Adobe Illustrator to G-Code Converter

I found this Illustrator script for producing G-Code. It does produce gcode under Illustrator CC.
https://diegomonzon.com/illustrator-to-gcode/

Quality I will let you folks know…

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Just when I was convinced I had left my Illustrator habits behind and “grew up” enough to use actual CAD tools, you go and ruin it by letting me make G-Code from my favorite vector drawing software package.

Shame on you. And thank you! :rofl:

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I know how you feel, Got a Frustration 360 subscription myself!

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A little more on using this tool. You G-Code mavens know this stuff, but for this plugin you have to tell the Generator to raise and lower the router. I do this entering the ON Command of “Z -25” and the OFF Command of “Z 25”. I haven’t hooked up my Z-Axis just yet so I don’t really know exactly what these commands do.

I also found a G-Code simulator: https://nraynaud.github.io/webgcode/

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Another little problem, no tool diameter. I think the paths just follow the edges in the design, not offset by half the tool diameter. Illustrator has a command that will offset the lines on the drawing.

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I often long for my favorite vector drawing package, Aldus Freehand. Whoa, dating myself here! Lol

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I loved Aldus’ selection methods. It was more CAD-ish than Illustrator. When Freehand fell out of favor I switched to Corel for a short time. Regretted it instantly.

I can’t believe how popular Corel still is. We got a CO² laser here a while back and all the documentation about vector graphics has Corel screenshots and references to Corel functions.

25 inches, or even mm, of Z movement won’t work out well. I’d suggest you make that 0.25"/6mm to start, and then adjust after you get your machine built.

One other problem I have encountered is I don’t have control over where the tool enters the workpiece. It would be very handy to have all Maslow cuts start and end at the part of the cut nearest the top.

I haven’t seen a way to control where the cuts start on a profile, but using tabs keeps the parts from moving when the profile is done. They make for a little cleanup work getting the part out of the sheet, but they protect the part from falling onto the router bit.

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Good Point, I am using this to investigate G-Code editors.

I updated the plugin a while ago. Glad to see that some people find it useful.
Let me know if yo have questions or suggestions

Hi DiegoMonzon,
I have used your plugin quite a bit, and overall I am very happy with it. So first of, Thank you!
I do have a request, that I hope you could implement.
I notice that the gcode that is being generated has a lot of travel in it, that is, the machine will draw one little shape in one corner of the drawing and then travel to the other corner for another little shape, then back again and so on. My question is, if there is a way to prevent this in the generator? Could you force-generate the code in such a way, that the forms are ‘clustered’ together en sections or something like that? - Or maybe drawing form shapes as they apear from one corner to another?
Also, and excuse me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that the traveling commands in the G-code being generated uses G1 commands (controlled motion) instead of G0 (rapid motion), if this is not because of some mistake I am making, maybe this could be fixed in the generator aswel? -This could greatly improve the overall working time as well.
Again, thank you for a very much for a very useful plugin! I hope you see this.

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@Fbovbjerg, are you a Maslow user? We’d love hearing about your work! How are you using the Illustrator plugin? We love pictures

@DiegoMonzon last visited here in May, the day he made the above post. It’s unlikely he’ll see your request in this Maslow CNC specific forum. Did you try following his link above to find a support contact?

there are a number of g-code optimizers available that you can try to use to
clean up the g-code so that it does less travel. we’ve talked about a few in
different topics here, or you can google for them

David Lang

Wow I just found this by chance.
The script cannot generate curves.
If there is a curve in the path it gets divided in a lot of little lines
I think that is what you are referring to.

I am glad you find it useful

Was that before Macromedia Freehand? Way better than Illustrator, at the time!

Check out Vector to Gcode from gcodetools.com . It can convert your illustrator files to gcode.

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Your link fails to resolve. Also gcodetools is the name of the now abandonware Russian add on to inkscape that dominates any web search and I was unable to find your product

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Sorry, I need to fix that, you need to add www . www.gcodetools.com