3D Lasering?

[William Desrochers]

I'd like to know if its possible to do 3D lasering with an Epilog or Pinnacle, or do u have to have a whole nother machines?

thxs,

[Rodne Gold]

The Pinnacle will do 3d lasering , it has a 3d engraving section in the driver.
Having said that , good 3d engraving sometimes looks quite impressive , tho we have never really had as call or demand for it as most artwork is not in the correct format (grey shaded , 256 levels) and generating it is difficult. Success in getting good 3d is dependant on materials, woods work best. You dont have much control of depth or of the relief thats generated and the engraving is pretty rough in parts and requires a polishing pass to sort of smooth it. With most laser generated 3d stuff one is limited by the amount of power the material can handle , for example engraving deep into acrylic without cutting cannot allow the melt generated to go anywhere and it just gets messy.The examples you see on mnfgrs websites are "best case" scenarios.
Any laser that works with colours assigned to speed and power can do a quasi 3d type image. All you do is assign different power and speed settings to various colours and can get from 8-16 different depths in a single drawing. This is often a lot better than true 3d but is slower.
I would never make 3d engraving a deal breaker with a laser purchase. If you want to specialise in that you would be better off with a CnC rotary engraver and a program like artcam that generates 3d reliefs and tool paths from 2d images.
Albeit I havent seen the latest artcam , I do believe it does have a 3d algorithm for lasers where it sort of "slices" the 3d relief into layers and engraves the slices rather than try to vary power in a single pass. This would allow you to do far deeper and probably far smoother reliefs.

If you are talking about those 3d images found in crystals , yes , you will have to buy a completely different and far more expensive machine.

[Kevin Huffman]

Great post rodney.

[Aaron Koehl]

William,

The Epilog/Pinnacle lasers won't do the 3D images in crystal, if that's what you're asking.

[William Desrochers]

ya, i was asking about the 3d in crystal & 3d Relief.

Wow, nice post Rodne, you answered my unasked questions, :D

I know now which machine i want to get.

Thxs,

[David Stevens]

William,


I have a friend that has a pinnicle and they have had nothing but problems so I would tell you to stay away from them,Have you looked at Universal? They will do 3D (Serface 3D not crystal) and they are the best system out there!!

Just a thought

[Keith Outten]

David Stevens,

You really should announce that you are an employee of Universal Laser Systems if you are making comments concerninig a competitor. On another post (see link below) you had negative comments concerning Epilog. Your views may be accurate or not but you owe our members the truth concerninig your employment status so they will understand the basis of your opinions.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=20597

[William Desrochers]

I had requested info from 3 companys:

Universal
Pinnacle
Epilog

& Pinnacle was the first to respond & send me a info package (less than a week), followed by a call the very next day after i received the package asking if i had any questions. They were very helpful. also they post there prices on their site which i prefer when *looking* to buy. (also i was told that the bearings that the laser head runs on were metal, but on all the pics i've seen they look like white plastic?)

Epilog was the 2nd to respond in sending me a info package (a few days after pinnacle's package) But i had to call them myself, i was able to get ahold of the local dealer/distrubutor here in Quebec, Canada, but they wouldn't give me an extact price. just a between this & that. (also i've been lucky to actually get to run an "Mini18" & "Legend32" at work, they are atleast 5 yrs old. i can say i like them,) But wasn't to fond to find out that they have to replace the motor that runs the laser head back & forth every year on the both of them! maybe the newer versions are built diff, i dunno?

(but its the pinnacles front&back doors for odd pieces thats drawing me towards them.)

3rd'ly, Universal has yet to send me any info what-so-ever?

I see that there are employee's of the 3 companies, that are members here in the forum. I'd appeciate it if i could get in contact with you.

What i'm looking is something that i can do vaneer inlays, etch arcylic, engrave wood, etc...

