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Kev Williams
06-05-2017, 12:34 PM
Before I watch the monotone slow-motion Corel vid my BIL has explaining plate matrixing and print merging and such, gonna ask you Corel experts first--

The problem- I have 400 names that go on 400 individual glass awards. Normally Gravostyle makes this cake:
1- make the layout with the variable name
2- copy the names from the customer spreadsheet
3- paste the names into Gravostyle's spreadsheet in the correct variable column
4- create a 'matrix' of one plate x 400 layers
5- set engraving parameters, then choose the first 50 plates of the 400 (so as not to overrun the machine's memory), then hit "run"
-- GS will then send each job to the laser individually, automatically. The engraving sequence:
set award in position
hit START
Engrave
remove award
set next award in place
hit NEXT JOB
hit start--
etc---

One this setup is in place, virtually ANYone can run the 50 awards (leaving me to work on other stuff)

I've never gotten into Corel's matrix abilities- I tried once, the results were so frustrating I gave up trying, and normally I can just do this with Gravostyle...

However, glass engraving is the X factor here... simply put, to engrave glass, I MUST use photo mode and engrave 70 to 80% black (depending on the glass). And Gravostyle has only the basic 8 color palette to work with, so there's no way to change text to a percentage of black.

SO, I need to know if job auto-uploading is do-able with Corel? My BIL thinks so based on the videos's, but he's never done it--

This is like a due-in -3-days deal so I'm hoping so! Any help much appreciated! :)

BTW, I'm using X4....

Gary Hair
06-05-2017, 12:38 PM
Do a print merge and send the document to the laser - would work fine on my Trotec, not sure about your laser.

Bruce Clumpner
06-05-2017, 12:53 PM
I use print merge for trophy labels all the time, usually use the imposition utility in print-preview, but it will certainly work printing single page at a time. Just set up the merge with you text in a .csv file and use the merge wizard, merging to a new document. You can then edit individual names if any turn out too large. Just run a page at a time or the whole bunch, depending on how many jobs your laser's memory buffer will hold.

Tony Lenkic
06-05-2017, 1:21 PM
Bruce,

For a extra long names you can use envelope tool to force long name to auto condense for the length of envelope setup.
Check youtube video by Roy Brewer on how to.

Gary Hair
06-05-2017, 1:31 PM
Bruce,

For a extra long names you can use envelope tool to force long name to auto condense for the length of envelope setup.
Check youtube video by Roy Brewer on how to.

That video has saved me hours of work on several large label jobs!

Bruce Clumpner
06-05-2017, 1:35 PM
Thanks for the tip Tony, I'll be sure to look it up.

-bc

Kev Williams
06-05-2017, 2:01 PM
'do a print merge'-- as If I know how! ;)

The one time I tried learning, I did a full 12x24 sheet of name plates. Just a common logo and a name, easy enough.

I figured out how to insert the names from notepad, figured out the matrix, etc, then sent the job to the engraver...

Watched the first plate run, all seemed well,

First name entered was something like Scott Hill. Imagine my horror when come back to find out that the first name for some reason detirmined the max length of ALL the engraving, which meant nothing would engrave longer than "Scott Hill"... so the beginnings and ends of every longer name was simply chopped off.

--so I'm supposed to find the longest name and make sure it's first in line? Gee, what a remarkable program this is :mad:

This was back when I was just learning Corel 10. And by the next day I'd forgotten the ridiculous procedures just to get a name list and matrix.

I suspect things have changed a bit since then :) - regardless, because of Gravostyle, I've never needed to mess with Print Merge until now...

gonna try some things--

Ross Moshinsky
06-05-2017, 8:07 PM
You're never going to get the ease and functionality of Gravostyle out of Corel. So here's my advice.

1. Print the matrix as a PDF. Open it in Corel. Change the color on all the layers.

2. Instead of using black text, set it as blue. When run in photo mode this should create a dithering.

Kev Williams
06-05-2017, 8:28 PM
Hey Ross, never thought of trying a different 'actual' color since grays work so well. But then, I've never had to :) --I wonder if this might work with the Explorer?

I'll just experiment with the colors in GS-- If blue or another color does work well, I can just skip PDF's and Corel altogether! --I'm not after a row/column matrix as these things have to be clamped on an angle and done one at a time...

For what it's worth, I spent some time messing around in Corel with print-merge, and after figuring out the idiosyncrasies with it (like no copy/pasting a name list; the first line in a notepad file Corel considers the variable field name and not variable text, etc...) I DID figure out that it will do what I need done, which is, I get one different name per page, and the print driver will spool and send to the laser each page/name separately, all at once!

So I'm good to go on all fronts! Thanks everyone :D

Kev Williams
06-06-2017, 8:42 PM
Just to update-- plain old green worked best, and maybe better than any % of black I've ever tried! Blue and red did okay, just a little more banding going on. But all 3 colors prevented the massive (to me) fracturing I get with plain black...

Ross Moshinsky
06-06-2017, 11:24 PM
Just to update-- plain old green worked best, and maybe better than any % of black I've ever tried! Blue and red did okay, just a little more banding going on. But all 3 colors prevented the massive (to me) fracturing I get with plain black...

In the future, go into Corel/Illustrator and fill in the boxes with the RGB colors. Then convert the colors to grey scale.

Green for example is 41% black. Blue is 89%. Red is 70%. Magenta is 59%.

I still use 100% black with wet packing paper from JDS and get very consistent results.