Center-Center

[Rick Fuentes]

Hi guys,

Probably a dumb question here, but I'm having a bit of an issue with what is supposed to be pretty simple?

When it comes to center-center engraving from CorelDRAW X5, is the laser supposed to be centering the OBJECT that I am trying to print, or is it supposed to be centering the CANVAS?

I was under the impression that it placed the center of the canvas at wherever you place your home position...but then it seemed to place the center of the graphic I was trying to print. What if I want to place the center of the canvas at my home position? Is there a way to do that?

Thanks!

[john passek]

Hi Rick
I'm assuming you are running an Epilog laser.
I am using CDX4 and an Epilog, the center-center function is a part of the print driver not CD.
To us c-c you set your NEW home position in the center of what ever it is you are engraving, pens, od shaped objects,etc, and the laser will engrave using the NEW home position as its center point.
Until i up graded my firmware I was with out this little trick, and boy I couldn't live without it now, I hope it works even better in X5.
Hope i haven't confused you to much.
Good luck, have fun.

just a thought, maybe you aren't setting your new home position right.
Press XY off hit go, this lets you move the head around, turn on the red dot pointer and center where you want to place your engraving, then hit set home and reset, you should now have a new home position. send the job to the printer and see what happens.

[Frank Corker]

It's pretty much as John said. You click on any particular item, whatever that item is will have it's centre where you aim the red dot pointer. As an example, if you have a round 2" disc that you want to engrave. You have to xy off on the laser, put the red dot pointer on, move the carriage until the red dot is in the centre of the disc. You then reset home. Now in your program you choose the item that you want to fit inside of that disc. Select it, choose the 'centre centre' option and print. That selected item will be engraved onto the disc. It should all be in your manual which you can get from Epilog.

[Scott Challoner]

If I'm understanding your post correctly, you want to know if the laser goes by the center of the graphic or the center of the page. In my case (LaserPro) it goes by the center of the graphic that you are sending and the page doesn't matter. Place the red dot in the center of your object and that's where the center of your artwork will be. HTH

[Rick Fuentes]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I know it probably sounds like I should RTFM, but the manual just seemed to gloss over center-center (which for most applications is probably enough).

What Scott says nailed it. I set the new home position on the laser and selected center-center on the print driver. I am now using the center of the PAGE as a reference point -- or so I thought (i.e. I would like something about .625 inches left from the center, which I want to be located at a certain point on my object to be engraved)

Lo and behold, it placed the center of the GRAPHIC at my new home position

[john passek]

Try setting your new home position in the area you want it instead of the center of the object. Center to center works from the center of the red dot no matter where you set it on your work peice.
Lets say your WP is 6" long and you only want to engrave on the first 3"
you would place your red dot at the 1.5" mark ( center of 3") and engrave.
Try a search on youtube, there are a lot of very good videos on lasering and using corel draw.
HTH

Not sure if you tried this.
Go to Epilog site - technical resources, click on laser manuals and click on the one that is your machine.
A new window opens, on the left there is a box that says find, type in center - center and this opens a section with a very good explanation on how C-C works.

[Chris Mahoney]

Is the page size right?

Just thought I'd filter out the basics

[Roy Brewer]

What if I want to place the center of the canvas at my home position? Is there a way to do that?

Rick,

That's what Page-Center does; not Center-Center. You'll find it at the bottom drop down list after you click on Center engraving. This is a Dashboard feature and will not be found on previous generations of print drivers. If you are using the Dashboard and do not have the Page-Center then download the current driver for your system since this was added to the Dashboard about 2 years ago.

No appologies for the manual, because it is not easy to illustrate potential uses for this feature. Those of us coming from mechanical engraving, however, continued screaming until we got it!

A couple illustrations:
1) Most irritating: Denim jacket you choose Center-Center. But, you'd like to re engrave line one of the two original lines. Select line one and print again with Selection only checked. You just destroyed your part because it centered the line on your Origin! This would not have happened if you had used Page-Center.

2) You have a job for a quantity of industrial bearings that need to be marked on an arc with very small tolerance. Problem is, the text is of different lengths and with Center-Center the origin will be different for each part! With Page-Center set the origin to center of bearing and all arcs will be perfect.

[Rick Fuentes]

Thanks a million for all of your responses! I really appreciate it guys.

Roy, that's perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. You're a lifesaver. Thanks!