Red Hairline=gray in Corel

[Steve Eide]

Hi all, this one is mystery to me. I have a .cdr that shows all of the parts in Corel Draw 12's Object Manager. When I scroll down the list of all of the components, it shows that they are all fill none; red hairline. When I print to my Versalaser some of the lines are gray or black. When I actually executed the print job, the grays rastered rather than cut. I tried to copy the one component that is correct and the result is that some of the lines changed from red hairline to the gray. I attached a sample with two copies of the tab that was correct and somehow were changed. Any ideas?

[Ed Newbold]

I use X3, and on your example everything looks fine to me; normal red hairlines; no grays evident.

I don't have any idea.

[Steve Eide]

Same on version 12; it all looks fine and the Object Manager lists the lines as red hairlines. When I print to the laser, the Versalaser view screen shows that some of the lines are read as gray and they will raster if I execute. Very strange.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Try re-loading your driver - ?

[Todd Schwartz]

Steve,

I am afraid I may not be much help. I have your same configuration. Corel 12 and a VL300. Opened your file in Corel 12, printed it, using both the standard driver and advanced driver and opening the Versalaser Control Panel, all lines came out red. Ran a test run, vector cut all.

FYI, I am at Versalaser Control Panel version 1.28.5.

Suggestions:
Reinstall the VL Control Panel
If you purchased it locally from John V, drop him an email or give him a call Mon AM
Give Universal a call Mon

Todd

Am a transplanted MN native.

[Steve Eide]

Thanks guys. I have version 1.28.5. I'll reload it anyway. (Todd, I' m a transplanted Minnesotan also :-)

[George Elston]

I've had this happen when I change the position of the graphic in "print preview", make sure the layout is "as in document". Never did figure out why it happens, I just don't do that anymore.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Steve,

The problem with this file is the NIB shape select the line that turns grey and then go into the pen dialog box. The NIB shape should be 100% or Square. I corrected this and Thats all it was.

[Steve Eide]

Thanks Mike.

I reloaded the "printer" driver and control panel for the VersaLaser just to see if that would help, but no go. It may be a Corel problem that is causing the problem.

fixedGraphic1.cdr that you did for me does not work for me.
1. If I "print" it to the laser it appears correct in the control panel and will do the correct vector cut.
2. If I "print" it to the laser and mirror it, the display in the control panel shows that some lines are gray and the laser will vector cut the red hairlines and raster engrave the gray parts of the object.

I can work around it by reversing my text, but it would be great if I could use the system as designed.

When I use the pen outline for the incorrect lines, you are correct that they are at a 45 degree angle and that's what is probably causing the issue. If I either click on default or zero the 45 degree angle and move to another field the angle field stays at 0. I then click okay to leave the pen outline dialog. I then go right back to the pen outline dialog using the same line in the object and I see that it has reverted to 45 degrees.

If I change the color to black and zero degrees the lines in the object stay black, but some of the lines revert back to 45 degrees. ERRR

I'm attaching a cdr with one of the tabs giving me a problem and two print screen images of the VersaLaser control panel. One is standard print (all is okay), the other is the same image but mirrored.

Any ideas?

[Mike Mackenzie]

Steve,

I will take a look at this in the morning. I was not aware of it causing the problem once it was mirrored.

[Ed Maloney]

Hey there Steve - Do you have something like color mapping set as a default?

[Scott Shepherd]

Ed, color mapping is used all the time on the Universal's. You load a color pallette into Corel when you setup the machine and every color has settings applied to it. It's a little different than the Epilog where you have to specifically tell it to color map.

I have screwed up more than once and clicked too fast and changed something that was normally a vector color into a raster color. So the line still shows up as the right color, and you think everything is fine, but when you go to cut it, it tries to raster the cut line instead of vector cut it.

I think I've done it several times now. Enough times that now I know what to look for when I see it happen. Not sure if it's happening here, but it's worth checking the color properties. Good thinking Ed!

[Lee DeRaud]

Wrong palette loaded maybe? Just because it looks "red" on the screen doesn't mean it has the correct RGB value.

[Steve Eide]

Thanks Ed and Scott. I checked color management and it is correct according to ULS support. ULS applications support was stumped and thought that it may be caused by a corrupt file. Mike was on to something in the nib shape. I can not change the nib on the pen outline to a square, if I change it from the 45 degree (diamond shape) to 0 degrees (square shape) and click okay to exit the dialog, then go back, it's changed back to a 45.

I believe I know the source, but not the cause or fix. I opened a file that I downloaded here to use as a guide (just the approximate measurements). I created my drawing on the same page in Corel 12. After I was finished, I deleted the original objects and saved my drawing as a new file. Apparently, in the downloaded file there is something causing this problem.

The problem only manifests itself when I "print" mirrored which I intended to do because I added text to reverse engrave on acrylic.

So as a work around, I will reverse the text and print normally, however if someone can figure it out, then the solution can be added to the collective "brain" for the next time.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Steve,

OK what I did was to first combine the image then go into the pen dialog box and click DEFAULT on the Nib shape then OK. It will remain that way consistently now. I mirrored the image and everything was good. It showed up and ran in my VCP. I am not using the same Versa software as you are but I still think this has something to do with the problem.

Try it and see what it does.

Also it will cut a little cleaner and faster if you join the open nodes.

Let me know.

[Steve Eide]

Home run! It worked just as advertised. Thanks for your help.