Please help!

[Amy Heise]

Hey all! I am hoping some of you can help me. We bought a Rayjet - 30W- from Trotec after talking to a GREAT salesman at the NBM show over the summer in Indianapolis. However, the salesman said they don't do training on the machines because they have tech support. Well tech support is not very helpful and basically treats you like a moron (at least the guy I have talked to) whenever you call and ask a question. Also, our salesman is no longer with the company, go figure with my luck haha.

My first question I guess is mainly with Coreldraw though. I have an order for electrical control panel labels on Rowmark/lasermark. Whenever I change my text to bitmap and then trace it (I am doing this because if I don't I cannot get anything to show up in print preview) to get it in vector format it changes my font and cuts parts of the letters off. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong? Am I supposed to be changing this to vector or something else? I am thinking that I should not have to change the text to vector since it is rastering the "engraving" right? Sometimes being a visual/hands on learner is not a good thing when you are learning something new with no "pro" to help or show you the ropes.
I am still learning corel, so I have a big learning curve ahead of me.

Also, what power/speed settings are you using for the engraving on a piece of Rowmark/Lasermark? I have tried a few different settings (Speed 100, Power 60 / Speed 100, Power 40, etc.) but still keep getting black smear marks like the power is still too high). I can keep playing with that to get it right but thought I might as well throw that out there too.

I hope someone can help me and I am not being a PITA asking stupid questions. Also, if this has been answered before please direct me to it, I did not search before typing all of this out and probably should have. Thank you in advance for dealing with my newbie questions haha. :o

[Mike Null]

Amy

give me a call. my number can be found under my listing on Friends of the Creek.

[Dan Hintz]

Back up one problem... why are you having to convert to vector to get it to show up in print preview?

You should be sending these as raster images for the text combined with vectors for the outlines of the tags (to cut them out).

Makes sure your drawing is set to the same size as your laser's table (or vice versa). Make sure you have layers set up correctly (as in make sure the little eye icon is open for the layer that contains your text) when you do a print preview. To avoid other problems, make sure you're using an RGB palette instead of CMYK (set this as a default as it will bite you in some place unpleasant when you least expect it).

For a 30W, I would expect to be in the 100S/60P/500dpi range (give or take on the power) for rastering. I suggest running a test grid to see what speeds/powers are best for your machine.

[Amy Heise]

See I knew it! Thanks Dan! I will play around with your suggestions when I get into work this afternoon. Mike if I have any other questions I will give you a call. Sorry I just now was able to make it back on the forums, my two little ones have ear infections....yuck! Thank you guys soooo much! :D

Amy

[Amy Heise]

I just wanted to thank you guys so much for helping me out. Just a few of the little hints Dan gave me, was what I was missing! Mike thanks for offering for me to be able to call I may just have to do that in the future if I get stuck!

[Frank Corker]

Dan's a good boy, we love him.

[Dan Hintz]

Aww, shucks :o <nudges ground with toe, hands deep in pockets>

Just passing on some (hopefully) helpful advice as others did for me a couple of years back.

[Robert Walters]

Aww, shucks :o <nudges ground with toe, hands deep in pockets>

Um, you forgot the head held low in a humble position ;)

[Dan Hintz]

It was assumed... :D

[Frank Corker]

of course it was!!

[Robert Walters]

Hi Amy,

Lynda.com has CorelDRAW video tutorials that I thought were very helpful.

They have some sample videos you can look at before buying.

http://www.lynda.com/home/ViewCourses.aspx?lpk0=32

[Amy Heise]

Thanks Robert! Really I cannot thank you all enough! You were my lifesaver!