This tutorial will show you how to create, import, and edit a live hinge jewelry box. The attached files already have 2 different wood thickness boxes and three designs. One is specifically for 2mm wood and the other is specifically for 3mm wood.
9 More images
Basic Information is loading...
Step 1: Create Your Box on Boxes.py
6 More images
If you want to create your own box, you can go to www.boxes.py to create a box; this first part is creating a box there to import into XCS. You can also just download the XCS file that is already created and edit that file to your liking. Please do not be the person who uses our design for your personal gain. With that said, lets get into the nuts and bolts of how to create this box on boxes.py
Once there, click on Menu/Boxes With Flex/FlexBox2 - Box with living hinge and top corners rounded.
Once there, you can input the parameters for all aspects of the box you want to create. I suggest messing around with the parameters, seeing what you can generate, and, most importantly, understanding how all the settings work and changing the designs.
Once you have your settings input, click on generate and it will generate a box on a new tab and you can inspect the 2D layout that you will get when you download the file. If you're not satisfied with the generated image, go back to the tab and redo the settings, and generate again.
Once you are satisfied with the image and the box design layout, click on download and save the file.
Step 2: Opening the file in XCS and Editing It
3 More images
The first step here is to open XCS, click on import image, navigate to where you saved your boxes.py image, select, and open. A warning will pop up that some text in the file can not be processed. That's fine; none of the text will be able to be seen. You're going to delete the box that originally had the red text from the preview. It's the selected box in one of the images in this section of the tutorial.
DO NOT RESIZE YOUR IMAGE. THE SVG FILE MUST REMAIN AT THE SIZE YOU DOWNLOADED IT.
What does that mean? If you change the size at all, the finger joints will change, and nothing will fit together. It's imperative that the downloaded size is maintained. You can put all the text, extra little cutouts, and whatnot that you want to add, so long as you do not resize the box SVG image. That also means if the image comes into the workspace too large, you HAVE TO SELECT DO NOT RESIZE IMAGE. You will have to move pieces that do not fit in the workspace to extra work space layers.
What I do is move all my cut lines to a red layer before adding design elements. That's totally up to you.
At this point, you can add all your design elements to your layout and get it ready to cut.
If you downloaded our example, you can remove the design elements and as long as you don't resize.
Step 3: Final Step Cutting Out the Box
3 More images
Setting 1
Process Method
Laser Cut
Process Material
3mm Basswood Plywood
Power(%) or Cut Pressure(g)
100
Speed(mm/s)
3
Lines per cm
1
Pass
2
Setting 2
Process Method
Vector Laser Engrave
Process Material
3mm Basswood Plywood
Power(%) or Cut Pressure(g)
50
Speed(mm/s)
70
Lines per cm
200
Pass
1
Bitmap mode
Grayscale
Setting 3
Process Method
Laser Score
Power(%) or Cut Pressure(g)
70
Speed(mm/s)
20
Pass
1
Place your selected media into your laser.
I don't use presets for anything. However, you are more than welcome to do that. If you do not, then make sure to do your auto-measure before getting started.
Once you have auto-measure and you're ready, you can start inputting your settings.
For cutting, I always have the following settings: for power, I always do 100%; for speed, I always do 3%; and for passes, I always do two passes. You can do it however you want; that's what just always works for me with no issues.
For Text engraving, I always use the following settings: for power, 50%; for speed, 70%; for LPI, 200; For passes, 1. You can do it however you would like. I do those settings because they give me a nice depth to my text.
For Score, I typically use the following settings: for power, 70%; for speed, 20%-35% (this depends on the lettering and what I want from it); for passes, 1.
Click on process and send it.
HAVE FUN!!!
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TESTING GRIDS USING AN ARRAY AND THEN TESTING THE GRID. BEFORE RUNNING THE PROJECT. THIS ALLOWS YOU TO FIND THE BEST SETTINGS FOR YOUR MACHINE AND TEACHES YOU WHY YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE FAILING AT CUTTING OR ENGRAVING AND UNDERSTAND HOW TO ADJUST FROM PROJECT TO PROJECT.
If you want to create your own box, you can go to www.boxes.py to create a box; this first part is creating a box there to import into XCS. You can also just download the XCS file that is already created and edit that file to your liking. Please do not be the person who uses our design for your personal gain. With that said, lets get into the nuts and bolts of how to create this box on boxes.py
Once there, click on Menu/Boxes With Flex/FlexBox2 - Box with living hinge and top corners rounded.
Once there, you can input the parameters for all aspects of the box you want to create. I suggest messing around with the parameters, seeing what you can generate, and, most importantly, understanding how all the settings work and changing the designs.
Once you have your settings input, click on generate and it will generate a box on a new tab and you can inspect the 2D layout that you will get when you download the file. If you're not satisfied with the generated image, go back to the tab and redo the settings, and generate again.
Once you are satisfied with the image and the box design layout, click on download and save the file.
The first step here is to open XCS, click on import image, navigate to where you saved your boxes.py image, select, and open. A warning will pop up that some text in the file can not be processed. That's fine; none of the text will be able to be seen. You're going to delete the box that originally had the red text from the preview. It's the selected box in one of the images in this section of the tutorial.
DO NOT RESIZE YOUR IMAGE. THE SVG FILE MUST REMAIN AT THE SIZE YOU DOWNLOADED IT.
What does that mean? If you change the size at all, the finger joints will change, and nothing will fit together. It's imperative that the downloaded size is maintained. You can put all the text, extra little cutouts, and whatnot that you want to add, so long as you do not resize the box SVG image. That also means if the image comes into the workspace too large, you HAVE TO SELECT DO NOT RESIZE IMAGE. You will have to move pieces that do not fit in the workspace to extra work space layers.
What I do is move all my cut lines to a red layer before adding design elements. That's totally up to you.
At this point, you can add all your design elements to your layout and get it ready to cut.
If you downloaded our example, you can remove the design elements and as long as you don't resize.
Place your selected media into your laser.
I don't use presets for anything. However, you are more than welcome to do that. If you do not, then make sure to do your auto-measure before getting started.
Once you have auto-measure and you're ready, you can start inputting your settings.
For cutting, I always have the following settings: for power, I always do 100%; for speed, I always do 3%; and for passes, I always do two passes. You can do it however you want; that's what just always works for me with no issues.
For Text engraving, I always use the following settings: for power, 50%; for speed, 70%; for LPI, 200; For passes, 1. You can do it however you would like. I do those settings because they give me a nice depth to my text.
For Score, I typically use the following settings: for power, 70%; for speed, 20%-35% (this depends on the lettering and what I want from it); for passes, 1.
Click on process and send it.
HAVE FUN!!!
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TESTING GRIDS USING AN ARRAY AND THEN TESTING THE GRID. BEFORE RUNNING THE PROJECT. THIS ALLOWS YOU TO FIND THE BEST SETTINGS FOR YOUR MACHINE AND TEACHES YOU WHY YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE FAILING AT CUTTING OR ENGRAVING AND UNDERSTAND HOW TO ADJUST FROM PROJECT TO PROJECT.