Help with my compass design

[Dave Lock]

Hi Guys,

Some may know through some of my posts that I'm a relative new user of CorelDraw. I really needed some practice so over the last few days I've been working on a Compass design that I fancied having a go at.

I took some inspiration from various images found through a google search and came up with the attached.

Bearing in mind I am likely to have gone the long way round to achieve this, I would appreciate any experienced CorelDraw users having a look and advising on any errors etc. I may have in the image.

I have only just finished the compass so haven't tried engraving it yet. One of my concerns is regarding the black areas engraving correctly. I'll try it tomorrow after work.

Any advice appreciated.

Dave.

[Dave Johnson29]

I would appreciate any experienced CorelDraw users having a look and advising on any errors etc. I may have in the image.


Hi Dave, It looks good to me. I only checked a couple of places but everything looks to join up nicely.

Only comment I have and I may be wrong, but I think the "Ne" etc should "NE" as both words are Nouns. Maybe it is Compass etiquette to lower case the second direction, but to my mind, I would Capitalize them both.

Other than that a great result. You are learning fast.

{edit}
Oh, one thing I would mention is that you should learn to use Layers as soon as you can. They can be invaluable for hiding stuff and also for not printing some stuff while testing. For instance I would create a Layer for just the text. Another for the Inner points and another for the outer points. You can then hide layers. It can be a curly concept to get your head around but once familiar with Layers you will love them.

It also makes it less cluttered when creating stuff. as you can turn off Layers that are completed.

See modified file in v10. Oh that's another thing when uploading it would be good if you could save in version 9 or 10. In the "Save" dialog on the right there is a drop down that allows you to choose the save version.
{/edit}

[Dave Lock]

Hi Dave, It looks good to me. I only checked a couple of places but everything looks to join up nicely.

Only comment I have and I may be wrong, but I think the "Ne" etc should "NE" as both words are Nouns. Maybe it is Compass etiquette to lower case the second direction, but to my mind, I would Capitalize them both.

Other than that a great result. You are learning fast.

{edit}
Oh, one thing I would mention is that you should learn to use Layers as soon as you can. They can be invaluable for hiding stuff and also for not printing some stuff while testing. For instance I would create a Layer for just the text. Another for the Inner points and another for the outer points. You can then hide layers. It can be a curly concept to get your head around but once familiar with Layers you will love them.

It also makes it less cluttered when creating stuff. as you can turn off Layers that are completed.

See modified file in v10. Oh that's another thing when uploading it would be good if you could save in version 9 or 10. In the "Save" dialog on the right there is a drop down that allows you to choose the save version.
{/edit}


Hi Dave,

Many thanks for your help and advice once again.

You made a good point regarding the Upper/Lower case directions. After another quick google search there doesn't seem to be etiquette regarding this. I think I will take your advice and capitalise these.

Thanks also for the heads up regarding layers. I can see the benifit of these but it never crossed my mind to use them. The way I did this I spent a lot of time moving things out of the way to get to the parts I needed to edit, then put them all back again. We live and learn.

Good point regarding saving in V10, thanks.

Regards

Dave.

[Steve Clarkson]

Nice job on that Dave!

[Dave Lock]

Nice job on that Dave!


Cheers Steve :o

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

It looks very good. Besides for layers, the only thing I would personally change is eliminate the hairlines around the diamonds or you could accidentally vector cut the diamonds.

[Mike Null]

Dave

There are a few things I would change. In the picture I have changed some.
1. I prefer a more old fashioned font and all caps.
2. The circle lines either overlap or are short.
3. You could use the smart fill tool as shown to block the overlapping of the points and circles.
4. You can use the knife tool to adjust the circle lines.
5. I would consider adjusting the width of the outlines by element.
6. I would reduce the drawing to letter size and print a copy for inspection before engraving.

You've undertaken a very difficult drawing and done very well.

[Dave Lock]

It looks very good. Besides for layers, the only thing I would personally change is eliminate the hairlines around the diamonds or you could accidentally vector cut the diamonds.

Hi Mike, Great point thanks. That would have really got me confused if it had cut the diamonds out.



Dave

There are a few things I would change. In the picture I have changed some.
1. I prefer a more old fashioned font and all caps.
2. The circle lines either overlap or are short.
3. You could use the smart fill tool as shown to block the overlapping of the points and circles.
4. You can use the knife tool to adjust the circle lines.
5. I would consider adjusting the width of the outlines by element.
6. I would reduce the drawing to letter size and print a copy for inspection before engraving.

