut piece of PMMA, we can
characterize the channel geometry produced from the power, speed, and number of passes you
used in your device. The piece of PMMA we will use to characterize your settings should follow
the schematic shown in the diagram below. It is important that the edges of your lines meet the
edges of your through-cut square.

Power/Speed
Power/Speed Setting
Setting 12
Power/Speed Setting 3
Through-cut 1 cm x 1 cm square:
80% Power/ 20% Speed