filling in when using the outline tool

[Don Young]

I am having a little trouble mastering the art of engraving then cutting out a shape (ie butterfly shape). If I use the outline and no fill tool in Corel, the laser fills in the entire shape then cuts it out. Converting to a bitmap. tracing and outlining is a confusing process and I know there has to be a better way...right ??

[John Noell]

Not exactly sure what you mean but if you have an object with no fill, the laser should not do anything inside the outline of the object. Pure white and no-fill should work the same. NEAR-white is entirely different!!!! I engrave butterflies (ie., the head and vein pattern) and then vector (cut) the outline al the time.

[Dee Gallo]

I agree with John. You can be sure there is no off-white problem by making your fill NONE.

[Tony Lenkic]

Don,

If you run trace on the image make sure you delete white mask that comes with traced image. You should have only vector cut lines.

[Richard Rumancik]

Don, is the outline of the butterfly curently a vector? What about the "engraving" you refer to (that is inside of the shape)? Is it vector or raster?

The inside could be either a bitmap or a filled vector shape; it should not really matter. The outline of the butterfly MUST be a vector. I assume it is, because you refer to "outline/no fill tool" which only applied to bitmaps. So make sure the outline linewidth is smaller than .003 and fill the butterfly with either white or "none" which is an "X".

No, it would not make sense to convert a vector to a bitmap and then trace it back into a vector . . . you need to fix the underlying problem.

Having said all that, the advice you will get here tends to apply to the Epilog/ULS/Trotec/GCC (etc) type lasers. You have a Jamieson and I don't know if there is anything unusual about how that machine operates. You might have to dig out the manual.

[Rodne Gold]

If you are talking about the contour tool , ungroup the original and the contour , the grouping could be a problem , make sure the die line (the cut line) is a hairline and in your driver make sure raster engraving is set off for the particular colour/layer your cutline is. This might also be a driver problem as it appears from your signature you are using a chinese laser , you might have to do thge job as a 2 jobs , 1 for engraving and another for the cut. Does your software come with a stand alone laser graphics package as well as an engrave from Corel options - if so try import your Corel outline and cut directly from the stand alone package.

[Don Young]

Thanks to all for your help on this. I finally figured it out and am running the engraving then the cutting. It is a pain but at least it works. The sytem uses the standard LaserCut 5.3 and it works well with Corel x3. I rarely use the LaserCut as a stand alone but Corel can be very confusing, as you all well know.
Thanks again for yet another question answered by the sawmillcreek gang.