PDA

View Full Version : scrollsaw images for laser



V.A Melle
08-12-2006, 5:36 PM
Hi everyone- sorry I didnt introduce myself on the first post. I'm Valerie Melle and I'm new here and Thank you for all the info- great forum! thanks also to Dennis and Jeanette for the post on patterns on cd. And Barbara for the bookmark designs.

So a few months ago I purchased a Laserpro spirit 30- and Im having a blast. Im all the way here on Kauai a little pebble in the ocean:) I've been producing little gifts- candle holders, ornaments, etc for the upcoming fairs and product shows.

I do have a few questions: has anyone ever purchased the laser manual with corel tips by Mike Clarke on Laserbits? if so is it worth it? for some reason they charge $ 50 to ship the book to Hawaii. does anyone have a spare copy or one not in use they want to sell?

And I went to Berry basket and purchased a few scrollsaw design patterns-can anyone tell me how to get those images and use them for a laser project?
Please help me if I'm wrong. I can scan them and resize it as an image. correct? is there a better way? what if I wanted to modify the picture. What is the process? Anyone want to help me on a file?
Thanks everyone!

Linda Tetreault
08-12-2006, 8:22 PM
If you downloaded the designs from Berry Basket, just convert the cutlines to hairline & they're ready to go. It works the same if you bought the CD's.

Linda

Doug McIntyre
08-13-2006, 6:16 AM
Berry Basket files are usually in .pdf format and can consist of several pages, some text and some with parts of the drawings.

To import into Corel use the 'Import' from the file menu and select the .pdf file type. When you find the file you want to import and action it you will see that the page numbers of the .pdf document come up in a dialog box. Choose the page with the drawing if you know what you want to import or choose all pages if you want to just take everything into Corel. A separate page will be created in Corel for each .pdf page you choose.

When you have the required drawing in Corel, treat it as any other piece of clipart you would work on i.e. ungroup the image, delete unwanted text, change lines to hairline etc. If required, cut and paste multiple images into a 'master' page for the laser and delete the unwanted (ex .pdf) pages before sending to the laser.

That's the basic (and very easy) instructions, unfortunately, larger Berry Basket drawings sometimes overlap to more than one page and require 'welding' together - a different ball game.

Jim A. Walters
08-13-2006, 10:32 AM
Bound printed matter is the cheapest way to ship ANYTHING. Somehow in the old days, magazine and book publishers leveraged the postal service to give them their own rate to ship their materials.
A 3# book from Indiana to Hawaii is only $3.25. I don't understand why the shipping cost is so much. There is no customs paperwork involved, just normal postage. Maybe you should call them, complain, then look elsewhere for the book. You might try searching with google?

Dave Jones
08-13-2006, 1:41 PM
Shipping anything via FedEx or UPS to your area is quite expensive. Contact Laserbits and see if they'll ship it via the post office. That's a lot cheaper.

I shipped a small 3 lb package to Kauai last year and the cheapest UPS service was $35. US Priority mail was $9.

Brian Chambers
08-15-2006, 8:11 PM
Hi everyone- sorry I didnt introduce myself on the first post. I'm Valerie Melle and I'm new here and Thank you for all the info- great forum! thanks also to Dennis and Jeanette for the post on patterns on cd. And Barbara for the bookmark designs.

So a few months ago I purchased a Laserpro spirit 30- and Im having a blast. Im all the way here on Kauai a little pebble in the ocean:) I've been producing little gifts- candle holders, ornaments, etc for the upcoming fairs and product shows.

I do have a few questions: has anyone ever purchased the laser manual with corel tips by Mike Clarke on Laserbits? if so is it worth it? for some reason they charge $ 50 to ship the book to Hawaii. does anyone have a spare copy or one not in use they want to sell?