Thxs

[mike wallis]

Hey William,
I just wanted to clairify on the age of the Mini18 you said was at least 5 years old at your work, the Mini18 model has only been on the market since April/May 2004, about a year. I ordered the Mini18 in April 2004 when it first came out and hopefully won't be having any motor issues anytime soon.
I have nothing to compare the Mini to but I am fairly pleased with it after a year. There were a few bugs to work out in the begining but does everthing I need it to do now.
Good luck with your decision.

[Rodne Gold]

William , We have run lasers for a long time and I run 3x Explorers (laserpros) and started out with mercurys (the pinnacle model is a mercury).
We run our machines with heavy duty cycles , almost 8 hours a day continuously.
It's no skin off my nose which laser you get , I live in South Africa and am a user and have no affiliation to any brand but obviously cos I use GCC machines Im biased toward them, so take my comments in that light.
Buy from the guy that gives you the best service , backup and MOST importantly , warrantee on the tube.
You rarely have other issues than tube ones and the tube is the most expensive bit. We have 3 yr warrantees on our sources and have replaced MANY , both synrads and coherents. (and it has not cost me a penny barring downtime) I really find the tube failures a pain but Im really grateful I dont have to pay. I think with 6 lasers over 4 years or so , I have replaced at LEAST 10 tubes or more!!! Mostly one of the RF boards fail , so its not a total tube failure , but we dont send them for repair , my dealer just ships me a replacement one overnight. We were sent instructions of how to repair the RF boards by Synrad and bought the parts cheap , but you need specialised equipment to do the fix. This tube failure is not confined to my machine , others here using different lasers (epilog , trotec , New hermes , universal etc) have all experienced source failure.
I have replaced a few bearings and motors and a display panel but these are not terrible expensive or difficult to do. Prefferable do not buy a laser that uses stepper motors for the motion systems , there are various reasons but the fact that most stepper based systems are not closed loop (IE dont know where they are) makes life difficult and reduces utility.
Power is most likely more important than table size. Most important is speed at acceptable quality. The faster you can do a job at acceptable quality , the better - time is money in laser time. Bells and whistles like stamp making , 3d , and to some extent rotary ability are minor considerations - the rotary attachment of the GCc is not that user friendly but works well. Drivers too are important , they must work well with your software and enable you to fine tune things. One of the best features of my GCC is that ability to start from the centre of an item , IE you can find the centre of a disc/bowl/irregular item etc and start engraving from there. Another nice feature is the ability to manually move the head to the start position and another is the ability to pause , move the head away , inspect the job and restart and the head comes back to where it left off.
Most lasers will do more or less the same thing - I repeat , service , backup and warrantee (NO QUIBBLE WARRANTEE) are the most important!!!!!! In terms of warrantee , no mnfgr will warrant mirrors and lenses , replacing these can be costly so take care with them.

[William Desrochers]

Hey William,
I just wanted to clairify on the age of the Mini18 you said was at least 5 years old at your work, the Mini18 model has only been on the market since April/May 2004, about a year. I ordered the Mini18 in April 2004 when it first came out and hopefully won't be having any motor issues anytime soon.
I have nothing to compare the Mini to but I am fairly pleased with it after a year. There were a few bugs to work out in the begining but does everthing I need it to do now.
Good luck with your decision.

Mike, i think i got some dates mixed up, the Legend was 4-5 yrs ago its a 50w & the mini18 was in 2004 same time as you got yours, right when they came out, its a 35w. I know they legend they've replaced the laser head motor every yr so far, & the table's motor aswell a few times. For the Mini they've replaced the laser head motor twice so far (& shortly after a few months the red laser became a faint light & supposely the auto focus doesn't work? Was told by the other engraver that the table motor needs to be change to fix that?). I'm gonna find out monday, if there was any other parts that had to be replaced often.

