CorelLaser hints and tips

[MRE]

New thread... so much going on with the laser.. we will have to collect it all back up into the wiki.. but for the moment (and please add, comment, etc):


FIRST:
Check the "CorelDraw Settings!" (Right click the pink tray icon)
When engraving, the data type sent to the machine will have a very important effect on how it engraves or etches. Default is WMF windows meta file. I SUSPECT this is way too slow, since it is not truly a raster type image. So, lets first experiment with changing the engraving data type to increase speeds.

For cutting data, I think the default was again WMF. I changed it to PLT plotter files. This SHOULD be much better for vector modes. I have not tried either of these changes yet though (I just learned of them the other night, AFTER I used the machine). So.. again.. please experiment and report back.



ENGRAVING setup panel
* Rotate lets you flip the image any direction
* Sunken check mark acts as a sort of positive/negative switch. With sunken checked, your lines and other image data (black) will be burned down. With it unchecked, the negative (i.e. the whitespace) is burned down AROUND your drawn black areas.
* Default speed is 40. I think max is 400. I am curious to see if setting the other settings 'more correctly" will make this start to actually make sense rather than apparently function counter to intuition.
* Out to file - I THINK this will save a file and send that, rather than direct command line by line control mode? Dunno. Lets mess with it a bit and see what it really does.
* Add task and Method Dialog - I THINK this will let you add a task, such as following up etching with cutting on the same piece, from the same file. Dialog mode lets you select WHAT parts to do what. LAYERS would let you assign a document layer to etch and another document layer to cut. Possibly even multiple power stepping. I assume that by doing so with a dialog box it would notify you to adjust the power settings on the machine between tasks.
* Unidir -  with this checked, the etching raster will only burn in one direction. I.e when moving from left to right. With it unchecked, it can burn forward and backward, which should speed up etchings
*X<-->Y This lets you swap the etch direction. So rather than etching from left to right, it will etch up to down. I think this mode would have sped up my attempt at making rulers considerably.


CUTTING setup panel
* Most of what I said about engraving applies here and is repeated, so i will focus on just one group of settings: Style (across the top of the panel)
* NEAREST check box - checking this will force the laser to plot a path by nearest points, in contrast to some random job order. This should speed up the work.
* Select box -
--- as drawing - cuts in the order you drew the image. likely to be super slow. But useful for complex mechanical bits that need to be cut a particular way. You can 'lead the laser around the page'
--- as layers - will cut by layers created in the document. Lowest to highest? Highest to lowest? experiment
--- small to large, large to small - easy enough to figure out.
--- inside out - easy enough to figure out.. laser works from center of the document outwards (spiraling?)
--- SHORTEST ROUTE - likely the fastest general purpose setting. I know I was cutting by the "as document' setting, which was super slow. I did not know what the setting was for at the time.

[MRE]

You can set everything up 'properly' in both cutting and etching modes, then SAVE the file config to be the default (or save various types.. for Ex: WOOD, 3mm Acrylic, 5mm Acrylic, etc)

Save options are under "Common Parameters" on the right side.

Also, on the CorelDraw Settings panel, check "Always display this dialog box" and it will pop up every time you click on cut or etch, before loading the respective dialog. Handy to test different file types.

[MRE]

My new, untested setup:

CorelDraw Settings
* Engraving data type - bitmap
* Cutting data type - PLT HP-GL2 plotter

Engraving mode:
* Sunken
* speed = 40
* all layers
* unidirectional off (will engrave in both directions)
* X to Y on (burn up to down, rather than left to right)

Cutting mode:
* Nearest checked
* Shortest route selected
* Speed 40

[Yves Quemener]

On 06/12/2014 01:34 PM, MRE wrote:
> For cutting data, I think the default was again WMF. I changed it to PLT
> plotter files. This SHOULD be much better for vector modes. I have not
> tried either of these changes yet though (I just learned of them the other
> night, AFTER I used the machine). So.. again.. please experiment and report
> back.

If there is a way to feed PLT files directly to the machine that changes
everything. WMF is made for displaying cliparts on a screen. It is
vectorial but unlike .plt (probably a HPGL format) it does not describe
plotting instructions.

And if one could send plt files without Corel Draw installed, that would be
a huge step forward!

[MRE]

Yeah! Once I saw the setting for the different file types, it was like a light bulb went on in my head..

Likely all the difference right there. Still yet to be tested. But I hope for big improvements in speed.

[David Lyon]

I was just looking up the file formats and noticed that some of the things mentioned were based around this: http://paulbourke.net/dataformats/hpgl/

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[Daniel Sangorrin]

Emery, thanks for sharing your findings about the laser cutter settings. It saved me a lot of time yesterday and managed to etch and cut different materials and designs without problems.

By the way, I want to make a clarification (not for u but for others like me who misunderstood the need of coreldraw). Coreldraw is not strictly necessary. The laser cutter comes with an application which can engrave (raster mode) and cut (vector mode). Coreldraw is better for drawing vector designs but for simple ones or just for engraving the laser apps are perfectly fine. In fact they felt faster than coreldraw, thought that was just my feeling.

