Corel Power Clip-Gantry Images

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Gang;
I have a Gantry-type 3D image (gun grip checkering) which rasters fine by itself. When I use power clip in Coreldraw (X4) on the image and place it inside a container (pistol handle) the result rasters weird-see pics.286231286232Ist image is result ans 2nd is Corel image sent to laser.
Is there something about 3d-Gantry type images thatwon't allow power clipping or do I have something screwed up?
Thanks
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Mark Sipes]

Can you attached/send us the corel file so we can run as is and see if the laser may be interpeting an error?

[Mike Null]

George

A stab in the dark----try saving the file as a pdf and opening it in Corel.

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Mike;
Sure-here ya go286235

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Hi George, I had a spare moment so I ran your file on my X6 Epligo Mini 45-watt. I only engraved about 1" worth of the two graphics and they both engraved with diamonds. Have you tried the simple step of rebooting your computer?

[Bert Kemp]

Hi George I also Ran it and it was fine.286236

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Guys;
Mike, Mark, Mike, Bert-thanks for your help.
I rebooted computer-same result
I sent file from different computer-same result
I changed file to all bitmap-engraved fine!
Very strange-also file takes a long time to get to laser -not normal
This needs more investigation and perhaps a few beers to assist in the investigative process.
Will advise results-thanks
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Hopefully someone using X4 can test this out and see if they can duplicate the problem. This is very odd that you can engrave the PNG file "normal" but once you powerclip it, it engraves wonky. Also odd that it takes a long time to send to the laser. What happens if you try powerclipping just 1 PNG file instead of 4?

Is this the first time you engraved that PNG powerclipped? If it worked before, the last thought is to power off the engraver AND computers and then power them up and see if it works after that.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

I use power clip with grip engravings on our Epilog. Have you successfully used power clip in the past? Can you "convert to bitmap" the power clipped art and then do a test run?

[Mike Null]

George

My results were the same using X5. I did run mine using standard mode and then using the relief mode in JCX. There is quite a difference. The 3d effect is apparent. (sorry about the picture quality, the battery is down in my Sony and the Blackberry just doesn't quite do it)

286240286241

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Guys;
This is getting weirder and weirder.
There is something about this file that the laser does not like. The checker pattern I am using is a multiple of the one Mike Chance posted a week or so ago along with another pattern. It is a PNG file-which I imported into X4 and doubled its width and height-same diamond size but twice as wide and twice as long-dup and move together. I haven't tried Mike Hull's suggestion of converting the png to a pdf and importing that to Corel but I will.
I haven't done much powerclipping in the past but appears simple enough. If you look at the initial thread engraving pic it appears as if the laser is engraving a much enlarged image of the png.
If I convert the image to a bitmap it works fine. I will try to power clip the other png Mike had in the thread about checkering and will try Mike Null's suggestion. Thanks to all for responses and suggestions.

[Jerry Allen]

Try this:
Tools menu/Options/Global/Printing/Driver Compatibility/
Then select the laser machine you have,i.e., Mercury, Laserpro, etc.
Then enable the check mark for "Use Software Clipping for Fills",
and then click the Okay button.
Corel Draw will remember the setting.



Hi Guys;
This is getting weirder and weirder.
There is something about this file that the laser does not like. The checker pattern I am using is a multiple of the one Mike Chance posted a week or so ago along with another pattern. It is a PNG file-which I imported into X4 and doubled its width and height-same diamond size but twice as wide and twice as long-dup and move together. I haven't tried Mike Hull's suggestion of converting the png to a pdf and importing that to Corel but I will.
I haven't done much powerclipping in the past but appears simple enough. If you look at the initial thread engraving pic it appears as if the laser is engraving a much enlarged image of the png.
If I convert the image to a bitmap it works fine. I will try to power clip the other png Mike had in the thread about checkering and will try Mike Null's suggestion. Thanks to all for responses and suggestions.

[Martin James]

For 3d I recomend the .BMP format, which is 256 shades of gray. PNG can have lots of colors plus transparency. If the power clip command is the same as "paste into" like in photoshop, than the result is several live layers that you could later move or change independently. That means more info for your program to sort out.

Me I would make one layer of the outline for vector cutting, then screenshot the grayscale, save as .BMP and paste that behind.

some programs think that there is a difference between bitmap and grayscale. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/choose-the-correct-photoshop-mode-bitmap-and-grays.html

cheers Marty