Map making for laser engravers

Most published tutorials teach one of these routes:

1. 01Styled web map, then trace in LightBurnStyle a map with a laser-friendly theme. Export water, highways and arterials as separate PNGs without moving the map between exports. Image Trace each one in LightBurn, color the layers, build a frame, then send the SVG to your machine software.
2. 02Styled web map, then trace in IllustratorSame export, but Image Trace in Illustrator, then ungroup and sort the paths by color into layers.
3. 03OpenStreetMap SVG into InkscapeExport the area from OpenStreetMap as SVG, open it in Inkscape, ungroup everything, then build feature layers by hand.
4. 04QGIS with QuickOSMPull only streets or buildings, label them, export a simplified PDF, open it in Inkscape, then sort roads into big and little by hand and delete the rest.

You do not have to take our word for it. Here is what makers wrote while doing it:

I know HOW to cut them into layers but I have no idea how to make each layer or what to use… I was told GIS software but that doesn’t help me a whole lot.

Glowforge community forum

One Manhattan export from OpenStreetMap pulled in “the entire state of NJ”: 146,696 objects to ungroup, and the ungroup ran overnight.

quite a lot of manual labor

NYC Resistor wiki, on sorting roads by hand after a QGIS export

Then the cut itself. A road layer on its own was “too floppy”, and edge pieces became islands that fell off until the road ends were merged into an outer frame. Tiny bits like on-ramps had to be smoothed out of the trace. One maker’s first topo map took “about 3 weeks of evenings”.

MappSmith is a browser app built for this one job. No tracing, because the data starts as vectors.

• Search any place on Earth and frame it: circle, square, heart and other shapes, or a US state outline
• Street data from OpenStreetMap, already vector, sorted into highways, main roads and local streets
• Real elevation data and lake depth surveys, split into levels you can stack
• Cut, score and engrave on their own registered layers, and each physical layer as its own file
• A frame band that holds the streets, so nothing floats, with a curved or straight name in the band
• Live 3D preview in real materials, plus an exploded view of the stack
• GPX import for routes and trails

• One file per layer or material. Each sheet of wood or acrylic is its own job.
• Closed paths for every cut. Open paths cut as lines, not shapes.
• Cut inner shapes before outer ones, so parts do not shift once they are free.
• Check your kerf. It runs from about 0.2 to 1 mm depending on process and material. Cut a 1 in test square: if it measures 0.990 in, your beam takes 0.010 in. Features thinner than your kerf burn away.
• Bridge islands to the frame. Any piece of road that touches nothing will fall out.
• Add alignment help: keys, dowel holes or the next layer’s outline lightly etched on the one below.
• Test on chipboard first before you spend good wood.

The full walkthrough is in cutting a map file and the pillar guide, how to make a laser cut map.

Bed size still matters. One tutorial notes a city map “just barely” fit its machine. For bigger pieces, the map tiles format splits one map across boards that hang side by side, each with its own frame band. Machine pages: LightBurn, xTool, Glowforge.

• Map ornaments: 4 in, two layers
• City street maps: 3D layered, engraved only, or streets cut out
• Lake depth maps: stacked depth bands
• Topographic maps: real elevation in levels
• Golf course maps: raised or carved
• Love story maps: several windows on one board
• Route maps: races and trails from GPX
• Map clocks, key holders, coaster sets and map tiles