Lightobject.com Support Forum

Ok guys, I have a couple of questions after working with Lasercad today.

First off, how do you make the output match the workspace on the screen? For example, if I draw a box in the middle of the page it lasers in the upper left hand corner instead of where it's showing in lasercad. My solution has been to draw a box that I uncheck close to edge of the workspace but that's a pain.

Second, why is it when you import an image file you lose any other work you've done in Lasercad? Like when I draw the boxes I mentioned then import a .jpg everything disappears except the .jpg. I've found that you have to import images first then do your other work in lasercad. Again, real pain.

Third, what is everyone's preferred raster format? I've tried both bmp and jpg exported from coreldraw at 300dpi and it works great but it's a bit jagged around the edges when I engrave it. Should I bump up the dpi when exporting from corel? If so, how high can lasercad go? Or should I be using some other image format to go from Corel to Lasercad? I'm using Corel 10 btw so I can't use the plugin.

Let me answer your first two question quick:
1) Set the "Origin" mode to Software if you want it to 'draw' whatever it shows on the LaserCad. Do the change on the LCD unit
2) Put a check mark on "Reserve the current document" when you doing Import. I explained this a while ago

I got to go...

Marco

Thanks Marco! That worked great. I'll get there yet!

I did some messing around with different image formats last night. I bumped the dpi (on the CorelDraw export) to 400 and the results were very nice.

Now I think I need a better lens to fine tune the quality of the engraving even more.

"400dpi" !!! It's crazy high and I never though about it if it could help better on the job. By default, I used to set it to 72 dpi or occationally setting it to 150dpi. But it turned out the the file size become hugh. You may want to pay attention it if the DSP pending for long or hangs. It could be this issue

Seems you're having fun, do you


Marco

I am having fun with it! lol

It was a large file but it worked fine. It was a 6 x 8 plate with a logo and lots of wording.

I'll try some lower dpi files too. No use having huge files if I don't need them.

Do you recommend any certain image format? Bmp and jpg looked exactly the same to me.

I was just doing some dpi testing. I don't know how you get quality engraving if you go below 300 dpi or so. Are we talking about the same thing? I'm talking about when I export from corel draw. I'm finding that 400 dpi is doing pretty good. File size isn't huge either but I'm doing smaller things right now.

On to my next issue

I'm engraving IPI brand laser plastic right now and I'm getting lines across the engraving. Looks kind of like the laser going in too deep and leaving a groove. Well, this made sense when it was going across the X axis. I just ran another piece and all of the sudden the line is running the other direction even though it was still engraved across X. I have attached a photo.

Since it's going vertically now I assume this is a software setting. Is there anything I can do to make the engraved area look smoother? Not a big issue in something like wood but on engraving plastic or metal it's very noticeable.

Hi toasty
take your dpi down to max 300dpi and the power too.
did you reasamble the JPEG down to the size you wana engrave and then save with max 300 dpi.
then set the scan gap to 0.04.
the higher the resolution you set on the laser the more sometimes not visible stuff is pickt up.
greetings
waltfl

Toasty wrote:I was just doing some dpi testing. I don't know how you get quality engraving if you go below 300 dpi or so. Are we talking about the same thing? I'm talking about when I export from corel draw. I'm finding that 400 dpi is doing pretty good. File size isn't huge either but I'm doing smaller things right now.

On to my next issue

I'm engraving IPI brand laser plastic right now and I'm getting lines across the engraving. Looks kind of like the laser going in too deep and leaving a groove. Well, this made sense when it was going across the X axis. I just ran another piece and all of the sudden the line is running the other direction even though it was still engraved across X. I have attached a photo.

Since it's going vertically now I assume this is a software setting. Is there anything I can do to make the engraved area look smoother? Not a big issue in something like wood but on engraving plastic or metal it's very noticeable.

Thanks Waltfl,

I'll try everything you mentioned.

I'm doing a batch of small name badges on plastic and I just can't make them look good unless I save the images at 400 dpi. And from Coreldraw I also select 1:1 so the images are the exact size when I import them (no resizing). Anything lower has jagged edges.

I also tried lowering the power and speed which actually produced very nice results except for the vertical banding in the photo above. Other than that, the text and logo look perfect.

I'll change the scan gap and see what results I get. Should I be messing around with the PPI setting?

hi toasty
you should not use the ppi at all for this things.
just send me the file to a542002@hotmail.com and I will see whats going on

greetings
walt

Toasty wrote:Thanks Waltfl,

I'll try everything you mentioned.

I'm doing a batch of small name badges on plastic and I just can't make them look good unless I save the images at 400 dpi. And from Coreldraw I also select 1:1 so the images are the exact size when I import them (no resizing). Anything lower has jagged edges.

I also tried lowering the power and speed which actually produced very nice results except for the vertical banding in the photo above. Other than that, the text and logo look perfect.

I'll change the scan gap and see what results I get. Should I be messing around with the PPI setting?

I appreciate the offer but I'm not sure you could reproduce the problem even with the file. On this IPI laser plastic it's doing it no matter what graphics I try.

I did get it looking a lot better by reducing the power, slowing down, and lowering the scan gap a bit. I did a LOT of testing and there seems to be just one sweet spot for this material and that's not perfect either.

I honestly don't think it's going to get much better. It still has a very fine pebble appearance where it's engraved which is a bit disappointing since I'm used to using larger machines from Universal and LaserPro that make a very smooth mark on this plastic.

It's almost like the power isn't 100% consistent. I suspect on most materials it wouldn't be a big issue but you can really see it on this stuff.

I don't know, maybe it's a bad batch of plastic for all I know. I'll see if I can get some Rowmark plastic tomorrow and see if the results are different.

If there are any other settings I should be looking at let me know.