Purpose of Bounding Box in Corel

[Jim Priest]

During initial training on my new Rayjet 300, my Trotec rep had me draw a rectangle around the item we were going to engrave. The training was fast and furious and happened several days ago and my recall of the steps is getting fuzzy, but worse, I'm struggling to get any results from my efforts.

I seem to recall he described the rectangle as a "bounding box" with parameters of "hairline" or "None" but I am confused about this. also I seem to recall we did the same thing but changed the color of the bounding box to red in Corel if we intended to cut the item out after engraving. Sequencing of the engrave then cut operations was established in the RayJet Commander interface.

Is this bounding box needed to be in place for each and every drawing sent to the laser regardless of it being a cut vs engrave operation?

[Mike Null]

Jim

I have not operated a Rayjet but on the machines I have operated the box is not necessary. I suspect he was trying to put the image to be engraved on a plate then that plate would go to the machine thus avoiding the need for the machine to scan the entire table prior to engraving. On my machine I rarely change my table size or use "plates" instead I use the "selection only" option in Corel and minimize to job size.

RGB red hairline is the vector cut line for most machines. RGB is the color palette for most lasers as well and Rayjet probably has their own RGB palette with their driver.

[Jerome Stanek]

I like the bounding box as if the item is centered it is easier to get it located on the piece.

[Robert Walters]

Jim,

A red hairline (by most people) has been established as the "norm" for a CUT operation by the laser.
When you see a red hairline in artwork (CDR files), it usually means that where the material will be cut.

This is also a "bounding box" that you could setup just to align the artwork to the material in the machine.
Like if you have a full sized piece of material, and you only cut out pieces from it once in while and need to align the new artwork to a fresh spot on the material.

You said "I'm struggling to get any results from my efforts." but you never actually said what you are trying to do specifically?

Are you currently trying to engrave something, then cut it out from a piece of material?

Can you post the CDR file so people can see what you have so far?

[Robert Tepper]

Hi Jim,

Yes, you will need a red box around anything you do to raster engrave. Set the box at a hairline width and make the color red. Use the left side bar on your Corel X6 to perform this task.

On your Rayjet software, set the red to SKIP. This tells the machine where you want to engrave, what area on the material. The box is necessary. Setting the red control to SKIP, will allow you to engrave and the machine will not make a vector cutout. I realize you just received your machine and I can tell you from personal experience, it is quite overwhelming in the beginning and very frustrating. All of us are here to help and we will do all we can to answer your questions. Since I have the same machine, I sent you by private message my factory phone number, Call when you have problems and I will help with what I can. Remember, Trotec has excellent customer support. They can connect directly to your computer and see exactly what you see.

Relax, it will work out,
Robert

[Robert Walters]

Hi Jim,

Yes, you will need a red box around anything you do to raster engrave. Set the box at a hairline width and make the color red. Use the left side bar on your Corel X6 to perform this task.

On your Rayjet software, set the red to SKIP. This tells the machine where you want to engrave, what area on the material. The box is necessary. Setting the red control to SKIP, will allow you to engrave and the machine will not make a vector cutout.


Robert,

Just curious, WHY is it required?

It seems a bit unusual to have to create a bounding box instead of just selecting what you want to engrave.
Also, why RED? Red has (typically) meant CUT, seems it might toss in some ambiguity in artwork.

"Do they mean red to cut, or red to 'engrave this area', or both?" if sharing artwork.

[Dan Hintz]

Cut down on machine time trying to engrave open air... Steve posted a nice video a few weeks back that covered some useful topics in this area.

[Robert Walters]

Cut down on machine time trying to engrave open air...


Sure, but how is that different than "engrave SELECTED objects"?

[Robert Tepper]

I posted some wrong information the other night. A red line is not required around the area to be engraved.

The Rayjet Commander software is different then the Speedy software which I am not familiar with.

Sorry for the mistake.

Robert