Using Trotec's Job Control Software

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Hey Guys if you can do a print screen capture and post it here of how you set up your plates. I do it a lot different and want to see if we can maybe help each other speed it up.
Mike...If I ran 77 tags that were all the same 1" x 3" my plate would be 1.1" x 3.1" and I would just load it as a single item and then position multiples. Then use the vector optimization. I run job estimate on both to see how much I save when optimizing the job.

I have never minimized my plate in the 9+- years I have had the laser. Guess what I will be doing later???????????

****TIP**** when no engraving is needed make sure you have a material setting set up for that. I use Black for engraving, Red for Marking, Desert Blue for interior cuts and Blue for perimeter cuts. I copy the settings, rename it to 3color setting and then turn off black. It will save you a lot of time because the engraver is not searching for the black in the job. Just thought I'd post this in case someone doesn't currently do it that way.

Hope this helps and ...

[Scott Shepherd]

Mark, I don't think that's what I'm saying

Here's what I have- I have my table size in CorelDraw set as the default page size for a new document. If I have a 1" x 3" name tag and I want to send it over, I'd place it anywhere on the sheet in Corel, and when I select "print", I'd select "Minimize to job". In job control, the job shows up as a 1" x 3" job which I can move around anywhere I want it.

If I have 24 of them (3 rows of 8 for ease of explaining), then I'd do the same thing. I'd send it over and the job would go into job control as a 24" x 3" job, which I could move around anywhere I wanted in job control as a 24" x 3" job.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Hey Amie,
Time to get that number (posts:5) on the top right of your post up to the triple digits .
Good to see you online.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Scott...If they are all the same tags...why not make the page just slightly larger than the original so it has a cut border built in to it. example... a 1" x 3" tag put on a 1.1" x 3.1" page in corel. Then print it to Trotec and use the same size page, 1.1" x 3.1", to make your job. Then if you have a scrap piece that is not 24" x 3", like a 12" x 12" you can place them to fit and drag them if needed.

[Scott Shepherd]

I don't do it that way because the few times I tried (and believe me, I tried) it didn't end well. I have a customer that has their own product lines and we make a number of things for them. They'll order 100 at a time, all the same of that part. I thought it would great to make one part and then duplicate the part in job control. It didn't work well for me at all. I don't remember the issue, but I do recall scraping the entire concept. My plan was, since many of them are made from the same material is to just leave each part in the queue and then I could just drag them over and make up my own job, which might consist of 5 different parts. It took me far longer to try and make it all happen than it would if I just did it in Corel. Now if it were just a few, I'd probably do it that way, but it's a lot easier for me to copy from 1 up to 100 in corel than it is for me to drop 100 plates on the master plate.

[Mark Sipes]

As I said before we all adapt to make it work best for our situations. and Yes I agree if I had a need for 100 of the same with repeats I would set up 1 job full size.

[Bruce Dillingham]

As advanced as this job control sw is, it's to bad Trotec doesn't have better documentation or videos to help people take advantage of it. I clicked on a few of the links in their sw blog on some of the mentioned features and they don't work. Maybe Amie can help out with this. Thanks

[Mark Sipes]

Have you reviewed the manual for the software?

[Gary Gunderson]

I have been pretty disappointed with the documentation -- I feel like there may be a bit lost in translation from the German to the English manuals. Either that or I'm fairly certain I saw somewhere that I am supposed to pump Neutrogena into the gas assist lines? Also, there was a drawing of the lens carriage setup that appeared to have a mistake in the assembly order that could damage the lens.

However -- as Amie noted -- their Support team is pretty awesome. They have fielded a barrage of questions from me -- I hope I haven't worn out my welcome there!

I will have to look into adjusting the drawing size as noted in a few posts above in order to get a buffer when tiling things. Another one of the reasons I tend to work in drawings representing the bed and try not to adjust that is based on my experience with the Universal software. For whatever reason, the Universal printer driver would do really odd things when you were sending files from multiple programs. The document size needed to match the bed size, but every now and then the document size would just go haywire and there was no rhyme or reason to what was controlling it. When that happened, I would often just uninstall the software and reinstall. So far I haven't run into problems like that with the Trotec software, but I have had a pretty light touch so far.

[Mark Sipes]

So you must be running a Speedy 500 since that machine has a 2 gas line air assist. the Neutogena is not for the air assist.. it is for you ..... to reduce your smile lines as you use the Trotec laser.

[Gary Gunderson]

Ok, I'm getting a lot better with this, and I'm trying to work around the quirkiness, but I'm running into some odd behavior that is bogging me down. So here's my latest question:

I have a file with no engraving in it at all. Let's say it is just a big 24" x 24" vector outline in red of a rectangle to cut. I send the job over using the "Standard" process, but I haven't selected "Vector Job". Even though there is no engraving in the file, the Trotec software seems to treat it as a giant 24" x 24" engraving at first. It will struggle a bit when placing the job, and when I first look at the estimated time in the duration sidebar, it will show something absurd like 360 minutes of engraving for the black artwork.

But there isn't any black artwork for engraving!

Then, if I hit "Update" in the estimate/duration sidebar, it will all get corrected. The black layer will go to 0 minutes, and the vector cut will revert to something normal like 40 seconds, for example.

So, what is going on here? Why wasn't the black layer at 0 to begin with? It seems that the "Vector Job" selection was added as a means to avoid this, but why is that option even needed if there isn't any engraving? It seems that the fact that this occurs is some sort of bug in the first place. Is it just treating the overall bounding box as a giant engraving until it gets into the software proper?

I'm hoping the new version clears this up, but I was wondering what exactly is going on here?

[Mike Null]

Make sure you have the red as your cut color in your material settings and that the outline is "hairline". The red should be rgb red.

[Gary Gunderson]

Hi Mike -- the red vector line is coming through fine, it just seems to think there is an engraving there at first. For example, if I send a blank drawing over, it will think the whole thing is an engraving at first. When I hit update, it seems to re-analyze the drawing (it says "computing contours) and then the estimate for the engraving will drop to 0.

In other words, anything I seem to send over with "Standard" process selected and "Vector Job" unselected, will at first appear to the software as a giant engraving. It isn't going to engrave that, nothing shows up as an engraving in the WYSIWYG, the vector lines in their respective colors are coming through fine, and it will correct itself once you hit update. It just seems odd.

I've attached two images showing what I mean -- the file is just a 24" x 24" rectangle. The first image is before I hit "update" and the second is after.

This isn't a huge deal, it just seems that the software is bogging down a bit on the file before it is updated.

Trotec_A.JPGTrotec_B.jpg

[Mark Sipes]

I have found the "Repeat Cut Lines" to be very helpful on that one job that just seems to be thicker then the standard. and you don't have to wait for the raster image to run again to get there...

[Mike Null]

I'm not sure what happens in this instance but it seems like the software's first read is as if the entire drawing gets engraved and cut then when you hit update it actually reads what is to be done and posts the correct estimated time. I've noticed that on mine as well and I assume that is why the update feature is there.

Mike

This is the layout I use for several of my customers. I buy quarter sheet lam. plastic and engrave logos, names and locations on these tags. I do several thousand a year and this is the best way I've found.

This takes 27 minutes with logos names and locations. The name is the only variable. My machine is 45 watts, if it were more powerful I could run these faster.