Running 1st paying job. Running three hashes 90/180/315 - the last with a higher Freq and Speed for cleanup. Any way to program these , so I don't have to make 3 changes & hit start 3 times for every piece?
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Running 1st paying job. Running three hashes 90/180/315 - the last with a higher Freq and Speed for cleanup. Any way to program these , so I don't have to make 3 changes & hit start 3 times for every piece?
Yep, use Hatch1, Hatch2, and Hatch3. You can also set them to be different colors which allows different settings as well.
I normally run setting with same power with two different hatches and like my gun today, different power settings and hatch for cleanup passes. I could probably do all three at one time, but I like to be safe. One thing Tim, on the hatches, select and change hatch 1then press apply. Then hatch again and change hatch 2 and press apply again. Do same for the third if you want a third. I've found that if you don't apply after each in it usually doesn't change.
Thank you. That will save me a lot of time on a big job like this one. On one-off's like NFA engraving, I agree that I will still do those one hatch at a time. I have found recievers to be very inconsistant. Some seem much softer than others. I've even had a couple that opened air pockets when engraved.
wanna have some fun?
set hatch one to black, 10 degrees, .03 space, set line reduction to .03mm, set auto rotate angle to 30 degrees, be sure to add the check mark-- :)
set hatch two to blue, 20 degrees, .03 space, line reduction .015mm, auto rotate 30-
set hatch three to red, 30 degrees, .03 space, NO line reduction, auto rotate 30--
keep all the power and speed settings the same for black, red and blue... BUT, whatever settings you like for your cleanup passes, put those in GREEN---
what will happen is, hatch, rotate 10, hatch, rotate 10, hatch, rotate 10, hatch rotate 10, hatch, rotate 10, hatch, rotate 10, hatch rotate 10 etc---
---as many times as you tell it to repeat-
-black hatch misses the edges by .03mm via line reduction-
-blue hatch misses the edges by .015mm, ditto
-red hatch runs right up to the edges--
this creates a slight draft angle, and less total burn around the perimeter, which results in less edge slag--
The 10 degree continuous change in angle seems to work great, I get a very smooth bottom...
Line spacing is optional of course, line reduction settings too-- I've found using line reduction REALLY helps with the slag-
"Follow edge once" is optional, I rarely use it if i'm at .04 or less spacing, but if I DO, only to 1 of the hatches, not all 3...
And when you're done with the deep cutting, click on your group, hit the GREEN color so everything is green, now it will run the same routine using your cleanup settings.. 2 or 3 passes should work!
When done, hit the undo button to change it back :)
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Dang Kev, this is the second or third time you've mentioned autorotation, and I keep forgetting to try it. So so many variables!!!!!
I think the first time or two I was trying to figure it out- finally did and I love it! What's funny is that the 'angle' display on the left keeps adding up the degrees rotated, and it doesn't roll-over at 360, it just keeps accumulating total degrees. First time I got it to work I was surprised to see 1170 listed.
I'm not sure I'd trust auto-rotate with the fast-hatch, especially on complicated designs, several times with busy graphics I've had the hatch connected at one or two places where it shouldn't be, drawing a line(s) clear thru the graphic, and those lines DO engrave...
"fast-hatch"?
The 'fast hatch' is the 'bidirectional' hatch. Each hatch line is connected, so the laser doesn't have to shut off between hatch lines-- faster; optimized hatch is all disconnected lines...
Also, the fast hatch routine will follow a hatch area as you would draw it, whereas the 'optimized' hatch will follow a full raster path like a gantry machine. Example, the letter O, the optimized hatch will scan the entire letter, including the hole in the middle, but the fast hatch will scan only and exactly what's being hatched, no 'white space'.
It's a bit confusing as 'optimized' usually means 'faster', but here, the reference to "optimized" has to do with the engraving quality, not the speed-- this is because the optimized scans in one direction only per hatch routine, leaving a smooth finish no "visible" seams, fast hatch engraves whatever direction it sees fit.... The fast hatch will engrave half of the O one direction until the hatch disconnect, then run the other half, and not necessarily in the same direction, as in, the first half may engrave from the top/down and the second half may engrave from the bottom/up. It results in a MUCH faster hatch routine, but because the engraving was done in different directions, the lines will look different because of how they catch the light. If you're engraving something lightly with large expanses of engraved area, avoid the fast hatch! For deep engraving, the fast hatch can really save time, but it can connect hatch ends together where they shouldn't be connected, so beware...
Here's the list from the book (the icons on the left are screenshots from my program)
Attachment 368583
--unidirectional, very slow but very smooth finish-
--bidirectional, the fast hatch
--ring-like (lol) , aka island fill- I haven't found this to be much use--
--optimized, the basic hatch
--optimized gong, what this is, it's a full-connected hatch like the fast hatch, but it follows the same path as the optimized...
A good way to test what each hatch does is to draw up and engrave a simple 5 ring target, 3 filled rings and 2 non filled rings. It also helps explain when "all calc" will come in handy, because the optimized hatch will full sweep each target ring separately. Very slow since this will bypass 2 rings while engraving 1 ring- this is when all calc comes in handy, as whatever's grouped as a whole will raster as a whole. It's usually a time waster on most 'separated' graphics, but whenever you have fills inside of fills inside of fills, just group the whole bunch and run all calc so it'll engrave ALL sections at once...
And the target test will also show you just how fast the fast hatch can be :)
**EDIT** ABOVE on my "optimization" description--
I stand corrected in that the "optimized" hatch IS THE FAST HATCH -- The 'bi-directional' hatch is the higher-quality/slower hatch...
Those 2 hatches per the onscreen pushbuttons are hard for my old eyes to tell apart, mostly, I can't see those red connector bars, which indicates the laser won't engrave them.
So the right button is the bi-directional hatch button. The button on the left is the 'fast hatch' aka optimized hatch button, the line is all blue, indicates the laser DOES engrave the connector bars...
http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/hatches.jpg
The way I normally tell them apart is the bi-directional icon is longer overall. That, and I'm getting used to where it is in the rotation ;)
My apologies for the goof... (at least I got the 'confusing' part right!) :D