Automatic multiple passes

[Anthony Scira]

I am doing some small fretboard inlays. I am inlaying maple into ebony. The ebony requires about 10 to 12 passes at 100S and 100P to get it to an acceptable depth. Is there a way to make the machine run the same file 10 times without having me push the go button every time ?

https://goo.gl/photos/kucAHhxgydrgu2QX9

[Glen Monaghan]

I suppose you could use the color mapping feature to do that. Open the artwork file, copy everything, then paste and change the color to something new. Repeat until you have 10 perfectly registered copies of your artwork, each a different color. Probably easiest to use red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, cyan, black, and 3 convenient shades of gray. When sending to the engraver, turn on color mapping and set each of your ten colors with identical settings of 100S, 100P. It should run each color in turn until all 10 passes are done.

[John Bronleewe]

When I want to do this I just change the number in the "copies" portion of the print dialog box to equal however many passes I want. I am assuming the Helix uses the same print dialog box as the Mini does.

[Anthony Scira]

I tried the color map option. It only does the top color.
I have not tried the number of copies I want. I just figured it would send the file 10 times. Not run it. If that works it will be awesome.

[John Bronleewe]

I tried the color map option. It only does the top color.
I have not tried the number of copies I want. I just figured it would send the file 10 times. Not run it. If that works it will be awesome.

It should do exactly what you want. It's beautiful.

[Glen Monaghan]

Eh, I just tried what I suggested and it doesn't work when the layers are identical and registered, even if you change speed, power, and/or frequency! However, John's suggestion of setting copies does work, although it does home between each pass.

[Michael Hunter]

I believe that if you press the GO button *before* you have sent any files to the machine, it will start engraving as soon as it has received enough data.
It might well carry on and engrave all the files that are sent subsequently.

(I've never tried this - not even for one file, having never seen a need)

[Doug Griffith]

Just copy and paste the same vectors on top of itself as many times as you want passes. Works in Illustrator at least.

[Gary Hair]

I am doing some small fretboard inlays. I am inlaying maple into ebony. The ebony requires about 10 to 12 passes at 100S and 100P to get it to an acceptable depth. Is there a way to make the machine run the same file 10 times without having me push the go button every time ?

https://goo.gl/photos/kucAHhxgydrgu2QX9

Not sure how your printer driver works, but with my Explorer I can set an option to "Engrave immediately" and then select the number of copies. It sends the jobs to the laser and it runs them automagically.

[Rich Harman]

Just copy and paste the same vectors on top of itself as many times as you want passes. Works in Illustrator at least.

Same for LaserWorks, probably RDCam too. There is also an option to delete overlapping lines which is really useful for those dxfs that have dozens of copies of the same lines. I have no idea why that happens, but it does sometimes.

[Kev Williams]

My Gravo LS900 will do multipasses by color, been doing it all day on powdercoated water bottles. However, my Gravo driver will allow up to 10 identical passes for each color. The only reason I'm using the color is because the second pass is just a cleanup pass that can go much faster than the first pass.

I've never tried the 'copies' thing in the print driver...

[Keith Colson]

I second Doug's answer. that is what I do. I only use the colours if I want the 2nd pass to be at a different z height.

[Lee DeRaud]

Just copy and paste the same vectors on top of itself as many times as you want passes. Works in Illustrator at least.

Don't know about Epilog, but on ULS drivers that only works as described for vector, not for raster.

[Chuck Stone]

Agree with Doug .. copy and paste the vector for multiple copies.
Mine will only run one pass for raster, too .. but it will vector 100 times if
I keep pasting copies. Good for things that need light power or get melty

[Kev Williams]

Very interesting-- I've had my little ULS for 13 years and just now tried (or even noticed) the 'number of copies' box in the print driver. I sent a small black rectangle with a red outline to the machine, told it 3 copies-- it engraved the black 3 times, then the outline 3 times...If you knew how many times I've grumbled to myself over the years about the machine not having a way to do multi passes... Doh!

FWIW the driver is ULS 2009-12-23 WinXP/Vista V1.09R --


The LS900 is a different story- sending more than 1 'copy' just confused the machine's memory. I sent the same rectangle to the 900 w/3 copies, and the display hung once the first job loaded. Pressing the X button cleared it, but the job wouldn't run, as if I was trying to vector a thickened outline. I sent the 3x job a second time, and the machine hung from the get go with "calculating" frozen on the display. Had to shut the machine down. As I noted above, the 900 driver has multi-copy built in, so the 'number of copies' function isn't needed anyway...

13 years... agghhh....