Yesterday was my son's birthday. As he saw active combat in Afghanistan and other places while serving in the United States Marine Corps, he may be getting a service dog as a companion. The dog that he is hoping to get is named Lara. So I made him a cutting board using a laser cutter at our Autodesk Pier 9 office in the wee hours of the morning before I started my day job. 

Happy Birthday, son.

Actually, I have made a few cutting boards and given them out as gifts. Here they are in various states of development and test runs:

When these boards include pictures, the images need to be converted to bitmap or they don't engrave correctly. Here's what I get if I don't process the image properly:

Here's what an image looks like when I do it correctly.

I learned how to prepare images for engraving by watching this video.

Thanks, hackhobby.com.

Actually, I have made so many of these cutting boards that my son suggested that we look at integrating the engraving process into the furniture business. Alas, we are too late. Colorado State University has beaten us to the punch.

At Autodesk, we believe there is an exact right time to innovate.

Learn when to innovate.

Cutting cutting boards is alive in the lab.