#LASERDRW 3 CUT DRAWING FOR MAC#
#LASERDRW 3 CUT DRAWING MAC OS#
#LASERDRW 3 CUT DRAWING INSTALL#
#LASERDRW 3 CUT DRAWING DRIVERS#

GlowForge has a web-based software for which you gain access when you buy a laser cutter from them and which you use from your web browser. There are some more affordable brands (like GlowForge, Full Spectrum Laser, and Dremel) that have also created software for their laser cutters. But these machines are quite expensive since these are machines from top branded, western manufacturers.

You need to have some vector drawing software (like Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, or Corel for Mac) you will use to create a graphic that you can then “print” on a laser cutter using provided print drivers.

#LASERDRW 3 CUT DRAWING DRIVERS#

Top brands in laser manufacturing businesses like Epilog or Trotec offer their laser control software in a form of print drivers and they have Mac version of these drivers.

#LASERDRW 3 CUT DRAWING INSTALL#

At that point it’s better to go and get cheap used PC, install windows on it and share files over the network.

If you use Mac to design and windows to run laser control software you would need to reboot your computer and switch an operating system every time you have to make modifications to your designs. There is a free alternative to the Parallels app called VirtualBox which is not as smooth as the Parallels app but still more than usable.Īnother option is to create a dual boot system with Boot Camp, but this is not nearly as practical. Parallels license cost $80 which is steep for this type of software and you still have to buy a license for Windows. It’s easy to install and workflow is quite fluid as long as you have enough RAM to accommodate both operating systems. This will allow you to use best from both worlds and seamlessly copy and paste between 2 operating systems. With the Parallels app you can run Windows OS inside an app so you can have windows and Mac apps side by side.

#LASERDRW 3 CUT DRAWING MAC OS#

If you don’t want to go for option a) (buy dedicated Windows machine) but still want to use Windows-based software you can install windows on a Mac OS as a virtual machine using Parallels application. If you have one of these Chinese controllers there is alternative software that works on a Mac, but we will get to it later in this article. Controllers in Chinese manufactured laser cutting machines use specific software which is usually windows based (RuiDa controllers work with RDWorks software, Trocen controllers with LaserCAD etc…) so if you want to use this type of software you will need a Windows environment for that. This option is best used if you have a specific program that you want or need to use which works only on Windows. We will skip option a) since it is pretty straightforward and not relevant for this article and go straight for the next one which is… Run Windows on a Mac

But even so, for any serious designing you will need to use proper vector drawing app because control software is just not as capable (which is understandable, it’s not meant to be a drawing software). There are few laser controlling software that offers some designing capabilities and in recent years they got better from designing point of view. Now, before we get started it’s important to make a distinction between laser control software (which is software that communicates with laser cutting machine) and laser design software (app used to create graphics). Luckily, technology and software are developing rapidly so in this day and age there are plenty of options (paid and free) to choose from if you are not Windows OS user.

#LASERDRW 3 CUT DRAWING FOR MAC#

Go for an expensive top brand machine that comes with proprietary “print drivers” for Mac OS.Run Windows in a virtual machine-based environment on a Mac or.Buy a cheap PC and install windows on it (popular option even today because you probably don’t want to keep your Mac in the workshop).

If you were a Mac user trying to get into laser cutting a couple of years ago your options regarding software would have been quite limited.

Laserdrw 3 cut drawing