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John Lifer
04-05-2017, 12:54 PM
Ok, So I've got the rotary working pretty well, Darn EzCad could be EZier to use with the rotary, but what the heck it is Chinese.

Now I'm trying to get a BMP, JPG or other image to laser while using the rotary.
I have done flat and it works well, inverse, etc. But even though I can import an image and see and select the image, it doesn't light or laser.
What Am I Missing? Using RotaryMark, nothing else works either.

Any help?
Thanks

John Lifer
04-05-2017, 1:10 PM
Ok, maybe I'm dumb......
Looks like I must save as DXF, and import as a vector image.
It worked, but how messed up is that?

Neville Stewart
04-05-2017, 1:25 PM
The opposite of what I would have said too. So its just file naming, not actually converting the bitmap top a vector image?

Gary Hair
04-05-2017, 1:28 PM
I'm not at my machine right now, but you have to use a different plugin for graphics than text. I believe the graphics one will do both but the text one won't. Pretty sure RotaryMark is the one for text.

John Lifer
04-05-2017, 4:13 PM
HMMM. Gary, I don't have anything else there that will do a graphic. Looking at youtubes, it looks like RotaryMark was used. But these are all older version of the software. And 2.12.12 is different. Neville, to get it to work, I use Corel, brought image in, saved as DXF. and then imported into excad.
I tried exporting to bmp, jpg from Corel, and none would laser. I could import, and see on screen, but nothing would make it laser.

John Kleiber
04-05-2017, 5:30 PM
HMMM. Gary, I don't have anything else there that will do a graphic. Looking at youtubes, it looks like RotaryMark was used. But these are all older version of the software. And 2.12.12 is different. Neville, to get it to work, I use Corel, brought image in, saved as DXF. and then imported into excad.
I tried exporting to bmp, jpg from Corel, and none would laser. I could import, and see on screen, but nothing would make it laser.

RotaryMark is for both text and graphics.
If your laser is just dancing and nothing seems to be happening, check your hatch angle. It should be 180 deg.


-John

John Lifer
04-05-2017, 6:03 PM
Nope, not dancing, won't light, won't do anything with a graphic.... I've imported same as flat and tried with and without hatching.(without hatching by using dither gray or inverse) works fine flatwork. RotaryMark won't work. Hmm. I'm going to go play some more.

John Kleiber
04-05-2017, 6:40 PM
Nope, not dancing, won't light, won't do anything with a graphic.... I've imported same as flat and tried with and without hatching.(without hatching by using dither gray or inverse) works fine flatwork. RotaryMark won't work. Hmm. I'm going to go play some more.

So I understand you correctly;

You have a single vector file.
Hatching is 180 deg.

Before you go into Laser>RotaryMark, press Origin, wait for the head to get to home.
Make sure your part height and focus and base are set correctly.
Press RED(F1) and wait for head to set focus distance.
Square your laser on the item in rotary dead center.
Select Laser>RotaryMark, F3 and enter part diameter, also my Distance per is 5.00 and Split size 0.05 and press Apply.

Press Mark


Is the height of the part while mounted in the rotary no greater in height than other parts you have had mounted flat?
Sometimes I mount parts that are too tall in height and as a result, the laser will not fire.

I believe the problem ultimately is in the fact that a raster graphic does not interpret at all to the rotary. The image I think must be vector for the laser to compute the line split.

I just finished marking a test piece with a vector file, no problem. Tried the same thing with a bmp file and no laser fire.

-John

John Lifer
04-05-2017, 10:03 PM
You got it, I'm not using vector file! So I guess I'll convert the images to vector before I try and rotary them. Nothing I read in "manual" for ezcad mentioned image processing on the a rotary, just flat. But one of you guys mentioned this at some point in the past, can't process split lines is the key, you mentioning it again rings the bell! Thanks John!

Bill George
04-06-2017, 9:20 AM
On my somewhat limited experience with the rotary I swear I did a BMP image. Is it highlighted and when you do the Light positioning does it show the rectangle?

John Lifer
04-06-2017, 3:15 PM
NOPE, not unless it is a VECTOR BMP! I hit F1 and F2 and NOTHING happens. What confused me so badly was that I could SEE the image. Select and open RotaryMark and there it was! Selected and everything....
BUT, It just won't laser! Any other drawn image, or text works fine. oh well, run thru corel and convert to DXF and it works

John Kleiber
04-06-2017, 5:26 PM
On my somewhat limited experience with the rotary I swear I did a BMP image. Is it highlighted and when you do the Light positioning does it show the rectangle?

Bill, I don't know what John L's shows, however on my EZCAD, I only see the frame when flatbed mode, not rotary. Once I press Laser>LaserMark, the square turns into a long red dot that really does not line up at all.

-John

Kev Williams
04-06-2017, 10:36 PM
When you load a bitmap, hatch filling is disabled.... sort of. You can enter hatch filling, once you do the image vanishes. Undo Hatch brings it back.

With vector graphics, every line you see (that you choose to engrave), a galvo steered laser tracks and engraves it. That's all it does. Hatch filling produces those lines within the outlines.

With a bitmap, just throw in any photo... you can choose to work with grayscale or black/white bitmap.
-with a grayscale bitmap you can edit the pic's lighting, size, and you can invert it to negative, etc...
-with a dithered bitmap you can do all of the above, and change the DPI (default is 300 on mine).
When engraving a bitmap, it follows no lines, instead it raster engraves from the bottom-up, and engraves left to right only, The laser simply fires on black, doesn't fire on white...
As for grayscale firing, I don't know for sure but I believe the software simply changes the grays into its own 2-color pulse pattern internally,
otherwise the laser would have to be capable of adjusting power output on the fly-- I'm thinking these machines ain't that sofistikated... ;)

SO-- for fun, I tried every way I know to get it to engrave a bitmap in rotary mode, and nothing happens. The pic comes into the Rotary Mark window, and the red X-box shows the engraving area same as it does with a graphic, but won't engrave...

So Gary, how does one acquire the plugin it seems we need? :)

John Lifer
04-06-2017, 10:52 PM
Earlier version, that won't work with my driver had a RotaryMark2, not in my version, it might work, but have no idea.

Jesse Wheeler
04-07-2017, 2:19 PM
Try changing your hatch angle to 90 or 270. When you have your image sliced up into .05 increments, the hatch needs to run perpendicular to those slices.