Coreldraw x7 vector image to RDWorks v8 question

[Brett Winston]

Hello all, I finally got my Chinese laser and can say that it has far exceeded my expectations. My previous post with concerns about the quality engraving of small text on wood has been definitively answered now and I am elated with the resolution. OK, on to the question...

I am designing in Corel X7 then sending the resultant vector image over to RDWorks v8.01.11 using the plugin with the intent of engraving the image but am having no luck (also tried saving and importing with the same results).

My graphic has just a few simple objects each with it's own color. Once selected, I click the RDWorks plugin icon and the graphic is sent to RDWorks but the image colors are lost and all I have are the vector "curves". I would expect to see individual layers in RDWorks that I could then configure with engraving parameters, i.e., "scan" rather than "cut", speed, power, etc. No joy. Can anyone tell me what step I'm missing? If I save the corel file as a bitmap then I can engrave but find it tedious to create very small graphics as bitmaps and get the resolution I desire from the laser. Here are the steps represented in screenshots. It's early, I hope I provided enough info...

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[Bill Carruthers]

Brett - Briefly, what you have to do select the parts that you want to print and assign them a colour (from the bottom row of layer colours) and set that colour's property to scan rather than cut - you may have to "ungroup" the graphic in RDworks in order to do that.

[Kev Williams]

Simply put: you can't do it like that! ;) The problem is, you have overlapping closed graphics, creating intersections, which are being welded together and combined by default. You have to do all the welding and combining beforehand in Corel...

I'm not sure what you're trying to engrave (or not engraved) based on the colored Corel sample-- is the text to be full-black, outlined only, or is everything BUT the text to be engraved (aka 'in relief')?

Another issue, the black oval outline- you have it drawn very 'fat' in Corel, but it's simply a line in RD- Sending outlines thickened in Corel to Chinese software only sends the primary outline, no "thickening" data. If you want a thick outline, you must create and offset a second outline that can be color filled.

Here's a quickie lesson on what needs done-

Here's sorta what you started with, oval outline and rectangle outline are overlapping
344551

What I did was went into the 'contour tool' and created second outlines.
Note they still overlap, we'll fix that later. Now, each pair of outlines needs to be 'combined'
so Corel knows each pair of outlines constitutes a closed graphic and can paint them.
344550

---and when paint filled, look like this--
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I'm now in wireframe mode, I've selected both pairs of outlines, then selected the correct "weld" function.
note that the rectangle is now 'by itself', but the bottom half of the oval still exists.
This is because Corel has welded the rectangle separate from the oval...
(since the text was not selected in the weld routine, it was ignored and is still separate from all else)
344553

I've moved the oval up so you can see that it has been cut. However, the
two sections are still combined to each other.
344555

So all you have to do is to un-combine them-- and do this in wireframe mode or the oval will
completely fill black- then click on the lower section and simply delete it,
it will look like this, and this is what will get sent to RDworks.
344556

And when painted (or engraved), this will be the result
344554
note in the wireframe above, the rectangle and oval are butted
together and work fine as is, and can actually be painted different colors.
But they can also be welded into a single closed graphic, to look like this...
344557

===================
Now, I've explained the operations that you need to do in Corel, 'weld', 'combine', etc--
But (1) I don't have time to expound on each operation,
and (2) learning how to do them is half the fun! :)

Hope this helps...

[Bert Kemp]

Kev I for one and I'm sure many others really appreciate the time and effort you put in to teaching us things. The drawing and details of your explanation really help. I don't know how you find the time, with so many machines and a business to run every day. Kudos's to you Kev.

[Brett Winston]

Hope this helps...

YES! It certainly does. Thank you for taking the time to write all of that out and provide examples. I went through it several times and now have a better understanding of how things work in Corel. I haven't had a chance to send my (your) new example to the engraver yet but it seems logical that it would work. Still much to learn - you don't know what you don't know :)

-Brett

[Kev Williams]

I just noticed the last pic with the outlines fully welded didn't "take" for some reason- I'm on the wrong computer at the moment but I'll try to get that fixed! :)