[William Desrochers]

William , We have run lasers for a long time and I run 3x Explorers (laserpros) and started out with mercurys (the pinnacle model is a mercury).
We run our machines with heavy duty cycles , almost 8 hours a day continuously.
It's no skin off my nose which laser you get , I live in South Africa and am a user and have no affiliation to any brand but obviously cos I use GCC machines Im biased toward them, so take my comments in that light.
Buy from the guy that gives you the best service , backup and MOST importantly , warrantee on the tube.
You rarely have other issues than tube ones and the tube is the most expensive bit. We have 3 yr warrantees on our sources and have replaced MANY , both synrads and coherents. (and it has not cost me a penny barring downtime) I really find the tube failures a pain but Im really grateful I dont have to pay. I think with 6 lasers over 4 years or so , I have replaced at LEAST 10 tubes or more!!! Mostly one of the RF boards fail , so its not a total tube failure , but we dont send them for repair , my dealer just ships me a replacement one overnight. We were sent instructions of how to repair the RF boards by Synrad and bought the parts cheap , but you need specialised equipment to do the fix. This tube failure is not confined to my machine , others here using different lasers (epilog , trotec , New hermes , universal etc) have all experienced source failure.
I have replaced a few bearings and motors and a display panel but these are not terrible expensive or difficult to do. Prefferable do not buy a laser that uses stepper motors for the motion systems , there are various reasons but the fact that most stepper based systems are not closed loop (IE dont know where they are) makes life difficult and reduces utility.
Power is most likely more important than table size. Most important is speed at acceptable quality. The faster you can do a job at acceptable quality , the better - time is money in laser time. Bells and whistles like stamp making , 3d , and to some extent rotary ability are minor considerations - the rotary attachment of the GCc is not that user friendly but works well. Drivers too are important , they must work well with your software and enable you to fine tune things. One of the best features of my GCC is that ability to start from the centre of an item , IE you can find the centre of a disc/bowl/irregular item etc and start engraving from there. Another nice feature is the ability to manually move the head to the start position and another is the ability to pause , move the head away , inspect the job and restart and the head comes back to where it left off.
Most lasers will do more or less the same thing - I repeat , service , backup and warrantee (NO QUIBBLE WARRANTEE) are the most important!!!!!! In terms of warrantee , no mnfgr will warrant mirrors and lenses , replacing these can be costly so take care with them.

Rodne, thxs again for your info/opinions. you've answered more unasked questions, :D . & i've learn of some features that i was unawear of like the starting in the center of a piece!

[Gary Shoemake]

Hi

I have a Pinnacle Mercury and have had nothing but success using it. I totally agree with Rodney with the fact that basically all lasers do the same thing. The bottom line is the level of support that you recieve. I can say that with Pinnacle's tech support I usuallly get a same day response. If I try to contact tech support towards the end of business day, the next day. I have sent emails and have gotten one response that was sent about 4AM.

HTH
Gary

[rich shepard]

Hi ALL
I have a Epilog mini and just love it. It does all I ask and have not had any problems,plus my rep has been great even when I screw up and call him on a Sunday.
rich

[Peter Vasic]

We have a Universal V460 and a brand new Pinnacle GCC spirit.

Rodney knows why we purchased the Spirit...even though he Uses GCC he explained to us the reasons why we should try and keep one brand of Laser , but despite his experience and Knowledge we decided to opt for a Laserpro/Pinnacle/GCC spirit..We so dearly wanted to get another Universal, but the dealer and his dropping us like a hot potato when it broke down and his lack of service and help with the software, made our decision up..
We lost over $15,000 dollars because of the distributors non backup of problems caused by the machinery and software he sold...

He blamed the US manufacturer of the laser and the French manufacturer of the software....

we sent emails to the USA manufacturer of the Laser and to be fair they responded to us, which we were very grateful for, but the French manufacturer of the software ignored our emails . ( we went thru seven dongles over a number of months before our machine was productive )

The Australian distributor eventually told us..we were basically on our own..sucked in....thats life,..... accept your situation and move on...


so to answer your question...The Spirit/GCC/Pinnacle/Laserpro is a brilliant machine, the only reason they put them down in the USA is because they ...perform the same or better than the USA manufactured machines....for thousands $$$ less..

