3D Engraving On Leather and Wood

[Chuck Patterson]

Greetings Everyone,

I was on Epilog's website and saw the 3D engraving on Wood. I would like know how to do 3D engraving on wood and leather.

1. Can anyone provide instructions on how to do this?

2. Where can I get 3D designs such as those shown on their site http://www.epilogfiles.com/web_gallery/3d/Album1.htm ? (basket weave, trapazoid, rope, french diamond, fish scale, diamond, etc)

3. Do you have a pattern that you would mind sharing for experimenting with?

4. Anyone have any experience with doing 3D on leather and finding patterns for leather?

[Steve Clarkson]

Chuck,

I think these were "in house" Epilog designs possibly for Epilog owners. I would suggest you contact Peck Sidera on here and ask him about them. I can't really help you with your ULS laser.....but with Epilog there is simply a choice in the print driver to engrave in 3D mode......and it works very well. Also, there are a few posts on here about using Corel to create 3D patterns. Also, I think Kern Lasers may have posted a 3D pattern on here.

[Chuck Patterson]

I have the 3D option with my drivers on the ULS. Just need some assistance with knowledge/experience and design/art.

[Scott Shepherd]

Chuck, I can help you some with the ULS side of it. I'm working today and about to walk out the door, but when I get to a point where I have a few minutes, I'll get the information together for you. I'll contact you via PM when it's done, as it'll be too big to post here.

[James Stokes]

Some of those patterns are simply fills from corell draw. One way to get 3d files is to use photo paint or a similar program. I personelly use Photoimpact but you can take an image and turn up your brightness on your photo engrave it then turn the briteness down some engrave again and keep doing that untill you have what you want.

[David Fairfield]

3d works great on woods, esp hardwoods, but I dont think you'll get good results on leather. Once you burn through the treated outer surface of leather, you get soft, fiberous raw material that won't look clean or crisp.

3d parts designing works with the grey scale. Basically you are using the grey scales in the graphic to control the laser's power output, while speed remains constant. So for smooth transitions and contours use gradients in your graphic. Otherwise use solid shades for cutting at different depths like a router. You can also use color mapping for router type engraving at several depths, but the 3d does everything in a single pass.

3d is probably the most under utilized capability of the laser. I only got around to experimenting with it after owning my laser for 2 years. Its more art than science but trust me, once you get the hang of it, it works. I'm getting outstanding results with it.

Dee is our resident 3d expert. Over to you, Dee! :D

Dave

[Brian Jacobs]

Chuck,

Here's a simple exercise to get you started:
-Draw a basic shape in black.
-Use the contour tool to 'round' it (either to the inside or outside). You should have several gradients of gray.
-Laser it and you will see that the darker shades cut deeper. To get deeper cuts, laser it a second time if needed.

For advanced control of your power settings, you can select 3D on your manual tab and individually control power on 16 levels of gray.

These are the very basic steps for creating 3-D objects or text.

[Chuck Patterson]

Thank you for all the help.

Dave, as of this month, I have had my laser for two years and I am just getting around to experimenting with 3D. As for the leather, I was hoping that maybe the fish eye type design, used as a border, might not weaken the material. Guess once I figure out how to do 3D I will be able to report back the results.

[Dee Gallo]

Hi Chuck,

I am attaching a very small heart design for you to try. If you check my other 3D posts you will find some more complex designs but you can only post them once... just do a search on 3D and you should find them to download. Several others have had good success with 3D and you should read all the posts on this subject, it really helps!

I have found that you need to concentrate on using several levels of grey such as 10-30-50-70-90 to make the transitions in your drawings. Also, make sure there is strong contrast wherever you have an overlap or where you want a definite line. Once you do your design and figure out where to make adjustments, you should do well. Combine grey lines and grey areas to create the most detail. If there is a magic button to push, I have not found it.

Good luck and keep trying, it's not too hard once you get going. The original drawing is the hardest part for most people.

And in case you didn't know, Dave is being more than modest - his work will blow your mind!

cheers, dee

ps- I'm adding a picture so you can see what the finished thing looks like

[AL Ursich]

There was a post here about 2 or 3 months ago of a Gun Stock that was Laser Engraved. He posted some of the Corel Files and He did it in separate files, the deeper ones he ran a few times.

Looked pretty sharp and I imagine it would work with Leather.

I have only begun to play with Leather.

