corel question - make vector out of whitespace

[Dmitriy Kumets]

Sorry if I missed a post on this before in my searches but...

I have a complex vector logo of an animal with the sun behind them - sort of like a partial halo. When shown on screen/printed the white fill of the inside image blocks the round shape and looks great. For cutting though, the laser will take the vector whether it's visible or not and I'm trying to get a vector cut out of just the parts of the sun that are not covered by the pain shape.

Any tips?

[Shaddy Dedmore]

I don't think i followed 100%, but to keep things vector and make then non-cutting, you may make a new layer that doesn't print, and move everything to that that you don't want printed. that way you still see it as a whole when you want to (you can also make that layer invisible).

Or, if the vector is there but you can't see it, like it's white on white, you can just make it 0 thickness and it'll still maintain a boundry for the color fill.

Shaddy

EDIT: or you can use Effects, Create Boundary maybe?

[Dave Johnson29]

When shown on screen/printed the white fill of the inside image blocks the round shape and looks great. For cutting though, the laser will take the vector whether it's visible or not

If I understand correctly, it sounds like the fill is not true white. It might look white but it only needs on Bit in one of the 3 colors (Red, Green, Blue) to not be set and it will still look white to you, but not to the laser.

Try doing a color Replace using a true white from the color picker.

[Dmitriy Kumets]

Sorry, should have been more clear...
The issue for me is not the color but rather having vectors in the background that the laser will still cut. I'm trying to make closed shapes out of the inside space

[carl stevenson]

you could post a jpeg of the picture?

But if I understand correctly you are talking about cutting one shape out of another in corel.

In corel there is an option to combine shapes, or to cut one shape out of another etc, so this is what you need to experiment with.

Go to Arrange > Shaping > Shaping

and play with the options "front minus back" etc

If i am cutting vectors then the laser ignores the fills. So I just switch all the fills off so I can see exactly where all the vectors are, then I remove the parts of the vector that I dont want to cut.

[donald bugansky]

As they say, a picture says a thousand words, so instead of everyone's reply starting with "If I understand correctly" or "I don't think I follow..." -just post the image and these smart folks will be able to assist.

As an added bonus, go ahead and post the corel file and maybe they can help fix whatever the problem is.

just my $.02.

Bugs

[Lee DeRaud]

Sorry, should have been more clear...
The issue for me is not the color but rather having vectors in the background that the laser will still cut. I'm trying to make closed shapes out of the inside space

Ah. Your laser's driver will "see" hidden vector objects but not hidden raster objects. (Why they all seem to work this way, I have no idea, but I cannot conceive of a situation where cutting hidden objects is a 'feature' rather than a 'bug'.)

It sounds like you could just set the borders on the background shapes to 'none' so they don't cut. If you need the borders visually, you could also set the borders to a slightly wider width so the laser's driver will raster them rather than vector them...it will then ignore the hidden portions.

Total removal of hidden lines in an existing drawing is usually a lot more complicated (and painful), but you might want to look into the 'Smartfill' tool to create a shape of the background and then powerclip the background objects to that shape.

[Bruce Volden]

I don't quite understand either and this is where a pic would help immensly. One thing passed through my mind though, if this file is already in a vector format, couldn't you ungroup the objects and then zero in on the "wayward" line and change the line into a different (not engravable) color? But again a picture would help me understand your objective.

Bruce

[James Stokes]

To me it sounds like you need to use the shape tool and weld it together.

[John Noell]

Ah. Your laser's driver will "see" hidden vector objects but not hidden raster objects. (Why they all seem to work this way, I have no idea, but I cannot conceive of a situation where cutting hidden objects is a 'feature' rather than a 'bug'.)

I agree!!! 1st time I discovered that covering a vector does not stop it from cutting I was rather upset.

Dmitriy - what I do is to go to View -> wireframe so I can see the "hidden" vector. Then, I use the Virtual Segment Delete Tool (a VERY handy tool, in the flyout under Crop). No more hidden vector - no problem. Hope this helps.