Strange one..

[Chuck Stone]

I sat through the burn because I had to salvage at least a couple..

After it ran the raster forever, it started cutting the vectors, but offset by about
3/4". THen I thought "oh yeah.. they told me about rotating in Corel.."

the odd thing is that the ones that I rotated came out fine. The ones that
came out funky were the ones I left alone.

[Dee Gallo]

You obviously have gremlins, Chuck!

[John Noell]

Have you tried turning the laser 180 degrees?

(KIDDING!!!)

[Chuck Stone]

no, but I tried turning my head 90º and it didn't help.

[Neil Pabia]

Hmmmm, yes, something isn't right.

[Craig Matheny]

I guess I have a few questions....

1. on the art you are engraving why do you have it engraving the area you are cutting that is a lot of time wasted it seams.
2. Before you rotated the art did you group it? or did you flip the art left to right and then top to bottom? The reason I ask if you have a clear item that is attached to the hand art off to the side when you flip center is moved hence the offset image
Post the file in ver 4 or less and I will look at it.

[Chuck Stone]

I don't have the file, I scrapped it and did it over.
I engraved and cut because they are not in the same place. The cut
is just outside the outline. Subtle, perhaps.. but it makes a difference
in the way it looks. And since it was already rastering the inside of the
image, the time added wasn't a lot.
As for rotating, I grouped and placed the file into the new file for printing.
(I may combine several images in one file to print, so I often work like that)
Then I decided I could get one more cut if I rotated every other one 180º
and nudged them closer together.
The rotated ones came out fine.
Only the ones that didn't get rotated shifted the raster image 3/4"

FWIW.. on another file I created the outline in Corel and imported a bitmap
from Photoshop. That one also shifted and it changed the color a little. A black
and white image in a circle got shifted so that only about 2/3 of the image showed,
and Corel filled in the rest of the rectangle with black. (it was a blank background
behind the circle, Corel filled in the corners with black)

I dunno .. gremlins.

[Chuck Stone]

Another gremlin this afternoon..

I imported a bmp, power clipped it to the frame and then erased everything
outside of the frame. Went into Wireframe view just to be sure there was
nothing left.
It still engraved everything I erased!
It's not on the screen, not in any view I can find.. but it's on the wood.

[Neil Pabia]

Chuck, I'll stick with my original evaluation of the situation.

[Chuck Stone]

Chuck, I'll stick with my original evaluation of the situation.

what... that something isn't right? LOL
You should get a job as a psychic.. :D

[Craig Matheny]

Chuck post us some file so we can put another set of eyes on it you might just be missing something. ver x4 or less

[Dee Gallo]

Chuck,

That's insane! It might be time to delete your CD and re-install a clean copy... something is definitely bonkers and that's a technical term! You certainly have enough experience and expertise to handle the prep work, so I have to assume it is the program.

ciao, dee

[Chuck Stone]

Yeah.. it might be time.
I've never had a program print from the memory rather than the working file.
(and even the part in memory wasn't correct, as the colors changed)
But the shift when importing that one file happened on two different
computers, two different locations but same version of CD. Not sure
if it was the same build. That one might just be a CD/PS compatibility
issue. They don't really play well together, do they?

Here's the file that gave me fits when I sent it to the laser.
The original bitmap was rectangle. I erased all but the part
inside the circle. But when I printed it, the rectangle still
engraved. And it engraved black, even though the original
was white.

[Craig Matheny]

In Wire frame mode it is still there as a diamond I think you need to create this in photoshop. Some one told me something about photos in corel they wont come in with out a back ground.

[Martin Boekers]

Chuck I opened the file and it wasn't Power clipped, so that may be the issue.
When you power clip something everything goes into the container. There should be no "outside the container"
to erase.


Chuck I clipped it in and revised your lines a bit. The way you had it it would cut out the photo instead of around it give it a shot.


