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Bert Kemp
11-14-2016, 10:52 AM
I have a large design with lots of little designs with in and keep getting this error. I know what it means. My question is. Is there an easy way to find the open line. It will take me hours to zoom in on every detail looking for it.

Richard Rumancik
11-14-2016, 11:41 AM
In CorelDraw, click on the open path, then select Arrange -> close path -> closest nodes with straight lines. (Other options might work okay too.) If there is an open path (say .001" gap) this would close it with a straight segment. This is in X4; the menu in X5 might be slightly different.

Bert Kemp
11-14-2016, 11:52 AM
I don't see an option for open path, where would I find that?



In CorelDraw, click on the open path, then select Arrange -> close path -> closest nodes with straight lines. (Other options might work okay too.) If there is an open path (say .001" gap) this would close it with a straight segment. This is in X4; the menu in X5 might be slightly different.

Kev Williams
11-14-2016, 12:10 PM
It's "close path", and it's at the bottom of the ARRANGE tab

Bert Kemp
11-14-2016, 2:57 PM
I have join curves in that spot guess it means the same thing, but it didn't work.:( I've decided to vector cut the lines instead of engrave it. Will save me a bunch of hassle trying to figure out why only part will engrave and not the rest.
Thank you all for the help.


It's "close path", and it's at the bottom of the ARRANGE tab

Kev Williams
11-14-2016, 4:40 PM
My new version Lasersoft has a 'data detection' routine that can find open contours and stuff--
347460
--how well it works is anyone's guess, I did try it on a graphic awhile back, but it was real complicated, and was finding open spots that Corel said weren't open. Sooooo... ;)

If you want to post up the Corel or DXF file, I can see if it'll help! (I'm using x4)

Jerome Stanek
11-14-2016, 6:16 PM
If you post a dxf I have a couple of programs that can show open vectors

Bert Kemp
11-14-2016, 6:28 PM
If you look at the picture you can see what engraved, the whole top should have engraved:confused:
347477347478
I cut the rest just to get it done, Kinda like it this way but still would like to know why it didn't engrave




My new version Lasersoft has a 'data detection' routine that can find open contours and stuff--
347460
--how well it works is anyone's guess, I did try it on a graphic awhile back, but it was real complicated, and was finding open spots that Corel said weren't open. Sooooo... ;)

If you want to post up the Corel or DXF file, I can see if it'll help! (I'm using x4)

Mike Clarke
11-14-2016, 9:18 PM
I have a large design with lots of little designs with in and keep getting this error. I know what it means. My question is. Is there an easy way to find the open line. It will take me hours to zoom in on every detail looking for it.

For clarification are you saying the parts won't fill in Corel or is it just not engraving.

What I do is try to fill the shape as the test. From the pic It looks like I would start with ungrouping the piece not filling and see If I could isolate which ones are open.
I will download the file & look at it tomorrow. It is hard to say without doing that.

Kev Williams
11-14-2016, 10:09 PM
347496

Fixed it-- But not with Corel..

Funny thing, the pattern has lots of open connections, but simply opening your job in Corel and dumping it straight into my Lasersoft, it painted perfect as was ready to go, no typical errors, and when I checked for unclosed segments, it came up zero... which is weird!
347497

In Corel I found your outline pattern wasn't connected anywhere. Corel outlined it fine, I saved the now-one-piece outline and threw out the broken lines. However, trying to outline all the inner segments was an exercise in futility. It refused to 'batch' outline anything if I grouped everything. Sometimes it would outline a small batch of a few pieces, but sometimes grouping only 2 items, it would NOT outline either of them, but it WOULD outline them separately... (this is one of my peeves with Corel, as this makes NO sense to me!)

I could've hunt & pecked, but that's what you were doing, and I didn't want to either! ;)

Enter Gravostyle-- I exported it all as a DXF, and imported it in Gravostyle, which gives me "connect" and "link" options, where it will automatically connect open segments. Sometimes this doesn't work, but on this pattern it worked flawlessly. I DID change the default connect-to distances, increased the space that it would still connect, maybe that was the trick. Whatever, it worked great! After the import I found it painted perfect... So I re-exported it as a DXF again and put it back in Corel... The result is in the link above, I'm using Corel x4. I did 3 versions of it, all outlines, all combined and painted (including the border) and inside parts only combined and painted (excluded the border)...

Wish I could figure out how to make Corel do this!

Bert Kemp
11-15-2016, 9:50 AM
Kev your one awesome dude, the time you put into helping is beyond words, can't thank you enough:)http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/happy/happy-clap.gif.

347496

Fixed it-- But not with Corel..

Funny thing, the pattern has lots of open connections, but simply opening your job in Corel and dumping it straight into my Lasersoft, it painted perfect as was ready to go, no typical errors, and when I checked for unclosed segments, it came up zero... which is weird!
347497

In Corel I found your outline pattern wasn't connected anywhere. Corel outlined it fine, I saved the now-one-piece outline and threw out the broken lines. However, trying to outline all the inner segments was an exercise in futility. It refused to 'batch' outline anything if I grouped everything. Sometimes it would outline a small batch of a few pieces, but sometimes grouping only 2 items, it would NOT outline either of them, but it WOULD outline them separately... (this is one of my peeves with Corel, as this makes NO sense to me!)

