What Is Laser Cutting CAD?

A laser cutter works very much like your everyday inkjet printer. Laser cutters come with specific drivers that allow them to take what is on the computer, convert it into a format that the laser cutter can read, and then allow the laser cutter to do its job. Many design software packages support laser cutter drivers; it is pretty common among 2D design programs, and some 3D design software can also support laser cutter drivers when dealing with 2D drawings or sketches. Here are a couple you may already be familiar with or may want to try out:

2D Design:

• CorelDRAW: graphic design software with an extensive number of tools and applications
• Adobe Illustrator: Powerful graphic design software used to create high quality designs
• AutoCAD (free for students): Great drawing software, primarily used by engineers and architects to create detailed drawings and product representations
• Inkscape (free):Free, open source graphic design software

3D Design:

• Solidworks: Engineering 3D design software with multiple packages for aiding in design for specific applications
• Autodesk Inventor (free for students): Professional mechanical design software used to create and optimize designed systems
• Autodesk Fusion (free for students): Cloud-based CAD platform used to help designers through the entire designing, engineering and manufacturing processes

The content in this class will only reference Adobe Illustrator, which is installed on the classroom laptops, and Inkscape. If you are more familiar with the other CAD software, please feel free to use that.