At my wits end (getting from Illustrator/CorelDraw to Lasercut!!!
I have a job I need to run for a client that I cant seem to get into lasercut properly.
I can take if from Illustrator to Corel Draw (cant get Illustrator to spit out a DXF file that LaserCut likes) and then to a DXF, but the problem is that I have to engrave a logo on several hundred parts and as a DXF if I choose engrave instead of cut it totally borks the job... I have tried converting the objects to bmp's in Corel but they lost so much detail that they are unusable for engraving...
I have already cut the template from MDF which came out great but now when I have the work pieces all setup I cant get an acceptable engraving image into lasercut..
Can someone please outline the procedure for getting this done???
I have atached the template in AI and cdr formats.
Phil
Similar Threads:
Hi phil
what version of lasercut do you use??
I just took it over from your cdr file in lasercut V 6.37 and it did come out perfect you need to select the parts what you wana engrave then give it a diffenrent color I like blue then go to the layer sub menue and select engraving thats it.
greetings
waltfl
Originally Posted by phylo
Where are you getting lasercut 6.37??? As far as I know they are up to 5.3?
I believe Walt is referring to LaserCad.
Milt
Does LaserCad work with Leetro boards??
As far as I know, LaserCad is for use with the Lightobject DSP unit only. Someone chime in if I am wrong, I don't want to lead anyone in the wrong direction.
Milt
Convert the text to outlines. Convert your stroke to paths.
The easier method would be to take the logo and make a nice big high quality 1 bit BMP file. Then shrink it back down to size.
It's going to take a bit of testing to get that logo to work. There are a lot of fine lines. You'll probably have to bump the line width to make it engrave properly. Perfect focus will be necessary as well.
The problem with vectors is that they have a lineweigth of zero.
When engraving you won't see zero-weighted lines.
You only will be able to engrave an enclosed area or an area between two lines.
When you convert your drawing so that all lines are made double with a distance of, say, 0.05mm you will engrave that line.
You will also have to take care that intersections will be combined else that area will be inverted.
I converted one of your sharks.. see if it works for you and copy it as much as you want..
Kees
That worked pretty good... Not exactly what I want but Ill take what I can get... How did you clean it up like that? I need to do that to all of them and some of the other templates I have.
And thanks so much for all the help!
Phil
That doesn't look like the customer's logo.
You are right it doesnt, but it the closest I am able to get so far.. Im still trying to figure this one out.. It so much easier on the Epilog laser's I am used to using.. I just cant seem to get the file into LaserCut to make it look like the customers logo :-(
Im fortunate in that its a friend of mine and he has a lot of patience and understands the hurdles Im trying to jump through here.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Phil
As far as i can see you did cutting instead of engraving..
With engraving the enclosed areas are filled
Your laserhead swings from left to right and back
With cutting you follow the vectors.
Your laserhead traces the vectorlines.
You need to ENGRAVE this.. (if you did and this is the result, i would sell my laser..)
Kees
Yes it is a cut and not an engrave. These 16 hour days are killing me!
do you know how to work with LaserCad?
In the drawing i made for you, you can select all lines by dragging a rectangle around them and then select a color on the left side.
This color stands for the way the selected vectors are used.
On the right top you see the color and what it stand for.
Double click on it and a window opens. There you can select engrave and enter your speed, power, scangap and engrave-mode.
I don't know your laser but you could start with something like 300mm/s|60%|0.03mm|x-swing|grade-engrave=NO
Your lines look quite thick too.. Make sure your focus is perfect (have you ramp-tested it?) A short focal length can also improve the results.
Kees
I have never used LaserCad?? Ill check it out..
So this morning I engraved instead of cut and it came out a lot better but Im still having some issues with it. Take a look at the image, you can see that the top of the "SYSTEMS" engraving does not engrave. The first one I did at 600 DPI and the second one (the one in the picture) I did at 1000 dpi.. That made it a bit better but I dont want to crank up the DPI any more as it slows the job way down.. I guess Ill keep experimenting..
