Cheat Sheet:

Export as PDF.
DRAWING AND LASER
CUTTING CONTOURS
Discipline/s: Architecture & Landscape Design
Author/s: Georgia Sullivan
Date: 11/5/2020
OVERVIEW
Below are some tips & tricks from the J Block Digital
Fabrication Lab staff that will help you to draw and laser
cut landscape contours for your physical models.
STEP 2: Download contour information
FIND CONTOURS Choose desired contour intervals in Layers > Operation
Maps > Landform > Contours > 2014/2009/2002 Contours.
TRACE CONTOURS
STEP 1: Locate site on eBIMAP
Google search for ‘QUT eBIMAP’ and click the first link.
STEP 3: Scale map and trace contours in Illustrator
Launch eBIMAP and locate your site.
Open PDF in Illustrator and resize artwork to correct scale.
Exported at 1:250 and desired model scale is 1:100.
297mm x 250 = actual size = 74 250mm
74 250 mm / 100 = model size = 742.5mm

Go over to Tools > Print and choose the following settings.

Using the pen tool, begin to trace your contours. Consider

the extent you would like to model. Is it just the site? Or
slightly beyond?
We recommend creating these new lines on a separate
layer to keep your file clean.
We’ve chosen to model just outside of the site. We’ve also
outlined the site boundaries to show on our physical
model.
Once you’ve finished tracing your contours, you should be
left with something that looks like this:
STEP 4: Adding extra details
You can now delete the import in the background and add
other details you’d like. You might like to include:
• North point
• Model scale
• Street names or road markings
• Project name
• Student name
• Subject code
• Significant trees
We’ve also changed my boundary line to a dashed line,
with the stroke settings set as shown.
EXPORT TO DWG
STEP 5: Expanding text, icons and other elements
Next we need to set up the file to export to AutoCAD. It is
important that any text or icons (such as a north point)
that we want to raster engrave be expanded to objects,
rather than text or linework, which would result in very fine
lines being etched. Select your lines, and then go up to
Object > Expand, and choose the options below.
Repeat for all text, icons, and any other elements you wish
to engrave rather than cut.
When expanding strokes such as the boundary line, you
will first need to choose Object > Expand Appearance,
before Illustrator will allow you to expand the shape
completely.
STEP 6: Exporting to DWG
Now we’re ready to export the file to AutoCAD. Go up to
File > Export > Export As... and choose AutoCAD Drawing
(*.DWG) from the Save as type: drop down menu. Use the
settings below to export your drawing.
SET UP SHEETS IN AUTOCAD
Open your DWG file in AutoCAD to start preparing the
sheets for laser cutting.
STEP 7: Setting up sheet sizes
The safe cutting for a laser cutting sheet is a 795x395mm
rectangle. Set up some rectangles at this size using the
REC tool (type REC into the command bar.)
Pick a point to start drawing your rectangle, and the
command bar will show this message:
Type ‘D’ for dimensions. Then we will be prompted to You should now have your first piece.
specify the length (in our case 795) and the height (395.)
Click to complete the rectangle.
STEP 8: Creating contour pieces
Each of the contours has to sit on top of each other in a
stack, so we must make a profile for each layer. Select the
highest contour - in this case it’s the top left - and your
extent border, and make a copy. To do this, we type COPY
into the command bar, pick a corner to be our ‘base point’
(the point the copy is moved from), and then click to the
side to place the copy.

Next, go through and delete the dashes that fall outside

of the contour.
Now, repeat this process with the next hightest contour. You might have some dashes that cross over the contour
Remember we want to be able to stack these pieces on top line. In this case, we will use the TRIM command.
of each other after they’ve been cut, so our next piece will Type TRIM into the command bar and press Enter. You
be the same shape as the previous piece, PLUS the extent will be prompted to select cutting edges. Make a window
to the next contour. selection around the dash to be trimmed, also capturing
Copy the next highest contour, as well as the contour the contour line, and press Enter again.
above it. We will use this later as a guide for where to place
each piece after the file has been cut.
Don’t forget to also copy over any elements you want to be
etched on the piece (ie. road labels).
We only want to keep the highlighted part of the extent
border. To do this, trace over the part you wish to keep
using the LINE command, and delete the rectangle
underneath.

Select the parts of the dash you wish to trim away.

You will need to use the EXPLODE command to delete

the parts of the boundary line that don’t fall within the
contour. You will need to explode the boundary rectangle
as a whole, and then explode each individual edge of the
boundary as well.
The fill inside the dashed line (known in AutoCAD as a
HATCH) cannot be exploded, and will need to be deleted.
We now need to rehatch the dashes that fall inside this You should have something that looks like this:
contour. Type HATCH into the command bar and press
Enter. You will then be prompted to pick an internal area
to fill. Click inside each of the dashes.

We only need to keep the etched elements that fall

between the two lower contours, as they will be the only
area of this piece tht will be visible once the other pieces STEP 9: Accounting for contour interval
are stacked on top. We have to think about the height of these contours,
and how that scales down to the thickness of our chosen
Press Enter when finished. Next, repeat the retracing of material.
the border extent, and you are ready to move to the next
Our contours are 0.5 metre apart, and we will be using
contour.
3mm MDF to laser cut my pieces. So, at 1:100, the height
of each contour should be 5mm (500mm/100 = 5mm.) To
achieve this as close as possible, we will use 2 pieces of
3mm MDF for each contour, which will make each contour
6mm thick.

Note: Our general rule of thumb is if you need more

than 2 pieces of material to achieve a desired thickness,
you should use a different material (or method). Model
bases can also look great with a top layer of MDF for
each contour, then filled in with foam to achieve the exact
contour height. The workshop team can help with this
alternative method.

As before, copy over the next contour, as well as the

contour line above it, and any etched elements that will be
seen on this piece

Repeat for the remaining contours.

Since we are using 2 pieces of MDF for each contour, we
will need a duplicate set of contours to be laser cut.
Copy and paste each contour as required for the
duplicates, to achieve something that looks likes this:
STEP 11: Adjusting line width and colour
Lastly, we need to set up our colours and line widths for
laser cutting. To do this, select a line, and go up to the
Properties menu under the Home tab. There are three
drop down menus. The first controls the line colour, the
second controls the line thickness, and the third controls
the line style.
STEP 12: Saving the file
Now we can save our file, and it is ready to be imported
into CorelDraw. We recommend backdating your .dwg file
to 2013 file or older to avoid issues with software updates
between computers. To do this, go to
File > Save As > Files of type: AutoCAD 2013

STEP 10: Nesting your file

Next, we will need to arrange these pieces on our
795x395 rectangles to set them up for laser cutting.
Whenever we set up a job for laser cutting, we try to be
as efficient as possible with our material, arranging the
individual pieces to take up as little space as possible.
This is called ‘nesting’. It might require you moving
pieces closer together and rotating them to get the best
fit.
Change the colour of your lines according to below:
Lines to be cut - Red (R: 255 G:0 B:0)
Lines to be vector etched - Blue (R:0 G:0 B:255)
Lines and areas to be raster etched: Black. Leave these as
‘By Layer’ in AutoCAD.
Change the thickness of all lines to 0.05mm