Corel 13 outline pen

[Kev Williams]

I do a lot of Rowmark on my Univeral (NH Optima 25w) and NH LS900 (40w). The new laser tube I put in the ULS a few years ago has a fatter beam spot than the 900. This becomes a problem when I'm running both machines to do pieces for the same job, which I'm doing today. The engraving is quite small, .060 to .090" tall text, and lots of it. The ULS beam is perfect when using Arial bold. The 900 lettering is very noticeably narrower. So to get the 900 lettering to match, I need to thicken it up.

Enter Corel's "Outline tool". In the default "points" incrementation, the options are none, hairline, .5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, etc... Now, if you choose any other incrementation value, like inches, the increments are identical, just factored differently...

Now, should you need something other than a default option, you simply type in the new number. And Voila, there you go.

However-- Any manually entered increment below .5 points doesn't engrave that way, it engraves with no added thickness at all. The thickness shows up on the screen, but not on the work. Hairline and "none" make no difference either, even though hairlined text shows up on the screen much thicker. Probably just to let you know it IS hairlined.

Now, manually entered increments ABOVE .5 points DOES show up on the work. There's definite, noticeable thickness differences between .6, .8, and 1.0 points.

So why doesn't it work below .5? The problem is, a .5 outline on a .06" character is WAY too fat! If I enter .3, I get no added thickness...

THAT ALL SAID- My BIL and I just tested this issue with his Corel 14, and, no issue! I ran a .1, .2, .3, .4 and .5 outline test and every version engraved as entered!

So, the easy fix is to get Corel 14--- But I'm just wondering if anyone else has this problem? And, is there maybe a fix for 13? I'd just as soon fix my 13 as have to start up a new version...

Thanks in advance, hope I made sense! :)

[Mike Null]

The only patch listed (still available) is here. ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/CorelDRAWGraphicsSuiteX3/

[Dee Gallo]

I was always under the impression that anything under .5 points will vector only, never raster. So this is a new and interesting topic!

[Kev Williams]

Cool, I'll see if it works! :)

[Kev Williams]

:( -- patch didn't help...

I took pics of the test plate, I wasn't intending on taking pics so forgive the mess it is-- but it does show the problem (along with my machine needing a new belt but that's another story!)

OK, to explain:
the first test was with Corel 13, from left (or top), and the 'point' numbers that I entered. You can see that there's no change at all with .2, .3 or .4. But .5 comes in like gangbusters. But afterwards, .7 and .9 are obviously progressively thicker...
the second test, which kinda overlapped the first, with Corel 14 starts where the point numbers are entered below. You can see that each set of letters DOES get a bit thicker.

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/ol1.jpg



And I did a closeup of just the T's, this pic is Corel 13, first 3 T's identical--

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/ol2.jpg


and Corel 14, each T gets barely, but noticeably thicker--- which is exactly what I need!

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/0l3.jpg

=======================

I installed the patch and it didn't help the thickness issue unfortunately. So it looks like I'll be running Corel 14 soon!

[Ross Moshinsky]

Convert the stroke to paths/outlines. It will solve your problem. May not be the best answer, but it will work.

Note: I don't use Corel, but so the wording I'm using may be slightly different than what is used in Corel.

Also, you could produce the files in Gravostyle using their stroke option. Then send it to your lasers. You may or may not have to print as a PDF as an interim step.

[Dan Hintz]

For the longest time, the major brand laser drivers considered anything 0.5 and below the same as hairline... if that is no longer the case, there's only two possible causes: 1) The driver has changed, or 2) Corel has changed how they define line widths in their file format. I'd be interested in hearing the eventual cause.

[Kev Williams]

Ross, I've tried every imaginable option for curves, lines, ouitlines, etc, and what I've found is Corel 13 won't thicken ANY object (at the machine end) until the .5 point threshold. Corel 14 works, with no other changes.

As for Gravostyle, yup, I can thicken up virtually anything in .0001" increments! It's wonderful! BUT- at this time (and for while now) I've had a firmware (or so NH thinks?) issue with the LS900, but only when I use Gravostyle. Corel works fine? It's a long story, but until someone figures out this problem I have send jobs to the laser via Corel.

The only other way to thicken up anything is to outline it in Casmate or Gravo. And Casmate is more 'forgiving'. And either is just more time spent I don't have!

[Ross Moshinsky]

Ross, I've tried every imaginable option for curves, lines, ouitlines, etc, and what I've found is Corel 13 won't thicken ANY object (at the machine end) until the .5 point threshold. Corel 14 works, with no other changes.

As for Gravostyle, yup, I can thicken up virtually anything in .0001" increments! It's wonderful! BUT- at this time (and for while now) I've had a firmware (or so NH thinks?) issue with the LS900, but only when I use Gravostyle. Corel works fine? It's a long story, but until someone figures out this problem I have send jobs to the laser via Corel.

The only other way to thicken up anything is to outline it in Casmate or Gravo. And Casmate is more 'forgiving'. And either is just more time spent I don't have!

When you convert a stroke to a path, there is no longer a stroke associated with the text. This will 100% work.

As for sending jobs from Gravostyle, why not print as a PDF and then print from Adobe Acrobat or something like that? That again should work no problem. Printing from Corel and printing from Adobe Acrobat should be the same thing.

[Kev Williams]

The only Adobe program I have is "reader", which my lasers think is a photograph, which I have no control of. One small portion of the job I'm talking about above involves 3" x approx. 10" plates consisting of 38 individual rows separated by a line, each row consisting 3 columns x 2 rows of specifically placed text, plus a light vector cut of the plate's outline for shearing. I don't know that I can trust a converted-to-PDF image to keep the needed tolerance. Does give me something to experiment with!

And forgive my lack of terminology knowledge, but I don't know what 'stroke to path' translates to in Corel-eze.. ;)