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View Full Version : Software to drive a Chinese Fiber Galvo machine



Bruce Clumpner
12-28-2016, 6:29 PM
Being an Epilog owner, I've been spoiled with the ability to drive the machine directly out of Corel. With the price of the imported fibers hovering around $10K it's peaked my interest on picking one up, but wanted to figure out the software compatibility. I've been reading what I can here on the creek, but haven't seen a specific discussion on software.

Since most Chinese fibers are assembled by manufacturers from the same parts, what software drives these machines? Can any be natively driven by Corel? And if not what's the software work-flow to get a drawing into the machine for marking?

Thanks in advance.

-bc

Dave Sheldrake
12-28-2016, 6:49 PM
EzCad usually

Bill George
12-28-2016, 7:01 PM
Most use the same controller board and it seems to run with EZCAD 2.xx . There is a difference in power sources but they all seem to use the same one. I am sure the non Chinese fibers use something else and different software.
You export either a BMP or Vector out of Corel and Import into EZCAD. The Vectors still need to be Hatched to have filled letters. The software does a decent job at grey-scale jpg photos, but I need more time to learn. There are some experts on here and I will let them take over.

Rodne Gold
12-29-2016, 1:59 AM
Ezcad works quite well
$5k is the going price for a decent 20w fiber.. door to door..cheap enough to play with
You have to design slightly differently. You can engrave a line with width from corel to your epilog . You will not be able to use line thicknesses in EZcad .. you need to create a bounded entity with a hatch .. (which is the right way to design) so in expoirting to EZcad..you might have to amend the drawing to reflect this

Bruce Clumpner
12-29-2016, 11:44 AM
Thanks for the overview. Is Ezcad usually included with a machine, or is it a separate purchase? If it's a direct purchase, I'll pick up a copy to play with. I've seen hatching mentioned on the board, so Ezcad uses that as a "fill" for a defined trapezoid?

Gary Hair
12-29-2016, 12:13 PM
Thanks for the overview. Is Ezcad usually included with a machine, or is it a separate purchase? If it's a direct purchase, I'll pick up a copy to play with. I've seen hatching mentioned on the board, so Ezcad uses that as a "fill" for a defined trapezoid?

The software usually comes with the machine, as long as the machine is supplied with a computer. You can download it but you won't be able to save any files you create because it will be in demo mode without the dongle that comes with the system. When you get the software you can experiment with hatching and see how it works, and more importantly, how it doesn't work... On simple objects like text and single entity graphics, it does a great job. When you have overlapping objects, a Venn diagram for example, it can get confused and really screw things up. Sometimes strategically grouping objects together will give you the desired hatch effect, sometimes not. I can usually get the desired effect out of a very complex object by using SmartFill in Corel and exporting the results into an ai file that gets imported into ezcad - but again, sometimes not.

Kev Williams
12-29-2016, 1:44 PM
Aside from the silly way it manipulates basic text size and spacing parameters and the basics of rotary engraving, I've had no real issues with EZcad. And any text I don't like I can do in Corel first. :)

I DO like EZcad's variable text setup, especially considering Corel doesn't have one. (ok, I know it does, but by the time I get anything resembling a basic starting point figured out, EZcad or Gravostyle would done and on the machine working).

I HATE EZcad's rotary procedure. You can't make any engraving adjustments if you leave the 'rotary mark' menu, and if you make your adjustments and forget to go back and start the machine, you just screwed up your part...

Learning what each hatch routine is going to do is important. The 'blue connected' routine is much faster and more aggressive than the others, but it's movement is multi-directional and can leave visible seams. The 'blue/red/not-connected' routine is slower because it's movement is uni-directional, but that makes for great visual and 'actual' results. The best but slowest is the purely one-directional fill, where it not only moves only one direction, the laser only fires in one direction. It's the default routine for photo engraving. Then there's 'all-calc'. If you're uni cutting say, a fluer de lys within a circle that's within another circle, it will full-sweep all three objects individually, whereas all-calc will run sweep all 3 objects at the same time. But most times all-calc will waste time by scanning white space.

There's still a lot I haven't learned. Like, 'auto-rotate hatch angle'-- ???? anyone??

Neville Stewart
12-29-2016, 11:28 PM
350410
Auto rotate hatch angle adjusts by the chosen amount, it's keeps doing it by that increment and advances past 360 so you'll see some wild numbers, but it's just over stepping. If you chose 1 dg, it would eventually go to 361 and continue. I believe it's a way to get a "flat floor" when you're doing a multi level removal. Make sense?

Kev Williams
12-30-2016, 1:27 AM
Makes perfect sense, except that I've never been able to make it work!