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Die-line design
October 5, 2007

For those who design artwork for die-cutting, or manage artwork that requires die-cutting, those dies can be designed and produced as part of the artwork in Adobe Illustrator. You treat the die as another layer of artwork.



In Illustrator the die-line can be drawn on a separate layer, and then the job saved without that layer for the printed components. In a second document, the die-line layer can be exported (not Saved) in a format called DXF, which is the interchange format used by AutoCAD, the program most often used in the machining world.

But recent versions of Illustrator (CS2, and perhaps CS3) don’t export DXF correctly, creating die-cutting lines that are scaled incorrectly, and with layers that should not be present. I was recently stung by this problem when exporting a file to DXF for a flexo die. When the machinist opened my file, it was about 75 times too large, and the lines, which should have been what machine tools need – polylines – were broken-up into radians and sections. It would have made the machinst’s work too difficult.

I’m a Mac
He thought it might have been a Mac vs. PC issue, but when I made the same export from a Windows PC to DXF using the same version of Illustrator, it did the same thing.



I headed to the Internet and Version Tracker, a wonderful site that monitors updates and new software and makes downloads available. In a matter of seconds I discovered a plug-in for Illustrator that corrects for the problems I have encountered. I bought the plug-in from a Japanese developer called Baby Universe (about $100) and installed it in Illustrator. Fromt he Save menu now I can make DXF files with polyline lines and absolutely accurate scaling. It controls the origina point, unit of measure and much more.

For my next die-line, the process will be simpler and more effective.

Posted by Brian Lawler on October 5, 2007 | Comments (2)