Rastering in order?

[Russ Shoe]

Hey gang, Im usually good at searching stuff out here, 99.99% the answer is here! Anyways, We are doing some tags on a 20 tag layout thingy we made, would like this to laser each tag complete, then on to the next, like vector cutting, only rastering.

Our machine is a "vintage" Epilog Radius, the print driver will let us vector sort, nothing we can find to sort/print anything else. Color mapping is only avaible in vectoring. Any way to set the graphics/words in corel (X3) so they laser completely each tag, then off to the next? Right now, its lasering along the X-axis doing several tags, one laser line at a time. Maybe there is no such thing. Let us know

Thanks
Russ n Lori

[donald bugansky]

I think if you put each tag on separate layer, it may complete one tag before going on to the next.

Let me grab my Corel book and see if it works as I suspect.

Bugs

[Roy Brewer]

Right now, its lasering along the X-axis doing several tags, one laser line at a time.

Russ,

Sorry, but no way on the Radius.

[Rodne Gold]

Is there a cluster setting in any mode in your driver (normally under stamp mode)?

[Shaddy Dedmore]

putting each tag on a different page might do it, it would take more of your time setting up each time, but maybe less laser time...

Shaddy

[Darryl Hazen]

Russ,

There is a way to do it in Corel. Open Object manager, select each object in the manager by clicking once. It will show you which item it is in the workspace. You can then drag the selection in the manager (not the workspace) toward the bottom of the list. The engraver should engrave them in order from the bottom to the top of the manager list. Hope this makes sense.

[John Noell]

Russ,

There is a way to do it in Corel. Open Object manager, select each object in the manager by clicking once. It will show you which item it is in the workspace. You can then drag the selection in the manager (not the workspace) toward the bottom of the list. The engraver should engrave them in order from the bottom to the top of the manager list. Hope this makes sense.

AFAIK that oly applies to vectors, not rasters. That's how it works for me.

[Darryl Hazen]

Not so John, I do it all the time when rastering artistic text

[Russ Shoe]

Very cool guys, looks like we have some experimenting to do. Will let you know,

THANKS!!

btw, this would be desireable right? Printing each tag complete would be faster then going across them line by line right? Dont need to be chasing this if its not worth it.

Not really tags, they are wooden drink chips, we made a jig that will do 20 at a time, usually theres a small graphic or logo, so thats what takes time, well, at least it seems like it takes time lol.

[George D Gabert]

You might also look at

Reducing the lines per inch. This will cover more vertical distance per step.

Moving the graphics in line so the laser skips the dead space.

Also move the graphics / chips closer together. Less horizontal travel.

Regards
GDG

[Lee DeRaud]

btw, this would be desireable right? Printing each tag complete would be faster then going across them line by line right? Dont need to be chasing this if its not worth it.

Not necessarily. Unless there is a lot of white-space horizontally between each tag, it may actually take longer to do them individually.

[George Brown]

Lee is right, it takes a LOT longer to do them individually. I don't have my numbers with me, but seem to recall that the time savings may approach 50% compared to doing each individually. I always place several along the x-axis and as close as feasible and then raster the whole line at once. The starting and stopping of the head at each end is what kills you in time doing it individually.

[Gary Hair]

Printing each tag complete would be faster then going across them line by line right? Dont need to be chasing this if its not worth it.

It actually depends on two things - speed and white space. If you are running high speed, 80-100%, then it may be faster to do everything at the same time. With the time it takes to ramp up and down you may get better times even with a lot of white space. If you are running low speed, 10-20%, and have lots of white space, then you will get much faster times when you run individually. Without any significant white space it would be a wash since the laser would be firing the whole way across.

To test it all you have to do is send one tag to the laser and run with the lid open and then run an entire line with the lid open - see what works out to be the fastest per tag.

Gary

[Roy Brewer]

Not so John, I do it all the time when rastering artistic text

Darryl,

You may want to check your work. Without Color Mapping, your Epilog 45w will start rastering at the top or bottom and work its way in the opposite direction regardless of Object Manager positioning.

Russ's (several generations old) Radius, however(and to the best of my recollection), has Color Mapping only for vector.

[John Noell]

Not so John, I do it all the time when rastering artistic text

I know that works if you convert the text to curves but you say it works without converting? Not for me. When I do multiple tags with artistic text and the tags are in a line, it does the top raster line of all then the next raster line of all etc., not by tag (i.e., artistic text block by text block).