This Instructable is part 2 of a series that began with Draw Kerf Combs in Autodesk Inventor, a friendly project-oriented introduction to 2D work in Autodesk. We assume you've already finished and saved a sketch (whether of kerf combs or something else.)

Several techniques apply to any imported file you may wish to laser cut!

We'll learn about:
Drawings

If you have just finished drawing your kerf comb, keep Autodesk Inventor open. Otherwise, open Inventor and load your saved file.

Step 1: Export As DWG

1. From the Inventor menu, select Export -> Export to DWG.
2. Select a name and location and click Save.

Step 2: Import Into CorelDraw

Fire up CorelDraw. Then:

1. Open your .dwg file.
2. The Import AutoCAD File dialog box will open. Make sure that "3D Projection" is set to Top and Units are set to English. (If you are importing an original drawing in metric, select Metric.)

You should be able to set scaling to 1:1. Check Original Size and New Size to make sure they don't say anything absurd.

Step 3: Check Line Width

Select both combs by using Select All or pressing Ctrl+A. Then double-click on the pen symbol lower right corner of the CorelDraw window. The Outline Pen dialog box will open. Make sure that the line width is set to Hairline.

Step 4: Label Comb

It's hard to measure kerf if you can't tell which tooth is which!

1. Click the Text tool (or click F8.)
2. Draw a box on the first comb.
3. Type the tooth and notch widths you used to draw the comb. It may help to reduce the font size (I used 10 pt.)
4. When you're done, you can copy the text and paste it onto the second comb.

Step 5: Group Objects

We'll need to rearrange our combs to fit onto the edge of the material we'll be cutting. To make them a bit easier to manipulate, we'll group the components of each comb.

Click the white arrow near the left edge of the window or press F1 to activate the Pick tool. Click and drag to draw a box around the first comb, then select Arrange > Group, or press Ctrl+G.

Repeat this process with the second comb.

Step 6: Lay Out Combs

1. Select your material size: In the top left corner of the CorelDraw window, specify the dimensions of the material you'll be cutting.
2. Click to select a comb. I'll be lining my combs up on the left edge of my material, so I'll type 90 into the Rotation box.
3. Click and drag to position comb.
4. Repeat with second comb.

Ready to cut!