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Hello,

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and welcome to the first of
a three part tutorial series

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which will teach you how 
to use a laser cutter.

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This tutorial series 
was created at

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the Transformative Learning 
Technologies Lab at Stanford University.

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In our tutorials we will be using

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the educational 
edition of CorelDraw

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and an Epilog 
Helix laser cutter.

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That said, most 
of the techniques

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and settings that 
will be demonstrated

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are transferable to 
other software packages

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and laser cutters.


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In part one of our series,

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we will use CorelDraw to create a
cheat sheet of laser cutter terminology,

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part two, will explain the 
Epilog printing preferences,

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and part three, will discuss

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how to set up the laser cutter hardware 
for successful cutting and engraving.

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Before we start,

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I would like to mention that 
certain parts of this tutorial

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will go very quickly and 
you may need to pause

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and/or rewind to keep up.

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Additionally, if you would prefer
to read a transcript of this tutorial

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alongside screen shots,

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please visit the TLTL website
where a copy is available.

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Ok, let’s get started,

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first open Coreldraw
and start a new document.

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On our computer we have already created 
a document preset for the laser cutter

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which provides a page

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that matches the 
dimensions of our cutter.


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If you do not have stored profile,

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you can input the dimensions of your 
engraver in the text input boxes below.

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In our case this is 24x18 in 
(or 61 by 45.7 cn),

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but different machines might 
have different cutting areas,

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After your page is correct, press ok.

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Before beginning to add content,

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the first thing we would 
like to do is set our origin

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to the top left corner

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so it matches the epilog machine.

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Before being able to do this,

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we need to make sure 
the rulers are visible,


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to check whether they are,

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navigate to the view menu

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and make sure the “rulers” 
choice has a checkmark next to it.

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Once they are visible,

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move your mouse to the top left 
where there is a small resize icon.

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Click and drag this icon until you 
reach the top left corner of the page.

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Once both the vertical and 
horizontal lines overlap,


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let go of the mouse and 
your origin will be set.

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After setting the origin,

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we can start to add 
content to the page.

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Start by selecting the 
rectangle tool

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and then click and drag to make 
a rectangle anywhere on the page.

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After completing your rectangle 


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navigate to the top left 
corner of the screen

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where there are two
sets of input boxes,

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one for the object’s position

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and one for the object’s size.


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Additionally, you'll find
a padlock icon

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which signifies whether the 
dimensions are locked to each other.

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If the icon is currently locked,

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click it to unlock it now.

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Then change the object size to 
3 in by 2 in (or 7.5 cm by 5 cm)

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Once the size is correct,

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locate the rectangle in the 
upper left corner of the page

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by clicking the center 
and dragging it into place.

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After placing the rectangle,

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proceed to the top of the screen

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and choose“To Fit” 


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Which will zoom the 
screen to our rectangle

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and make it much easier 
to see our work as we proceed.

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Next we are going to add a circular 
to the top left corner of the card.

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To do this first
select the ellipse tool 


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and then drag to create an ellipse.

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You will notice that when 
you first begin dragging,

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the aspect ratio is 
not constrained

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and you can make
all kinds of ellipses.

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Since we would like 
to create a circle,

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we need to hold down the control key 
which forces the tool to create a circle.

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After completing the circle,

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navigate to lock icon near 
the object size boxes

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and this time make sure the 
lock is in the locked position.

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Once you have done so,

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change the horizontal dimension 
to .25 in(or 0.5 cm)

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which will also force the 
vertical dimension to change.

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Now, move your circle into the 
top left corner of your rectangle.

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At this point, we are going 
to ensure the rectangle

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and circle will be cut by setting 
their outline widths to “hairline”.

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Within CorelDraw,

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“hairline” is the smallest 
possible outline width

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and if set, the laser cutter will 
interpret the shape as a cut.

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To set your outline width to “hairline”,


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first select the pick tool which 
can be accessed using the icon

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or by pressing control, spacebar.


