Newbie Help - Engraving light markings with vector mode

[nathan mcafee]

I promise I searched the archives and youtube for this oh so simple problem but am just searching the wrong words and frustrated. Am 2 weeks into my new laser and having a great time but have hit a hurdle that seems easy but I just can't figure it out.

I am doing 3D puzzles that are vector cut. On each piece I want a part number lightly etched to make it easier to assemble. I first tried raster but found it added 50% to overall cut time. I used color mapping in my epilog driver, made the part numbers text with blue fill and blue hairline outline with 100 speed and 20% power. However, it is still engraving the part numbers more than 1/2 way through the wood. I have attached a screenshot of my color mapping settings.

What am I doing wrong? What is the easiest way to vector text lightly? Help me and I will send a huge batch of good intentions your way. Thanks.


231658

[Kasey Maxwell]

lower your frequency to about 500, make for certain that your hairlines in corel are indeed RGB and not CMYK, try a simple box in corel Black RGB hairline then use color sorting with only black 0 0 0 and adjust from there, if the hairlines in corel are CMYK it just wont work. I use color sorting all the time and I love it !

hope this helps

[Glen Monaghan]

First, make the part number text with blue hairline and NO FILL (the outline alone will be sufficient and any fill will result in slow down because it will be raster engraved... that alone is probably your problem, because the fill is probably being rastered at your default raster setting!)

Second, with the text selected, verify the color is R0 G0 B255 (if it is CMYK blue or anything other than R0 G0 B255, it will engrave with default vector settings which are probably too high).

Finally, check the color mappings for blue to verify R0 G0 B255 (you showed the red setting is correct, just need to verify blue settings).

-Glen

[Doug Griffith]

To speed the job up more, I would use single line fonts for the numbers. Convert to outlines prior to sending to the laser.

[Chuck Stone]

To speed the job up more, I would use single line fonts for the numbers. Convert to outlines prior to sending to the laser.

What he said!

[Richard Rumancik]

I kinda think Doug and Chuck meant "convert to curves" prior to sending to the laser - i.e. don't send the "text" to the laser but convert it first. (At least that is what I would have done.)

You can search on "single line fonts" but they are sometimes called stick fonts. I'm not sure if anyone has found/created a good reliable font that works for everybody. I looked at an old thread and people seemed to have mixed results in getting it to display correctly. But once you find a stick font that works on your system you will be all set.

You could vector just the outline of any font, but it will take 2-3 times more laser time than a stick font would. But it might do if you are in a hurry for this job; it will still be much faster than rastering.

[Glen Monaghan]

Is there a freely available, truly single line font that works with CD? The "single line" fonts I've found that work with CD actually just overlap the inner and outer outlines so as to remain compatible with "normal" fonts; consequently, they are no faster unless you manually go in and remove the duplicate vectors... If you have many labels to do, a process that is easier than manually fixing every letter, but still cumbersome, is to use one of these fake single line fonts to type up the alphabet, numerals, and any desired punctuation/special symbols, ungroup everything, then remove duplicate vectors from that, group as needed to isolate each letter's strokes, and finally, create each label letter-by-letter by copying and pasting from your alphabet/numerals/punctuation samples. I'd love to get an easier process for this!

-Glen

[Richard Rumancik]

I did a bit of googling for single-line ttf fonts, and came to the conclusion that a ttf single line font does not really exist - even though there are some stick fonts that represent themselves as ttf fonts. From what I gather the ttf specification requires the fonts to be comprised of closed vectors, not lines. I suppose this is required for scalability of the font. I haven't had a need for some time so haven't had to deal directly with this problem. CNC programs seem to deal with this by interpreting the pseudo-ttf font and generating single lines. But Corel can't do that.

If you take an arbitrary font in Corel and convert to curves, no fill, and vector it, it will probably take 2x as long to vector it (compared to single line) as it is effectively drawing it twice. But it should still be still much faster than rastering it.

[Paul hardy]

At least on X5, there are some engravers fonts. Most are filled fonts using multiple lines, but at least one is a true single line font. I've had mixed luck when installing them. One system installed fine on Win 7. One another, I tried the CD X5 installer and it didn't work. Tried installing the fonts directly in Win 7, didn't work. Finally used the bitstream font navigator on the CD disc and got them to install.

[Phill Barnes]

Hi Paul
This a quick way to get what you need. You can break them apart and neaten them up if like but they are quite legible as they are. I have not posted a video on this site before so I have posted it a couple of different ways. Also, took the video just now with my android phone in a rush so I appologise for it being a little blurry.

Regards
Phill Barnes


<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3pyHgDyMqwI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3pyHgDyMqwI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


http://youtu.be/3pyHgDyMqwI

[Frank Corker]

Phil I am getting 'This video is private.' when I try to play it.

[nathan mcafee]

Same thing, gave me a message about showing your privates.

[Phill Barnes]

Hi Guys
Sorry, I thought you would be able to see it because I imbedded it and gave you a link. I have just changed the video to public so hopefully you should be able to see it now. Basically to give you a quick single line readable font,
Type your artistic text
Convert to black and white 300dpi bitmap
Trace bitmap - centerline trace. Tech drawing or line, doesn't matter
Detail 100%, Smoothing 50%, Corner smoothness 50% click OK

Now Ungroup all and double click on the numbers individually to edit nodes and delete segments. Then select both numbers and weld together so that all lines in each part become one. I recommend making an alphabet and numerical set so that you only have to do this once and then you can make your own single line numbers and words whenever you want.

I am not sure how much you know about Corel so please don't be offended if you know most of or all of what I have said.

Hope I have been of some help.

Phill