And I went to Berry basket and purchased a few scrollsaw design patterns-can anyone tell me how to get those images and use them for a laser project?
Please help me if I'm wrong. I can scan them and resize it as an image. correct? is there a better way? what if I wanted to modify the picture. What is the process? Anyone want to help me on a file?
Thanks everyone!
Valerie
Regarding Mike Clarke's Corel book.
I bought it a few weeks ago, direct from Mike. It came in a three ring binder and was well worth the money I paid, about $150.00C, once you get used to his writting style. It is updated for X3 and available through his website at engrave.ca. He sells Epilog lasers in Canada so it has more Epilog illustrations.

Brian

V.A Melle
08-22-2006, 2:34 AM
I did download berry basket designs it worked out great importing into Corel-And I did end up buying the Book from Mike Clarke-you are right it is amazing! I've learned so many tricks and techniques I'm impressed. The cost I thought was high but I gave in and it was worth it. The shipping to Hawaii was only $8. Perfect.

Joe Young
08-22-2006, 4:12 PM
Where do you live? I live on Oahu in Aiea. I've had my LaserPro for almost 2 years. Nice to see another local with an engraver.

Ray Mighells
08-22-2006, 9:23 PM
At the risk of sounding like a complete idiot, I still have been unable to open Berry Basket CD patterns in Corel. I was to able open patterns from downloads and adjusted them the way I wanted, but when I sent it to the laser, it would not print. The laser screen said, "Job: USB Job" and would not start... I even had a computer tech here today, and he couldn't do it either. I'm using Windows XP on one computer and Windows Media Center on the other with identical results. Finally called BB thinking something wrong with the CDs. The tech said the scroll saw patterns were not intended for use in Corel, but to be printed out on paper. Pointed out that they do a Corel version but they only sell those wholsale to retailers Laserbits. I had already bought 3 Laser Ready CDs from Laserbits and was a little miffed when I found they were only scroll saw patterns.. So what's the skinny, are we talking scrollsaw patterns or laser ready scroll saw patterns?? Off the subject, if you have high speed ISP and if you like Stee Guitar music, click in here: http://steelguitar.net .. Any way BB will give me credit back if I return theCDs. If there is a way to use them, I would rather keep them. Thanks for all responses

Shaddy Dedmore
08-22-2006, 10:03 PM
I would say in general... not laser ready. The holiday ones are small enough where they just need a little tweaking, such as getting id of the background and making hairline widths. Some bigger ones span accross the pages so you may have to line things up and combine.

I was able to open it fine. Not Import, but open.

Shaddy

Mike Null
08-22-2006, 11:53 PM
Ray:

I'm listening to your steel guitar music---Sweet!

I just downloaded another BB freebie as a pdf. Then opened it in X3 (it actually imported it)--all 6 pages. You then delete waht you don't want and you're left with the pattern. I just change all the lines to red--my brain says all cutting lines must be red--and I'm ready to go.

Ed Lang
08-23-2006, 7:58 AM
I too am having trouble getting any of the Berry Basket patterns to import or open in Corel X3.

I have the CD Scrollsaw CD Book Library Vol. 1 that has 750 projects on it. By Karen Longabaugh. I can open in Acrobat any of the pages but when I try to import into X3 I get the error message telling me that there no errors! How about that! An error message telling me that there were no errors. I have tried importing the text as text and as curves.

Sure would be nice to be able to cut a few of these today!

Any suggestions?

Ed Lang
08-23-2006, 8:30 AM
As I stated above, I could not open the .pdf file. I then used Acrobat PRO 7.0 to open the document and deleted the first page. This first page has the navigation buttons and some text that has nothing to do with the patterns. I then saved the .pdf file. I am now able to open the .pdf, all 122 pages of it!

Now lets see if I can edit the patterns and make them laser ready.

I hope this helps those of you who can not open the .pdf.

If you still have trouble, please PM me or email me and I will try to help out.