Again thanks for helping out!
You don't have to do anything with the dpi when you use Lasercad.
You can import the vectors and just assign them to be engraved.
When it skips this horizontal lines you can do two things:
1) in node editing you can draw the two upper nodes a little more up, so make this linepart a little thicker.
2) reduce scangap.. Then you can reduce power or increase the speed too.
I made the line thickness 0.02mm so if your scangap is 0.03 there is a posibility it just misses the line.. I think that's your case..
For the word Systems i increase the inter-linewidth to 0.03mm in the enclosed file.
Kees
PS i don't use lasercad either but i've read the manual and it looks very similar to many other laserprograms..
I was refering to scangap, the settings I was using are .021 I believe so that would explain it. Ill monkey around with it some more tomorrow. Thanks so much for your help Kees, I really appreciate it!
You have to stop treating this Chinese laser like it's a US machine.
The Chinese laser software works off of paths. It's up to you to make the art right. This means converting the strokes into paths and converting the text into outlines. It also means closing and cleaning up your paths so you don't have items stacked on top of each other.
The best way to avoid all this nonsense work is to take the logo and save it as a nice big 1 bit BMP. I'm talking about something that is much larger and higher detail than you need. Then you scale it back down to the size you need. It's a much faster way of doing things. Your file size will increase most likely but it's so much easier than reworking the paths to make them come over nicely.
Hi
if you work with lasercad you should first take your logoconvert to bitmap and resize it in a photo prgramm like photo paint from corel and safe it with 318 dpi, then take it to the lasercut programm and use the scan gap setting of 0.08. if you go higher with the scan gap the laser will miss something.
to make it even more stand out use the " create outline" function in lasercad
and cut this by low power and a speed around 30 to 50mm/s. I even use the cut after engraving function for vector.
greetings
waltfl
Going back to the original question of how to import into LaserCut from ai or CorelDraw. The best way from ai is to use an ai file. You have to make sure you uncheck the box for compression and make pdf compatible. None of the boxes should be checked upon exporting. Make sure you have converted everything to curves before exporting. With an ai file you can have both a bmp and vector lines in the same file.
From Corel Draw you can either choose the printer 'laser' and it will open LaserCut to set the settings for engraving and cutting. If your version doesn't have a print driver - you can export several different types of files: dxf, plt, ai or bmp. The dxf works the best because you do not lose the curves. Making it one object before you export will prevent double lines from importing. The plt file will need to have both the lines united and curves smoothed before trying to cut or engrave. This is under tools in LaserCut.
For engraving a picture I recommend using PhotoGrav or EngraveLab to edit the photograph. This will make a bmp that converts a color or greyscale photo for engraving.
The scan gap is one of the most important parts of engraving. This is the space between the lines. The glass tube lasers use a continuous beam not a pulse like metal tube lasers. This is awesome for cutting - especially acrylic. But you need to know how to convert it for engraving to match your dpi. If I have a photo that I have prepared at 300 dpi - I will engrave it at 300 dpi = .085 scan gap. Here is a link to a conversion chart I made for my customers:
https://www.yousendit.com/download/U...dzhENlI4SjhUQw
Your speed is also different in the glass tube industry. The speed you enter into your machine is actual mm per second. The metal tube manufacturers settings are a percentage of how fast the machine goes. How fast your machine will go is determined by the size of your gears. If you have Engraving gears it will engrave at 1000mm / sec maximum. If you have cutting gears it will engrave at 600mm / sec maximum. As always I do not recommend going at 100% power or speed for extended periods. It will shorten the life of your tube. If you need recommended settings for your machine - we have some charts listed on our website.
Reading others posts - I feel I need to add that the with of your lines in your drawing does nothing with LaserCut. It is the color of the lines inside LaserCut that make a difference. If you want a thick line - I suggest doing a double line and engraving it.
Hope this helps.
Hurricane Lasers
Last edited by Hurricane21; 02-17-2013 at 10:35 PM. Reason: add
Reply with Quote
