Rookie needs some help!

[Kyle Crawford]

Merry Christmas!

Very new to laser engraving. Had a quick question with regards to corel draw. Hoping someone can give me a quick solution!

I am using corel draw x5. When I open the program, and start a new document, it asks me for inputs such as Name, width, height, etc. For my first few test engraves, I just left the document at 8.5" x 11". I used the top left corner of the page in corel draw as being home position for my laser. Everything worked great.

However, today I have a piece of marble that is 5" x 7". I wanted to make the working area in corel exactly the same as the piece of marble. When starting corel, I set the height and width to 5" and 7" respectively. The working area in corel looked fine. I set up the area for what I wanted engraved, placed the marble in the engraver with the top left corner at the co-ordinates 0,0, and sent the file for engraving.

To my anger, the laser started etching not in the home position, but in outer space.

I shut the laser off, and then clicked "print preview", and for some reason my engraving area was in the center of the printing area, not the upper left where I thought it was. Here is a link to a screenshot of my problem:

http://motorcyclesaddlebags.bravehost.com/problem.jpg

Is there a way such that I can always treat the upper left hand corner of the corel work space as the home position?

Thanks for your help!

[Dee Gallo]

Merry Christmas, Kyle! Did you set your printer to the same size as your document? If not, it will print as if you were on the default size of 8.5 x 11.

cheers, dee

[Brian Terry]

Your drawing area in corel must be set to the same size as your engraving table

[john passek]

Welcome Kyle and Merry Christmas to you too.
It would help if we knew what Brand and wattage of laser you have , ad this info to your signature so it appears at the bottom of your posts.
when your print driver opens on your laser, make sure you set the page size to the same as the corel page size you are trying to print.
If you haven't already you might want to check out Ron Thompsons post about a Corel draw learning site, it is on the first page of posts
Have Fun

[Mike Null]

Besides setting your Corel space to 5x7 you probably have to do the same with the driver.

Corel will not automatically position your drawing.

[Larry Bratton]

I have my Corel Page Default size set to my laser table size. You can do this with Tools/Options. I create my graphics based on the required size and place them in the page. It works for me. I use the Center to Center feature in the Epilog Driver and I do set my page size smaller in Corel and match in the driver, it has to work that way. Good luck and Merry Xmas!

[Martin Boekers]

Some set the Corel size and the driver page size to the size of the table,
I have a 24x36 inch table and that takes longer for the file to transfer
so I avoid that unless that is the size I am engraving.

Some set the actual piece size in the Corel file and Driver. I don't
do that Either as then I have to change both each time I send a file.
(unless it's larger than 8.5x11)

I typically leave the Corel size at 8.5X11 and position the engraved portion
at the top left (driver default) then you don't have to change the driver
page size all the time. If your in a hurry it's easy to miss entering the Driver
page size and engrave in the wrong position.

Anything bigger I enter the size to both and/or do a quick vector outline on
scrap to position the piece to esp for irregular shaped pieces. This ensures correct
positioning.


This may be confusing for some but it works for me.

I typically do plates first as I can trim and apply them while longer jobs are
engraving.

You should have a preview in the driver to quick check positioning.

Kyle, One more thing don't get angry, this is an easy problem to fix there are many
more that are going to occur that won't be as easy. Patience is a virtue.

This will be a difficult industry for you if these things upset you to much, esp just
starting out many things won't go as expected!;)

Learn as much as you can read ALL the posts in this forum from day 1 until now
you will get much insight.

Learn to use the forum search tool, it will help find threads quickly with previous
covered issues.

There are many good web sites out there with free tutorials and videos, find them
out. If you can make it to a trade show go. They are really worth your time esp just
starting out.

Congrats on your new laser, good luck and happy holidays!

Marty