Ed

Ray Mighells
08-23-2006, 10:52 AM
The patterns I downloaded from BB website opened OK in Corel, I adjusted one pattern and thought it looked pretty good. I took every thing out I didn't want, color mapped it in red, blue, and green hairlines, removed the grey fill and sent it to the laser. The laser struggled to accept the pattern, then came up with USB Job and would not print. On most of these patterns I only want parts of the pattern, like tree formations, foilage, etc. I've thought about just printing out the pattern, redrawing it and scanning it back to the computer. Lot of work. Point being that is there enough work to convert the scroll saw pattern to a laser ready pattern to justify the difference in purchase price?? $15 for scroll saw CD and $60 for a laser ready. I'm willing to install the Acrobat Pro if it will do the trick. Mike, glad you like the music. Steel guitar is not just country any more. Bobbe Seymour is about 66 - 68 and is still one of the best steel players in the world, and is very active in promoting the instrument. I don't know him personnaly, but I've played music with one of his uncles a few times, and he is also a very prolific steel player. Pop, jazz, standards, the whole range.

Brent Vander Weil
08-23-2006, 12:06 PM
I am using Corel 12 and I had the same question in my head... How can I take a scroll saw pattern and make it laserable... I have not tried scanning directly into Corel... will this work? I have a bunch of patterns that I have found or been given that I could process into laser files... if it's possible AND if it will not require me to re-draw everything...

Ed Lang
08-23-2006, 12:36 PM
I am finding it quite easy to take the .pdf's and make them into laser files.

The only thing I am having trouble with it getting two half images to JOIN. I select the two nodes but I do not get the join nodes box to light up.

Any ideas?


For those of you having trouble converting from a .pdf to a laser ready file, how can I help?


Ed

Dennis Perry
08-23-2006, 2:24 PM
Select to 2 halfs then combine, with the select tool pick the 2 nodes then right click and join.
Dennis

Ed Lang
08-23-2006, 3:43 PM
I forgot to combine before I join.

Thanks!

Too many programs for my old tired brain.

Some say that when I try to think how to do something.... I am working without tools :eek:

John Esberg
08-23-2006, 5:01 PM
I just got off the phone with a sales rep from LogoFax. He said that they make three versions of each picture. One of which is a vector line trace of the image ready for rotary engraving.

I pulled down some samples off of thier site and converted the lines to hairline in CorelDraw X3. It looks like the files would work fine for scrollsaw work. You would just have to determine where you want holes and where you would want to cut lines.

Hope this helps,

DAK

V.A Melle
08-24-2006, 9:13 PM
The berry basket scroll saw images I saved them after downloading- opened the file in corel 12 1-6 or more pages took out the pages I didnt need (I dont think I imported them?). saved it as a corel file edited it and took out words or lines. Then saved them again. opened it up in corel trace -traced it-saved as a bit map image. went back to corel draw selected all- changed the the line instead of hairline to .001 to be safe. saved it again resized it added anything to it. done save.

I'll double check what I really did to make sure and post again. You can pretty much do this to any image you see online I do a ton of graphics in photoshop so corel Ive just learned from scratch-the corel trace is easy. You can even go to berry basket buy the paper patterns print it out-scan the image -save it-open up in corel draw-edit-save-change line to .001 if you want. save. run image through trace to be even clearer save as bit map since its black anyway. save.

when printing I do either use black or red but to me I only vector cut so Im not really concerned with it. But If anyone thinks I should use red? maybe it would be faster please let me know. Im still new to this laser thing but if anyone needs help with the graphics part let me know if I can help.

have fun! Valerie
if my steps are off a little play around with it the idea is there I just cant remember- Oh and the boxes come out so good!

Al Mutairi
08-26-2006, 4:21 PM
I am new to the Free Pattern of the Month (http://www.berrybasket.com/Pattern.asp) on Berry's Basket . I joined and the latest pattern was emailed to me , I wonder how many months does this go back to ? Is it OK to ask for the other free Pattern code numbers ?