Overlapping shapes for laser cutting

[montyonthebonty]

I have an unusual one here. I'm trying to reproduce something like the image below for laser engraving.

What I want is to have separate objects (or images) for each colour, but with the overlapping sections removed. This is so that when I engrave the red starburst, it will only engrave the red bits where it's not overlapped by the yellow, or green or whatever.

This is so I can then use coloured powders to melt into it and get a multi-coloured effect.

Is this possible in illustrator? I assume it must be, but I'm not sure how!

Thanks

Chris

[LucasDev · Accepted solution]

Yeah, that’s definitely doable in Illustrator! I’ve done something similar for engraving before. The easiest way is to select all your colored shapes and use Pathfinder → Divide, then Ungroup everything. That’ll break the overlaps into separate bits so you can just delete the extra parts where colors cross.

You can also try the Shape Builder Tool (Shift + M)  just hold Alt and click the overlapping areas you want gone. It’s super quick once you get the hang of it. After that, every color sits clean on its own, perfect for multi-color engraving.

[Monika Gause]

Fill the parts with different colors and use the Pathfinder "Merge" (not to be confused with Unite)