While playing around with GIS data, I decided that the highly detailed files would be perfect candidates for etching into wood. Luckily, my sister’s wedding was coming up, which gave me a great excuse to spend a little extra time in the workshop for some custom gifts!

I started this project by repurposing detailed roadway data from public datasets like the TIGER shapefile from data.gov that I had already processed for another project. If you’re looking to replicate it then I would highly recommend Snazzymaps or OpenStreetMaps instead. These will export directly to .SVG format and save a considerable amount of time!

In my case, I used ArcGIS to convert the .shp files into .svg’s, then used Adobe Illustrator for the final prep. If you’re working smarter, not harder, then you can skip straight to .svg prep in your favorite vector drawing software. The raw file to be laser cut is pretty simple when all things are said and done:

The laser cutter (Glowforge) made quick work of the 1/4″ MDF to turn the file into a nicely etched/cut set of maps.

Once the process was established, I was pleased that I could crank out a new map in less than an hour from file to frame. Except Philadephia… this one took nearly 2 hours to cut! Well worth the wait.