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Then hold down shift

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and click each shape 
to select them both.

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Now, navigate to the
outline pen menu,

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and choose “Outline Pen”.


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After the dialog box appears, 
choose hairline as the width,

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set the color to red 
and then press okay.

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Next, right click the objects 
and choose “lock object”

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which will prevent us from 
accidentally moving the shapes

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as we continue to add content.

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Now, we are going to add a 
small data table to our card.

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To do so, we need 
to access the pen tool

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which may be hidden 
under the freehand tool.

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This is a good time to point out 
that many of the tools on the left

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have little arrows in the 
bottom right corner.

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These arrows signify other 
tools are available

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if you click and hold 
on the visible tool.

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As you can see, the Pen tool is 
located in the freehand tool menu.

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After selecting the pen tool draw 
two vertical lines and two horizontal

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lines in the middle of your card.

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The pen tool works 
by single clicking 


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the point where you
want the line to begin,

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and then clicking again where 
you want the line to end.

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If you want to keep the lines 
vertical or horizontal,

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hold down shift before 
clicking the second time.

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After making a line segment 
you will notice the pen tool

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attempts to continue the line 
as you move your mouse away.

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To stop it from doing 
so press escape,

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now start a new line
with a single click,

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hold down shift and
single click to end.

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Press esc and start again, click,
hold shift, click, esc. Click, hold shift,

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click, esc.

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When you are finished,

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choosing the pick tool

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and then dragging a rectangle 
that is larger than all the lines.

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By doing so,

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the software will select all of lines


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with in the boundaries 
of your selection rectangle.

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Once all of the 
lines are selected,

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press F12 to access 
the outline properties

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and then assign a 
with of 0.02in(or 0.5cm).


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Now choose the text tool which 
will bring up the text properties

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in the top tool bar.

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Before clicking inside our rectangle,

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change the font size to 16 pt.

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This change will bring up a box which 
informs you that if you proceed

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all new text will also be 16 pt.

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This is fine so just press ok.

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Now click in to top left section 
of your table and type “Corel”.

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Next continue to use 
the text tool to fill

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the remaining cells with:

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Epilog, Result,


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Hairline, Vector,

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Cut, >0.001in. or 0.0025cm,

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Raster, and Engrave.

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When they are all entered
you may need to adjust

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the placement of some of your lines 
or text so there is no overlap.

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When everything looks good, 


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we are going to assign different 
outline widths to the lines

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and text.

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First select the top horizontal line

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and assign it an outline width
of 0.04 inches (or 0.1 cm).

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Next choose the three words 
along the middle line:

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:“Hairline”,
“Vector”,

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and “Cut” and assign them 
a red hairline outline.

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Also, remove their fill

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by selecting the fill tool 
and choosing “no fill”.

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Next select the 
bottom three words,

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“>0.001”, “raster”, and “engrave”

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and assign them a black 
outline of 0.015 in (or 0.04 cm)

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additionally remove 
their fill using the tool.

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We can now see the value 
of setting our hairlines to red

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since it provides us with 
a simple visual reference

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as to which words will be cut
versus those that will be engraved.

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With that complete, we are now 
finished with this tutorial

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and have created 
a simple table.


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which will help us to remember 
whether our lines will be cut

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or engraved by the laser cutter.

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The chart reads from left to right

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with the top line being the categories.

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As we can see,

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if we assign a 
hairline to a shape

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within Coreldraw the laser 
cutter will consider it a vector

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and the result will be a cut.

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On the other hand,

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if we assign an outline that is
anything greater than 0.001 in

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(or 0.0025 cn) the laser cutter will
consider it a raster

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and engrave the shape 
instead of cutting it.

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That concludes the 
first tutorial.

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Remember if the video 
went too fast for you

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please consult the written 
documentation on the TLTL website.

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Once your file matches ours,

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please proceed to the next tutorial

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where we will discuss the printing 
preferences of the laser cutter.

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Congratulations on making it this far!