Now to our V460 Universal, even though the local distributor dropped us and our plea for help to assist the downtime...it now performs admirably, it is however our second machine...it is 10 watts greater in power than the Spirit,
But the firmware in the spirit allows it to perform at least to the same standard as the V460...so much so that it is the machine of preferance in the workshop.

Corel is used in our workshop as well as our main production software.

It performs brilliantly on both machines...

1. Go for Service
2. Go for price
3. dont be sucked in by B.S. a laser is a laser.

regards
Peter

[Peter Vasic]

This is an unashamedly blatant plug...if you want service. speak to,

Gary Chapman at www.signwarehouse.com.au (http://www.signwarehouse.com.au)

He helped us and continues supporting us with an almost pathalogical zeal.
He backs everything he says and does..I even put a testimonial on his site!

Gary and his team will assist with any query.

regards

Peter

[Mike Mackenzie]

Peter,

I regret hearing the difficulties you have had with the sales rep for the Universal. I don't exactly know what happened and I can't change anything. However I would like to offer my assistance with your ULS anytime you need it . We are a sales and service office here in Los Angeles, Ca and we have been working with this equipment for 15+ years. Please if you ever have a question or need assistance with your system let me know.

[Peter Vasic]

Peter,

I regret hearing the difficulties you have had with the sales rep for the Universal. I don't exactly know what happened and I can't change anything. However I would like to offer my assistance with your ULS anytime you need it . We are a sales and service office here in Los Angeles, Ca and we have been working with this equipment for 15+ years. Please if you ever have a question or need assistance with your system let me know.

Hello Mike,

Thank you so much for your offer of assistance.
We are in a bit of a bind here in Australia, as the market is not massive like the USA, so With each brand of laser you get more or less one national distributor ( in some cases 2 ). We still deal with the ULS ditributor, ( no choice) ,

I worked for many years as a sales rep for a National company and never did I or the Company I work for treat customers the way my business was treated by the Australian dist. of that product. There were times in my position of Account executive where we were required to compensate customers ( sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars and replacement material) which we did after discussion and technical follow thru/evaluation, showed our product was at fault. I knaievely thought all companies worked on the same principles.

The amazing follow on to this was, we were in Perth, Western Australia some 3000 miles away some months ago, looking at a large rotary system. We were invited to look at a complete set up in one of Western Australias largest engraving companies and were most impressed with the machine we saw,

however, this business also had several ULS machines,
we remarked that we had one also, at which point the director of the company said to us..."You can shove those machines up your a.., we will never deal with those mongrels again",( meaning ,the Aust distributor of ULS) They were going to convert to Epilog.

Having dealt with the Epilog people ( Project Engraving Supplies) I can understand why, they are fantastic people, who back their machinery
(all brands they sell), support them and support their clients thru down times.

Our machine was supplied with a NON standard fitted motor ( brand new) off the floor of the distributor ( even ULS were perplexed at the motor, i.e according to them that is not the motor that should be fitted to that machine) , much too-ing and fro-ing and downtime ( days , weeks then ongoing for months ) changed belts,bearings several times,finally resolved the machine issues, however any responsibility for defective machinery and software was deflected to ULS and Type 3, no compensation was offered.

After all, from the way our account was being handled, it was evident to us that the Australian distributor had taken the stance that it wasnt the responsibility of the Australian distributor to sell a machine and software that was fit for purpose...It was ULS's and Type 3's..The distributors job was simply to take my money, send me newsletters, direct me to his website, sell me consumables and hope to God that real problems didnt occur with my machine and software....because little else was done....except for them to be really narky on the phone whenever we rang pleading for help..( because after weeks of downtime...and no effective recompense ..how else were they to handle us?)

We had to plead, then demand for any recompense... and it met with deathly silence..


The Tech that worked for them for years, left the company ( he was a nice man caught in an unenviable corner) Oh...another tech left after him too..he was the young man that set our machine up. ( bit of a parttern me thinks...)