Thanks,
Daniel

[Yves Quemener]

I put all my discoveries on the wiki. Please do not hesitate to add
information.

http://quake.tokyohackerspace.org/index.php/Laser_Cutter_Resources

On 08/04/2014 12:56 PM, Daniel Sangorrin wrote:
> Emery, thanks for sharing your findings about the laser cutter settings. It
> saved me a lot of time yesterday and managed to etch and cut different
> materials and designs without problems.
>
> By the way, I want to make a clarification (not for u but for others like
> me who misunderstood the need of coreldraw). Coreldraw is not strictly
> necessary. The laser cutter comes with an application which can engrave
> (raster mode) and cut (vector mode). Coreldraw is better for drawing vector
> designs but for simple ones or just for engraving the laser apps are
> perfectly fine. In fact they felt faster than coreldraw, thought that was
> just my feeling.
>
> Thanks,
> Daniel
>
> On Jun 12, 2014 4:09 PM, "MRE" <epre...@gmail.com

> <mailto:epre...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> My new, untested setup:
>
> CorelDraw Settings
> * Engraving data type - bitmap
> * Cutting data type - PLT HP-GL2 plotter
>
> Engraving mode:
> * Sunken
> * speed = 40
> * all layers
> * unidirectional off (will engrave in both directions)
> * X to Y on (burn up to down, rather than left to right)
>
> Cutting mode:
> * Nearest checked
> * Shortest route selected
> * Speed 40
>
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>

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[Daniel Sangorrin]

Thanks Yves, that's great.

Do I need an account to modify the wiki?

By the way, I was searching for a link to the wiki a few days ago on the website but I couldn'r find it.

Thanks,
Daniel

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[James Andrews]

http://quake.tokyohackerspace.org.

[Daniel Sangorrin]

Thanks, I meant that a link from the THS website could be good.

By the way, I have been experimenting with our new VPS (virtual machine server) and it would be good to gather and start using it for different stuff.

[James Andrews]

I realize what you meant, it's not within my power so I figured I'd give you the link.

[Yves Quemener]

On 08/04/2014 06:55 PM, Daniel Sangorrin wrote:
> Thanks Yves, that's great.
>
> Do I need an account to modify the wiki?

Yes, they are produced by The Powers That Be. I unfortunately don't
remember who has the power to create these accounts. Try being loud enough
on the list :)

[Richard Frankum]

Hi Daniel,

On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 6:55 PM, Daniel Sangorrin
<daniel.s...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks Yves, that's great.
>
> Do I need an account to modify the wiki?

I just added your account. Thanks for making noise!

> By the way, I was searching for a link to the wiki a few days ago on the
> website but I couldn'r find it.

It's on the right, just under the menu, absolutely difficult to find. :)

--
--Richard Frankum

[Daniel Sangorrin]

Thanks for adding me. I'll use it soon.

I now noticed the link, but it doesn't say wiki so i couldn't guess. Quake reminds me more of a game hehe

[MRE]

Wiki name was because it was set up just after tohoku quake.
We need to change the Addy to wiki.THS but beyond even my vast powers.

Best I can do is schedule a new web site admon meet up.

RE laser, yes. If you want speed, use the software on CD in the pouch.
We will be hacking it soon such that plugging in the laser also mounts the USB key as well as a memory stick with all software so you don't need a CD drive for install.

Then later on, changing all electronics out for open sourced stuff. For now we are stuck with crappy windows chinasoft.

[Daniel Sangorrin]

On Aug 6, 2014 10:13 AM, "MRE" <epre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Wiki name was because it was set up just after tohoku quake.
> We need to change the Addy to wiki.THS but beyond even my vast powers.
>
> Best I can do is schedule a new web site admon meet up.

Now that you mentioned it, I got the necessary information for logging into our Conoha VPS (virtual machine in the cloud) from Masa-san. I've been experimenting with different OSs, servers and isolation techniques (lxc etc).

I want to organize a meeting about the construction of a new website that will hopefully deprecate the current one in the near future.

We need to discuss what features the website must have (e.g., Japanese version, mobile version...) and distribute the work.

The most important principle will be: every THS member will have the same privilege to change it. We are hackers after all.

I'm not against the current website but about the distribution of power.

So who wants to participate?

We will need designers, programmers and administrators.

Cheers
Daniel

>
> RE laser, yes. If you want speed, use the software on CD in the pouch.
> We will be hacking it soon such that plugging in the laser also mounts the USB key as well as a memory stick with all software so you don't need a CD drive for install.
>
> Then later on, changing all electronics out for open sourced stuff. For now we are stuck with crappy windows chinasoft.
>

[Bob McDonald]

Hi Daniel,

One thing to consider for making a new website that members could modify, and that would not cost the THS anything to host, might be https://pages.github.com.  That in combination with something like Jekyll (http://jekyllrb.com) could very quickly and efficiently get a reliable, site with distributed development and editing off the ground.

I hope that helps,

Bob

> このグループに投稿するには、tokyohackerspace@googlegroups.com にメールを送信してください。

[listmail...@gmail.com]

On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 12:48 PM, Daniel Sangorrin
<daniel.s...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So who wants to participate?

I'm in.

[Daniel Sangorrin]

Bob:

Thanks for the suggestion, it looks great. We should consider the pros and cos of not having full control over the server though.

Thanks,
Daniel

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[Bob McDonald]

Since Jekyll is just generating a set of static files that github is hosting, I don't think there would be that much issue.  If you wanted server control back you'd switch the dns records and point them at the THS server and generate the same static files that github had and you'd be back in business with exactly what github had.  I think the bigger issue to be concerned with is probably that since they are static files there can be no dynamic content that isn't done via javascript (that means commenting and site-user-related  functions are harder)

I don't really know whether that is a deal breaker or not.

Bob

[TheNetImp]

Please break any website discussion into a separate thread.  It doesn't belong in this thread.

[MRE]

Thank you James for keeping it tidy. I checked in once or twice throughout the last few days, but no time to make my formal response..

[Reuben Msaki]

Hi i have data problem

While am trying to cut anything my data turns opposite direction, ups down i have trying to come up with a solution but i fail

when am using HPGL format this problem comes when i use nomal windows meta file it becoming normal so i don't know what is this problem.

I DID NOT CHANGE ANGLES OR MIRROR MY JOB BUT I STILL FACE THIS PROBLEM

KINDLY HELP PLS