Please Help with Tiling

[Tom Cullen]

Hi All,
I'm in serious need of fast help here. I have a job that requires tiling and I have to have it ready for tonight. The problem is , I just switched to Corel X3 and even though I had looked at tutorials I'm still having a lot of issues with the tiling process. I am uing an Explorer II 30 Watt laser and as mentioned Corel X3. My work area in the laser is 20 inches vertical X 37 inches horizontal. The customer gave me four tiles each mesuring 10X8 Granite. They would like the tiles to lay horizontal 10X10X10X10 that's a total lenght of 40 inches long( Horizontal). The tiles will only have wording , simple dedication with no graphics. How can I spread the wording over 40 inches evenly, even though my machine will only accept work sizes up to 37 inches long? I have tried to follow the tiling proceedure but have messed up every time. My driver keep saying that I can not over set the table size from 37 to 40 inches. Please help , I'm sure some of you guys are wizards at this.

Thanks
Tom

[Mike Null]

Tom

Try the Epilog web site. I believe they have tutorials on tiling.

[James Stokes]

You really need some white space around the lettering. What I would do is let the tile hang over the gauges 1.5 inches on each side and engrave the 37 inches.

[Garry McKinney]

Tom ,
What I would do would be layout the entire drawing in X3. Then using guide lines seperate it in to the tile size. 4 10 inch section. Then make 4 copies of the layout. Each to a new layer. Then using the crop, each 10 inch section, one on each layer.
Then you can run single tiles to get the results needed. Just make sure your crop line are on the guides. If they are they will all match up when put together.

Garry

[Tom Cullen]

Thank you all for your time and suggestions. What I ended up doing was, calling the customer and chatting about the problems encountered. After some creative banter, we decided to go with a logo on the first 8X10 tile. That made it a simple matter of putting all remaining three 8X10's in a row and engraving them as one complete tile. It worked and looked pretty good. Some lettering fell in the joints but that was to be expected.

Thanks
Tom

[Craig Hogarth]

i never got the hang of tiling so i just keep it as one image moving the image for each engraving.

so if i'm doing a large engraving that's 24x24, i put the top corner at 0.0 engrave the top two tiles. move up the whole picture 12 inches and engrave the bottom two tiles.

i think it takes longer to send the file to the engraver, but it comes out flawlessly.

[Shaddy Dedmore]

Not sure how you are doing your text (one text object?) but you may be able to use power clip. I'd make the page 8x40, then draw 4 8x10 rectangles, unless you need a space between for grout, then compensate with spaces between, and a longer page, but keep rect's 8x10, the size of your tiles. (or slightly smaller if there's a bevel around your tile face)

Then, make sure your power clip options aren't set to autocenter. tools-options-workspace-edit. (uncheck that option)

select text, then do powerclip to first rect -- Effects-Powerclip-Place Inside Container. (select text, powerclip, select rect)

Then, I'd select that box that has the text now, and copy it into a new document with a page set up to 8x10 then print each tile individually.

go back and Undo to get all the text back, then repeat for second tile.

Let me know if i was unclear, 'cause I think this would work for you just fine.

Shaddy