As a result what could be massive purchases for IPI products ( another product they are sole distributors for) are now directed to other brands and also I am happy to say a number ..yes a number of potential purchasers of ULS lasers in Australia have been directed to Epilog and GCC...

Now as I said previously, Australia is not that big a market, we have only 20,000,000 people, so I reckon any sales in such a small market are quite significant.

The GCC guys want to trade our V460 for another Laserpro and are willing to assist us in all sorts of ways to do it.. The Epilog people want our business..Now the Gravograph people have caught wind and are trying to get us buying from them too!:D

We are not a small operation by any Australian standard and are growing quite progressivelly, with a new workshop and store opening up soon in another part of our city.

The really sad part to all of this fiasco is yet to be told...you have only heard the tip of the iceberg..We kept contemparanious notes, faxes , emails, photos of dongles and the machine ....

Hey , The V460 is a good machine....

But I've said it before and I'll say it again......look in the dealers eyes and ask him...When the system You supply..fails and as a result I lose $ 10- 20,000...what will you do to support me, when the products supplied are not fit for purpose.

Oh, the other thing I forgot to say...Burn me and the world will hear..well quite frankly until, the situation is righted...

To hear the final an now immortal words from the Australian distributor...after he asked us "What do you want?, What do you want me to do, tell me?"

So we did, we asked for some assistance towards the damages and losses, we even asked for the $15,000, but we knew that was never going to happen so we said...."If you were in our position...with ULS..what would you expect ?"

he wouldnt answer us..So we rephrased the request, "tell us what you would expect if you were treated this way with these losses ?"

He said..."Tell me what you want ?" We then said "Some recompense, some empathy, some..any, friggin offer of help".. We truly didnt expect much..

He finally said..."My responsibility is simply to get you back up and running and I've done that, I have no obligation to assist you any further"

We were furious..The compensation offer to us was 5% off of a photograve software and a free upgrade of the software we were using ( he didnt realise that the free software upgrade was negotiated with his sales rep at the time of purchase of the V460 as the new upgrade was only weeks away, the rep chucked it in as a deal sweetner).

We took the upgrade, not the photoengrave....We are now letting Australia and the world know.

( The plot thickens and gets even tackier so stay tuned if you all want to hear more)

Next edition...The loan machine


Kindest regards

Peter

[Mike Mackenzie]

Peter,

I am truly sorry for your problems you have had to experience I wish we could have gotten involved earlier in this fiasco. I don't know if anyone at the factory was informed or not. I have nothing to do with the Australia market but it really upsets me to hear these stories. It reflects bad on the manufacturer and there equipment and there equipment is good we just have a rotten apple in the bag that needs to be thrown out.:(

I will be forwarding your posted message to the International sales Manager at the factory. I don't know if anything will come of it but I want to make sure that he is aware of it.

Again we may be thousands of miles apart but if I can be of any assistance with that machine please let me know.

[Peter Vasic]

Peter,

I am truly sorry for your problems you have had to experience I wish we could have gotten involved earlier in this fiasco. I don't know if anyone at the factory was informed or not. I have nothing to do with the Australia market but it really upsets me to hear these stories. It reflects bad on the manufacturer and there equipment and there equipment is good we just have a rotten apple in the bag that needs to be thrown out.:(

I will be forwarding your posted message to the International sales Manager at the factory. I don't know if anything will come of it but I want to make sure that he is aware of it.

Again we may be thousands of miles apart but if I can be of any assistance with that machine please let me know.

Mike,

Thanks again , We are currently doing very well with alternate companies, I cant believe the difference in response to challenges we have with the machines compared to our previous supplier.
You know its also strange as to why we would hve been abandoned in a financial sense by that supplier...Like any business they must have people that deal with them that reckon they are pretty good as well.