You've undertaken a very difficult drawing and done very well.


Thanks Mike, even more great advice. I'll be playing with the image and trying all these suggestions.

I wasn't big on CorelDraw when I first got it, mainly because I didn't know how to use it. The more I use it now I have to wonder how if I could ever manage without.

Thanks again for all your feedback guys. I'll put it all to good use.

Regards

Dave.

[Dave Lock]

Hi guys,

Once again thanks for the advice given above.

I've taken on board your advice and have put it to practice, learning to use layers etc. One of the problems I am struggling to get over is that when testing I can't seem to be able to raster the outlines. I have played around with the line thickness but to no avail.

When I import the graphic to the driver (Lasercut 5.1... I know, it's not the best!!) I get a message regarding poly lines have to be closed. I presume this relates to a shape I am asking to raster not being closed like a square with a gap in one of the edges, or just a straight line!!

I decided to play around with just the star element of the compass to keep it simple while I learn to get over this step. I have attached in V10.
I have the outline in layer 1 and the fill in layer 2. When I try to raster this all I get is the the fill, the outline doesn't raster. I must be missing something really simple here!

It's a little embarrassing as this seems that it should be such a simple thing to do.
I would appreciate it if someone could take a quick look and tell me where I am going wrong.

Thanks again,

Dave.

[Andrea Weissenseel]

Your driver probably doesn't recognize the layers. Did you try to move evything to the top layer after you finished with your design ?

[Angus Hines]

Was that particular layer turned on ??

[Scott Shepherd]

Dave, not that it matters in this case, but were you aware on the original file that you have the same object 2 and 3 times on the shaded black? Might help in moving things to layers, as if you've moving 1 item when you think it's only 1 item there, and it doesn't seem to be acting right, it will get confusing.

[Dave Lock]

Thanks all for your replies and for your advice/ideas. I have just got in tonight but will look further into it tomorrow.

Using coreldraw, if you used your rectangle tool to just draw a small rectangle, with a line thickness greater than hairline, if you then rastered it on your laser, would it raster the whole rectangular area or just the outline?

I think this is where I am having the problem or lack of understanding. In this example, set to cut (vector) my laser will do the outline, but set to engrave, it will engrave the whole rectangular area.
What I need to happen in my compass vector is for the outline to be rastered as well as the solid black areas.

Clear as mud eh?

Thanks again for your pointers

Regards

Dave.

[Scott Shepherd]

Dave, "convert outline to object" will resolve that. It'll make your big fat line an object instead of the hairline with a fat appearance.

[Dave Lock]

Dave, "convert outline to object" will resolve that. It'll make your big fat line an object instead of the hairline with a fat appearance.


Brilliant Scott,

I'll give it a go.

Thanks

Dave.

[Peter Meacham]

Dave

It depends what color your outline is and it depends if you have the rectangle filled with a laserable color or not.

With my Trotec - If I have a rectangle with a black outline (thicker than hairline) and no fill or a fill color that I don't have programmed to laser - then it will just raster the outline of the rectangle.

If I also have it filled with a laserable color - it will raster the interior of the rectangle as well.

If I just have a red hairline outline - it will vector cut that outline.

Pete

[Dave Lock]

Hi Pete,

Many thanks for the feedback.

I am starting to get a feel now as to the differences between how the more expensive machines and their drivers work as compared to the set up I have. A lot of what I have read in the general discussions on the forum make so much more sense.


Scott,

I can't tell you how much I have advanced in just a few hours as a result your last post. It all seems to be coming together now. Many thanks.

I decided to redo the compass graphic from scratch. I used three different layers which made it so much easier to make corrections etc. it also made it much easier to "convert outline to object". My driver obviously doesn't recognise the 'hairline with a fat appearance' when rastering and I now know how to handle that.

I have attached the new compass graphic if anyone would like to take a look. I think it's much better than the first one but may still need a little work.

Any other comments/suggestions welcomed.

Thanks again to you all for your advice.

Regards

Dave.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

You've made great progress with the layers. You will see as you use this feature more, that there are so many possibilities to tinker with and make your engraving jobs easier.

[Dave Lock]

You've made great progress with the layers. You will see as you use this feature more, that there are so many possibilities to tinker with and make your engraving jobs easier.


Hi Mike,

Many thanks. I am becoming much more familiar with CorelDraw as the days pass. It's a great tool. Up until recently I had just been using .bmp's and ready made vectors. I now don't believe I could manage without CorelDraw.

Thanks for your previous tips, the helped me a lot.

Regards

Dave.