Marty

[Chuck Stone]

No, I ditched the power clip. But this file engraved a rectangle, while the
photo in the circle originally came from. (but was erased)

Now I'm using the power clip to get the photo into place and then cutting
it to the clipboard, finishing the nodes for the outline and then pasting the
photo back in place. Otherwise, when i use the segment delete tool, parts
of the photo disappear.

It would help if i actually knew what I was doing..

ps.. the photo was done in Photoshop, cut and then pasted back into a
circle the correct size, left as a .psd file and imported. So the photo was
a circle with no background outside the circle (but it printed one anyway)

[Craig Matheny]

It would help if i actually knew what I was doing..

I believe that is the most famous Quote of the day and the most truthful. I just told my wife that about trying to fix my sons truck 2005 to much computer. :confused:

[Chuck Stone]

Chuck I clipped it in and revised your lines a bit. The way you had it it would cut out the photo instead of around it give it a shot.


Marty

Just saw this .. Thanks, Marty. Lost the cutout though.. it has black lines now, can't turn them red!
Is that just on MY computer?

I must have posted an interim file. You're right, this one would cut out the whole photo.
I stopped and re-did the file because if I started deleting the segments (so that the
photo would stay in the ornament) the bitmap would start disappearing.

[Martin Boekers]

Chuck, I don't believe Corel recognizes "transparency" in a PSD file.
Here's what you do for that.

In PS, open your photo, in the layers window see if there is a little "Lock" to the right
of the layer if there is double click on it. You will get a dialog box and click OK. This
will give you the image with out a white underneath. That way when you erase you will
see a pattern that means transparent and not white. When you get that to where you like
then save as a TIFF. When you do this a dialog box will pop up look down it until you see
a box that says preserve transparency make sure that is checked and hit OK.
Corel recognizes TIFF transparency.

Now when you import that to Corel you will not have a surrounding box just the image.

I had the same issue with the segment tool, not sure why, I am new to this tool. I do like it
a lot though! (this was with the image clipped.) I did select the line to have no with in the power clip
Then I drew the hairline to where I wanted it.

I did the same thing you did for the file I sent.
I had the photo in position, copied it to the clipboard, then outlined the area I wanted to cut.
After that was done I deleted the photo. Then I used the segment delete tool (making sure
all lines did touch, if they don't the tool won't work properly) after I had the cut area where
I liked it I pasted the phot that was copied too the clipboard back into the file.

Viola!


It didn't take long just a bit of thinking around the issues. Hope this helps.

[Glen Monaghan]

Lost the cutout though.. it has black lines now, can't turn them red!
Is that just on MY computer?

Select the black cuoutout line, open Object Properties, select the Outline tab, change Width drop down selection from None to Hairline, and change the color from black to red. Save and print. Done.

-Glen

[Chuck Stone]

Chuck, I don't believe Corel recognizes "transparency" in a PSD file.
Here's what you do for that.

In PS, open your photo, in the layers window see if there is a little "Lock" to the right
of the layer if there is double click on it. You will get a dialog box and click OK. This
will give you the image with out a white underneath. That way when you erase you will
see a pattern that means transparent and not white. When you get that to where you like
then save as a TIFF. When you do this a dialog box will pop up look down it until you see
a box that says preserve transparency make sure that is checked and hit OK.
Corel recognizes TIFF transparency.

Bingo .. I assumed that since the psd preserves the transparency and Corel will
import a .psd, then it should work. (but no dice) it did bring in two layers though.

I'll have to check on the parts of the image outside the circle. When you save a
.psd, those parts of the image are still there, but not visible. You can re-open
the file later on and still be able to move, resize etc. I wonder if you lose those
when saving the TIFF with transparency. If so, that would make it even easier.

Thanks!

ps Glen .. I just tried that. Thanks! I was right clicking like mad and nothing
was working!

[Martin Boekers]

Sorry I didn't change the color back. I keep forgetting some drivers only recognize
vectors as a red line. I changed it to black as it made it easier to see your file
and the changes I made.

You will be fine with the TIFF, I was a good year into Corel until someone steered me
to that! :)

Transparent PNGs are even worse. There may be others but, TIFF is the only one I know works.