The other thing to realise Mike is this, when you are in such a small market like Australia, Tech firms capable of picking up a distributorship are pretty thin on the ground, so as much as letting ULS know ( they have corresponded ) it woould be a remote chance that a fish my size would be of any consequence to the end result. The arrogance and patronization my wife endured and finally non response by phone, simply returned emails told me everything.

However,At the same time, one fish my size full of mercury and the food chain is gonna find out every last detail of my interactions..

We were disgusted and continue to be so...

But life and business go on and we are relieved to be doing so well now with alternative suppliers..Having said that..I'll reiterate..

The V460 is a good machine we continue to use it and we still must deal with the suppliers as they are it. So we continue to be cordial with them, we just wont shut up about how they handled our business. ( I couldnt imagine what it would be like If I dealt with any of my clients in the same manner, its beyond comprehension)


As I tell other people ( lots of them), its amazing how good alternative products are as well and its a shame that I had to find that out...But I have struck up great relationships with alternative suppliers as a result

You know, we gave them chance after chance after chance after chance after chance, literally it went on week after week into the months, sometimes down time as long as 5-6 days in one hit, but this happened regularly....in the end we werent sure if that was the way you were meant to be treated or not so we decided...nope we aint gonna be treated like that by anybody, so when our next purchase came up ,we chose an alternative laser .

With much trepidation we chose a GCC Spirit, but boy ,oh boy,we hit the jackpot with the distributor, you know..they are an interstate company, but so far over the last 10 weeks they have had reps and techs come into see us 4 times...( simply because they are in town )and they follow up with phone calls and emails we feel like desired customers again and its nice to feel like you are a partner in business with your supplier, not just someone to exploit.

regards

Peter

[Francois Galipeau]

I am also in the process of buying a laser i am leaning towards the Epilog Helix 35 watt. Does anyone have an opinion? Also can someone tell me if you can cut vector cut through Avonite, if so what were your settings? Thank you

[Mike Mackenzie]

We did cut through 1/2 corian but you need Conical air assist and 120 watts of laser power to do it. Avonite is very similar.
Have you considered the Universal?

[James Stanaway]

Hi Francois,

What thickness of Avonite are you thinking of cutting? I'd be happy to test it on a 35 watt Helix here at the factory and send you the results.

Thank you,

James Stanaway
Director of Marketing
Epilog Laser
jstan@epiloglaser.com

[Francois Galipeau]

thickness of the Avonite would be 1/2 inch...I look forward to hearing your results

[James Stanaway]

With the 1/2", you are definitely going to need to look at a higher wattage laser system than a 35 watt, like Mike said. A 35 watt just won't get through a material like that. A 120 watt laser would be the best bet for that.

Thanks,

James Stanaway
Director of Marketing
Epilog Laser
jstan@epiloglaser.com

[Francois Galipeau]

Thank you very much James

[Chuck Burke]

Gary,
What do you do when you have a corel question or need help with corel and your Pinnacle?

Chuck Burke

[alen lin]

Rodne, thxs again for your info/opinions. you've answered more unasked questions, :D . & i've learn of some features that i was unawear of like the starting in the center of a piece!

William,

Did you know that GCC has a authorized LaserPro dealer in Quebec, Canada. They offer great support. You can find them on the web at http://canucktechnologies.ca/.

Have a great day!

Best Regards,

Alen Lin
Business Development Manager
GCC America, Inc.
alen.lin@gccamerica.com

[Gary Shoemake]

Hi Chuck

I missed your question about corel and the pinnacle. I'm fortunate enough to have a son that is in computer programming and also a couple of his buddies are working in graphic arts ( using both Corel and Illustrator) in Atlantic City and are really good. I mean really good, so I do have quite a bit of unofficial help. I also am in my second semester in college learning Corel. Although I did have to change schools for it. Thank goodness for the education money from my retirement package.

gary

[Chuck Burke]

Gary,
That is WAY cool. If there was Corel training in the islands I'd take it in a minute. But I am learing A LOT from cd's and books. And of course this and other fourms. And the Corel website...
Recently I downloaded the trial version of Adobe Illustrator CS2. Have you used it? What do you think of it? It seems powerful but Corel seems to be able to do everything AI does, so I don't know if I should learn it too or not. Your input would be appreciated. The reason I even looked into AI was the bitmap-vector conversion. I heard it was fabulous, but I"m not sure it is better than Corel. Maybe just my inexperience talking. I also found out Engravelab has a vector conversion feature in it. I'll have to try that too.