AL

[Dave Yanke]

Chuck, I can help you some with the ULS side of it. I'm working today and about to walk out the door, but when I get to a point where I have a few minutes, I'll get the information together for you. I'll contact you via PM when it's done, as it'll be too big to post here.

Please don't only do it PM, there are others of us looking for hints and tips.

[Dan Hintz]

Please don't only do it PM, there are others of us looking for hints and tips.
Dave,

There are other reason for conducting certain transactions over PMs (such as transferring files one may not wish to be in the open public domain). Contact Steve (Scott) via PM yourself if you would like some personal help.

[Zsolt Paul]

Does anyone know how this is done on a Vytek? I have a 5151 FXB that can do both vector and raster.

[Jack Harper]

Does anyone know how this is done on a Vytek? I have a 5151 FXB that can do both vector and raster.

Save your file as an 8 bit gray-scale .bmp file and you are good to go. Of course, you still need a proper file like the one Dee was kind enough to post or a Gantry Co file.

[Zsolt Paul]

Just to make sure I understand this. We are talking about simple black to white gray scaling right? Typically I use 1 bit bmp files which simply means the darker the gray the more dots, the lighter the color less dots. So how is this different with the same gray scaling in an 8 bit bmp file? How will this give that deep 3d carved result? I am obviously missing something.... Does the 8 bit file change the power settings or is it sill just the number of dots that it changes? Thanks!

[Dan Hintz]

Zsolt,

You're creating 4-bit files (well, 8-bit files that are then binned into only 4 bits of useful info), so think in terms of actual grayscale, not dithering.

[Zsolt Paul]

Thanks Dan! I ran some tests. What I observed is that the resolution has to be pretty high (which makes sense). On 300 dpi going from black to white it still left material (maple) behind. At 600 dpi it bagan to look a lot more like carving than engraving. Again, this makes sense since the beam is overlapping and better at removing material. HOwever, I would like to better understand what is actually happenning? Is the beam continuously ON (as opposed to on/off dots) and is the power being reduced as its going towards the white?

[Brian Jacobs]

Is the beam continuously ON (as opposed to on/off dots) and is the power being reduced as its going towards the white?

Beam still pulses and the power is being reduced as it goes from 100% to 0% black. With some drivers, you can manually set the power levels for specific grayscale percentages.

[Zsolt Paul]

Thank you! Makes sense. Does anyone know if in the VYTEK these power settings can be set for the gray scale?

[Joshua Hopper]

3d works great on woods, esp hardwoods, but I dont think you'll get good results on leather. Once you burn through the treated outer surface of leather, you get soft, fiberous raw material that won't look clean or crisp.

3d parts designing works with the grey scale. Basically you are using the grey scales in the graphic to control the laser's power output, while speed remains constant. So for smooth transitions and contours use gradients in your graphic. Otherwise use solid shades for cutting at different depths like a router. You can also use color mapping for router type engraving at several depths, but the 3d does everything in a single pass.

3d is probably the most under utilized capability of the laser. I only got around to experimenting with it after owning my laser for 2 years. Its more art than science but trust me, once you get the hang of it, it works. I'm getting outstanding results with it.

Dee is our resident 3d expert. Over to you, Dee! :D

Dave
Hello David,

I am new to this forum as of maybe 2 weeks ago and have learned alot from all of you. However, only about a month ago I was doing a few leather pieces of my own and had great results with 3d engraving. The only difference I found in doing this is the limited number of times you can pass over the material and also the depth to the shaded areas. In wood you can make the 3D objects as deep as the wood is but with leather it is more limiting. Anywho, I will try to get a snapshot of it for everyone to see.

Again, Thank you all for your knowlegable insights.
I will be posting again shortly.

Josh

[Linda Tetreault]

Chuck,

This might help, it's a tutorial from epilog http://www.epiloglaser.com/tl_creating_3d_artwork.htm

[Chuck Stone]

Don't know if it's my computer or what .. but the balloons were covering
a lot of the text and parts of the screen caps.. and then in about 2 or 3
pages, there was no more "Next" button..

Perhaps it's time to get rid of this old 286..

[Mike Null]

When doing your designs be sure to examine the options available using the fill tool/post script fills. There are unlimited options and variables there which can help in creating various looks or backgrounds for your 3d work.

It is a rarely used but extremely valuable tool.

[rick woodward]

I went to that tutorial, had the same issue. I just grabbed the arrow in the "play bar" and moved it page at a time.

[Peter Meacham]

Some of the pages require you to click on the yellow highlighted area instead of moving to the next page - part of the training method used in such tutorials