Dotted Lines?

[cgjeff]

Hey all,
Just got my laser build finished today, and started playing with it. Loving the dsp so far!

I have some files that I need to cut, which need dotted score lines cut in them. Doing these in .5mm chipboard (like cardstock but thicker)

I have everything setup in corel properly, but when I hit the start laser button and it sends the file over to lasercad, I lose that dashed line style from Corel. Is there any way to maintain this? Or even better send the file to the laser straight from Corel (print driver or something maybe?), the only buttons I got in Corel from the macro are "Laser Start" which sends the file to LaserCad, and "Import DST/Dsb Data". I should also mention I'm using Corel Draw X5 on windows7 64 bit.
I'm not sure how to tackle this, since the dashes need to be cut not engraved, so I can't rasterize them or anything.

Any help would be most appreciated.

[Tech_Marco]

Try to 'unchecked' the "Gap Optimize" as the LaserCad may be fooled and connected all dot for line for you
When you click "Download", there are four checked box for selection. Usually we check the 2nd one and the 4th one.

Let me know if it solve the problem

Marco

[cgjeff]

Thanks for the reply Marco. Unfortunately that does nothing. The lines in question are solid curves in corel, with a dashed line style. That line style is lost entirely when it's sent to lasercad. And when sent to the dsp and cut, it just cuts a solid line.

Does anyone if there's a way in corel to "collapse" that line style, so that my curve is now a bunch of separate curves? That would certainly do it. Being a photoshop/illustrator guy, I honestly barely know my way around corel at this point. But from what I'm seeing, there's no way to get that dashed line style to transfer properly into lasercad.

[Tech_Marco]

Please attached the file for testing

Marco

[Javier]

Hello I also I have this problem, have someone help thank you very much

[G-laserguy]

Good morning,

if you draw a line in Corel and change it to a dotted line, the line will just get displayed as dotted from CorelDraw ..it's just a display-style. When you send this drawing to LaserCad the line will be solid again.
If you like to cut dotted lines, you must draw them in corel dot by dot or use the Hole-function in Lasercut.


Diemo

[cgjeff]

Thanks for the explanation G-Laserguy. I figured it was something similar, since that is how illustrator works as well. Line styles just being a display thing, not actually altering the curve.

Javier my workaround for this now, is to open the file in illustrator and go to Object>Flatten Transparency.. Which will collapse the dashed line style down into outlines. Kind of a pain to add the extra step, but It works.

There might be a way to do this in Corel, but as I'm new to the software, I have no idea yet.

[Tech_Marco]

You may consider to use the "PPI" to make dot for a frame or for a line.

Marco

[G-laserguy]

Hi,

There might be a way to do this in Corel, but as I'm new to the software, I have no idea yet.

You can draw a dashed line very easy in CorelDraw by using the "duplicate" function.

Just draw a single line, give it the dash-length, then enter count and distance of duplicated dashes and your dashed line is done.
This kind of dashed line will be handled from Lasercut like you drawed it.

dot-lines_Corel.zip

(1.35 MiB) Downloaded 149 times

Greetings from Germany and

Good Night

[baccus61]

Does this method work for circles or curved lines?. I have previously converted the dashed line to a bitmap but it is not as good as vector cutting and not as smooth.
Rich.