Chuck

[Bruce Volden]

[QUOTE=Chuck Burke]Gary,
That is WAY cool. If there was Corel training in the islands I'd take it in a minute. But I am learing A LOT from cd's and books. And of course this and other fourms. And the Corel website...
Recently I downloaded the trial version of Adobe Illustrator CS2. Have you used it? What do you think of it? It seems powerful but Corel seems to be able to do everything AI does, so I don't know if I should learn it too or not. Your input would be appreciated. The reason I even looked into AI was the bitmap-vector conversion. I heard it was fabulous, but I"m not sure it is better than Corel. Maybe just my inexperience talking. I also found out Engravelab has a vector conversion feature in it. I'll have to try that too.

Chuck

Chuck, I'm not sure which version of Corel you're using but, CD10 and up is really a lot nicer for bitmap / vector converting. The Trace program got a lot more powerful and makes the cleanup faster!! Bruce

[Gary Shoemake]

I just signed up for a course in AI CS2 so I'll start this fall. Boy I hope that I don't get to confused. I'll ask my graphics buddies if they see a difference in ease of use for the bitmap to vector conversion and I'll get back to you. It will be next week as we are doing a show over the next week. Some jewellery that my daughter makes and I engrave. some artwork inn different mediums that my wife does, and of course examples of what the laser can do. Wish me luck, first time for this one.

Gary

[Chuck Burke]

Gary,
With the kind of versatility you are showing I doubt luck will be a factor in your success at the show. I am sure you will do fine but since you asked...... GOOD LUCK!!!!


Chuck

[Chuck Burke]

Bruce,
I"m usind Draw12. I have used trace, but I don't like the results I get. If it is a "simple" graphic it seems to work fine. But the more complex graphics seem to get "chopped" if you will. I guess my mistake is expecting a vector conversion program to give me a more "accurate" result. Alternatively, I have found little on how exactly to use trace, so I could be off on my settings etc.....

Chuck

[George Brown]

Albeit I havent seen the latest artcam , I do believe it does have a 3d algorithm for lasers where it sort of "slices" the 3d relief into layers and engraves the slices rather than try to vary power in a single pass. This would allow you to do far deeper and probably far smoother reliefs.

I know this is an ancient thread, but if it does have that feature, could you point me in the direction of where to find it.?

Thanks

[George M. Perzel]

Hi George;
This link may help. 'http://www.artcam.com/videos/
videos.html

Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[Frank Corker]

Beware, Artcam is a tad on the pricey side, still I'm sure you have bags of money :eek:

[Stephen Hanlon]

Hi Peter,

Just want to ask a question about the laserpro spirit...I am in discussions with a Qld distributer and am finalising the quotation for a Spirit GX. It is going to cost around $37,000...similar to the Epilog Helix, both 60W. Could you give me some feedback on the support you get for the GCC machine as this will be an important factor.

Regards, Stephen

[Mike Null]

Stephen

Where are you located? That price seems to be way out of line for the US.

[Dave Garcia]

Stephen,

For the record, I am not a rep for TroTec/Epilog/LCC LaserPro/Universal/Pinnacle etc, but before you buy a laser you owe it to youself to have a look at the TroTec line. And if you have any questions, send me a PM and I'll answer them there for you.

Dave Garcia :)
The Wood Block, Ltd

[Stephen Hanlon]

Hi Mike and Dave :D,

I am located in Australia, NSW. I have spoken to the local Trotec rep and the prices for the Speedy 300 are way too high....good machine, but currently out of my budget.