I could've hunt & pecked, but that's what you were doing, and I didn't want to either! ;)

Enter Gravostyle-- I exported it all as a DXF, and imported it in Gravostyle, which gives me "connect" and "link" options, where it will automatically connect open segments. Sometimes this doesn't work, but on this pattern it worked flawlessly. I DID change the default connect-to distances, increased the space that it would still connect, maybe that was the trick. Whatever, it worked great! After the import I found it painted perfect... So I re-exported it as a DXF again and put it back in Corel... The result is in the link above, I'm using Corel x4. I did 3 versions of it, all outlines, all combined and painted (including the border) and inside parts only combined and painted (excluded the border)...

Wish I could figure out how to make Corel do this!

Joseph Shawa
11-15-2016, 11:08 AM
I know you've already solved the problem, but wouldn't it just be simple to convert the file to a .JPG with a clear background and engrave it like you would any other picture?

ust asking.

Bert Kemp
11-15-2016, 7:37 PM
I don't think that would work for several reasons.



I know you've already solved the problem, but wouldn't it just be simple to convert the file to a .JPG with a clear background and engrave it like you would any other picture?

ust asking.

Mike Clarke
11-15-2016, 8:56 PM
I don't think that would work for several reasons.

Correct

What I saw with the Pieces that wouldn't fill was that they were 2 separate paths. So I had to weld the 2 paths, fill with color, (color fill does not work yet), auto close, (now color fill kicks in), then join nodes. That is all that needed to be done . . . times a 100 or so repetitions. Over all not bad artwork just not completed as needed.

Good to find an automated method.

Bill Reibelt
11-16-2016, 4:38 AM
Hi Bert; Just downloaded the top and found open vectors.
I highlighted the complete drawing went to Join Curves with the tick removed and then hit apply.
Nearly all the vectors closed there is one that I found 2nd or 3rd down from the left that would not close. There was a smaller line joining it but would not join, Clicked the Break Apart command and then highlighted both points again and clicked join worked fine. Sorry I can not send the corrected file as I am getting a virus warning from the file.

Joseph Shawa
11-16-2016, 10:37 AM
I don't think that would work for several reasons.

I guess that depends on what the image looked like when you exported it. But just for fun, because I really know little about engraving, could you elaborate?

Bert Kemp
11-16-2016, 11:36 AM
Hey Bill how goes the battle . thanks for looking at it. I could not see any open lines but I'll look again .


Hi Bert; Just downloaded the top and found open vectors.
I highlighted the complete drawing went to Join Curves with the tick removed and then hit apply.
Nearly all the vectors closed there is one that I found 2nd or 3rd down from the left that would not close. There was a smaller line joining it but would not join, Clicked the Break Apart command and then highlighted both points again and clicked join worked fine. Sorry I can not send the corrected file as I am getting a virus warning from the file.

Bert Kemp
11-16-2016, 11:40 AM
A bit map files engrave differently then a vectored design. everthing in a bitmap is one layer and engraves as such you can't seperate things like a vector image. in a vector image you can make some things darker or lighter if you want , you can cut lines then engrave that same area , can't do that with a jpeg. Plus if the jpeg is blurry, not shot dead on it won't engrave the same.


I guess that depends on what the image looked like when you exported it. But just for fun, because I really know little about engraving, could you elaborate?

Kev Williams
11-16-2016, 12:45 PM
The outline is the cutout path, so it can't be in photo form. However, the outline could be moved/removed before changing the interior into bitmap/photo form.

But then, the original problem still comes into play, which is it won't paint correctly due to all the opens. Corel WILL paint it, and much better than Lasercut did, but it's still not right--

This is how Corel paints this when I group the middle and combine-
it's almost all okay, but not the items along 4 'corners' of the oval,
Corel closed the lines how it thought best just to paint, and those items are hollow-
347674
This is what they should look like- I had to manually move and outline them,
and move them back. Painted them red to highlight them...
347673

And this was interesting, when I clicked on the combined group and had
Corel UNcombine, this was the result...
347672
--exactly what Bert was able to engrave the first time-- I was surprised that these sections stayed painted.
But as it turns out, those are the only sections that are actually closed, that's why they stayed painted.

Corel "closes" designs for the purpose of painting, but doesn't actually join the open areas.
LaserCut and others treats all opens as open, period, it won't 'artificially' paint-

My point being, these same issues will come up when converting this to bitmap/photo form. If there was
an original in bitmap form before it was converted to DXF, then it would likely engrave fine as a bitmap.
The only issue then would be vectorizing the outline...

Joseph Shawa
11-16-2016, 2:06 PM
Thanks, Bert. I didn't consider that more than simple engraving was going on.