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Carol VanArnam
01-16-2007, 2:49 AM
I've noticed when I do a large vector cut job (where I'm cutting a lot of pieces out of one 18" x 24" piece of wood) the laser moves around the board. It goes from 1 side of the board to the other side.. back and forth, up and down as it cuts pieces out. I've noticed that going back and fourth around and around takes a lot more time.

Anyone know how to make it stop that. I have an epilog helix... and I use corel 12.

Frank Corker
01-16-2007, 5:38 AM
Hi Carol, it goes in the order that it was done in. Try selecting all and ungroup. Then deselect. Reselect all and group. It might put it back into a decent order.

John Esberg
01-16-2007, 6:56 AM
Carol,

If possible, you might want to make sure that all of your vector paths are closed whenever possible. Not only does it minimized the laser from jumping around, it gives better cutting results.

DAK

Ed Newbold
01-16-2007, 8:05 AM
I've noticed when I do a large vector cut job (where I'm cutting a lot of pieces out of one 18" x 24" piece of wood) the laser moves around the board. It goes from 1 side of the board to the other side.. back and forth, up and down as it cuts pieces out. I've noticed that going back and fourth around and around takes a lot more time.

Anyone know how to make it stop that. I have an epilog helix... and I use corel 12.I don't know about your machine, since I have a ULS system, but in CorelDraw I go to TOOLS | OBJECT MANAGER (see photo).
Expand layer 1, and notice down the right side of the page is a list of objects. These objects are sent to my system in reverse order - from the BOTTOM of the list upwards.

So, to make objects print in the order I want, I simply GRAB the object and DRAG it into place in the list of objects shown.

Try it out. It works for me and may work for you.

Cheers,

Ed Newbold
01-16-2007, 8:11 AM
A better copy of the photo attached.

Richard Rumancik
01-16-2007, 10:51 AM
I am using Corel on a Laserpro. The driver cuts the objects "back to front" as they are listed in the CorelDraw file. I suspect that other drivers handle order similarly but this is what I do for the LaserPro.

You can change the order of objects using the drag method suggested but I prefer going through my file using Arrange -> Order -> to Back. I cut some basswood kits where time is important, so it is worth the while to sort the file. I have not found an automated method. Basically I start at one side of my kit layout and continually send each segment or object "TO BACK". The last one sent to the back will actually be the first one cut. (The very first one sent Back will become the front.) There are other options on the menu but this works for me.

If you add entities then it is best to use Arrange ->Order -> In front of (or Behind) [then select the adjacent object]. Or use the drag method suggested elsewhere.

Also, using "combine" and "group" can be an advantage. When I have a pattern that is cut 4 times on a sheet, I want it to cut one pattern completely, then go to the next kit. So I group the kit first, then duplicate. Otherwise, if not grouped, it will want to cut one hole for each set, then one line, then one shape etc etc with a lot of movement in between. (And I lose all the sets if there is a glitch.)

You can also use color to advantage. The Laserpro driver cuts in color sequence. If you have some cuts that must be done at the end of the job you can make them a specific color (eg color 15 say) that will ensure they don't get cut out of sequence. (The cut settings can be a duplicate of the primary settings.)

I also change the direction of cut if needed. On a long cut this is important. To change the cut direction of a line you need to select the object, use the shape tool to highlight an end node, and REVERSE CURVE. It will then cut in opposite direction. One node will be larger than the other end - after REVERSE they will flip.

I suggest that you do an experiment on scrap using order, combine, grouping, color etc to help get a handle on the sequencing options.

For one-offs not all these techniques are worth the time to edit the file, but for production jobs it can help a lot.

Mitchell Andrus
01-16-2007, 4:40 PM
That was excellent Richard.

Rodne Gold
01-16-2007, 6:02 PM
On the laserpros , there is a setting called optimisation sorting in the driver , this will produce the shortest path for vector cutting.
The vector sorting setting (not the same as optimisation sorting)will do inside holes first , outside shapes last , to stop the final shap being cut first and dropping out the sheet. I havent checkd to see if optimization sorting automatically does vector sorting as a part of it's optimization.
There is another strategy too and that is to use different colours as outlines , the driver will always do the engraving in this order
black red green yellow blue magenta cyan and you can change the outline colours accordingly to change the order of cutting.
This strategy works well for engraving too , for example if you had a plaque with something running down the far left and the same on the far right with a lot of white space between , it would be hugely quicker to do the left hand side and then the right hand side rather than allowing the laser to scan back and forth doing left then right then left then right.
So making the left hand element another colour to the rh one , will force the machine to do them as seperate blocks - these 2 strategies in terms of colour will miost likely work on ALL machines , not just GCC.
On the GCC driver , there is a setting called "use cluster" in the advanced tab , this will accomplish a similar thing in that it will use the figure you input into the use cluster distance box as a measure of whether to do the element separately or not.
IE if you used a figure of 5cm , it would do ALL objects seperated by more than 5cm of white space as seperate objects , ie completely engrave one then do the next one and not go back and forth . This does not always speed things up , for example a seies of small circles in a horizontal line , lets say 7cm apart , would be far quicker to do in a "scan" (back and forth ) mode than a cluster mode.
You can of course use other packages to generate graphics and use the nesting/sorting routines to optimise both cutting and material useage