Best format for Lasercad usage

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Best format for Lasercad usage

Postby Toymanf » Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:03 am

Hello all,
I am having a problem with Lasercad(both 5.85 and 5.93 tested) removing all of the fill from my images.
I open a PDF in Coreldraw or native Coreldraw (.cdr)
I edit the image in coreldraw X5, the open Lasercad using the Icon in the Coreldraw toolbar.
The image opens in Lasercad, but all of the filled areas are blank. It only imports the outlines. Also, it has a tendency to reorder layers.
The only solution I have found so far is to completly edit the image then save it as a BMP. Then reopen it in Coreldraw and import to Lasercad. Although this works, it reduces the image quality significantly and is time consuming.
If someone would like to verify what is happening, open Coreldraw and type in some text. Then open this text in Lasercad. When I do this, it opens in Lasercad with no fill.

Please make suggestion on what I may doing wrong.
Thank you,
Frank
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Re: Best format for Lasercad usage

Postby iGull » Tue Apr 17, 2012 7:40 am

Hi Frank

I can't comment on coreldraw, but when using illustrator or dxf, lasercad won't show a fill on a vector drawing unless you have set the particular colour on the vector to be rastered. (at least it hasn't for me :D ) - it only picks up the outline colour of the cut vectors.
I try to stick to a predefined set - black raster, red cut, blue mark (low power cut) - you can use white over black fill for empty parts of anything that needs to be rastered. So, if you have a filled black circle with an inner filled (or unfilled even!) white circle over it, it will raster a black ring.

Beware, if you have previously set different colours to raster or cut, then it will remember them !!!
Easiest way around this to clear the 'memory' is to draw three rectangles - black, red and blue then set them to raster, cut high power and cut low power. When creating your coreldraw vectors, set the colours to rgb black(0,0,0) red(255,0,0) or blue (0,0,255) then when it imports, it will show a fill for rastering black and outlines for red and blue. I can't handle any more colours than that - brain is too old :-)))

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Neil
EMOs are a sign of weakness ...
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Re: Best format for Lasercad usage

Postby twehr » Tue Apr 17, 2012 12:36 pm

Not sure whether you are talking about changing from fill to outline in Corel or LaserCAD. (Both happen at times.) But here it he explanation of both situations.

Traditionally LaserCAD (and previously PHCad) works on the basis of object outlines. That is, it looks at the color of the outline of the vector object to decide what color to use when importing it. If an object is filled but has no outline, LaserCAD would convert the object to an outline of the same color as the fill. Therefore, the display in Corel would change some objects from fill to outline.

I just did some testing with the current version, v5.93. I find that most vector objects are retaining (in Corel) their fill or outline status as I designed it. (Obviously they have worked on this previously annoying behavior.) However, I also find that all text objects continue to be translated to an outline without fill prior to import. Now, this is all about what happens to the appearance in Corel before getting to LaserCAD.

What LaserCAD does with the object after getting it is a little different. LaserCAD will always remember the last setting you had for a given color. That is, if the last time you used Blue as an object color you had Blue objects set to be cut operations, then regardless of what you have in Corel, it will show up in LaserCAD as an outline. Conversely, even if you have an outline vector in Corel, in Red for example, and the last time you used Red in LaserCAD it was filled, then LaserCAD will make it a filled (engraved) object.

Annoying - yes. But, it does seem to be following rules. Maybe different rules would be nice but it is a trade off. Do you want it to be convenient for your to have the fill vs vector set consistently in LaserCAD or do you want it to follow what is in Corel? The latter is nice from a design point of view, and the former is convenient because you don't have to keep switching back and forth between cut and engrave in LaserCAD job setup. Looks like they have chosen the former, which makes sense from the job point of view.

Like I said, it seems to be following (its) rules pretty well. Understanding that, it may be useful for you to adjust your design methods to match the rules, as best we understand them. For example, if you keep your color usage consistent in LaserCAD and then keep those colors in mind when designing in Corel, then you only have to change speed/power in LaserCAD and most objects (except text) will show correctly in both Corel and LaerCAD.
tim
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Re: Best format for Lasercad usage

Postby iGull » Tue Apr 17, 2012 12:50 pm

Hi Frank

Something I forgot to mention, to show rastering fills, you need to have the menuitem Options/System Options/'Simulate engraving' checked otherwise it will only show outlines on the display.

Cheers

Neil
EMOs are a sign of weakness ...
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