Images from illustrator to RDWorks v8

[Josh Ledger]

Hey everyone. I have been playing with my new 50w shenui machine and tried designing a project and it just wouldn't import into rdworks properly.

I found an image online that I wanted to engrave, dropped it into photoshop, changed mode to greyscale, then changed mode to bitmap, saved as bitmap, then imported it into illustrator to put on the box I wanted to cut, saved as an AI file, then imported the project into rdworks. When I imported into rdworks the image was super distorted to the point that it was completely unrecognizable. My cut lines were fine. If I import the original image into rdworks it automatically sets up the image and it's fine but I would like to design everything in illustrator and then import into rdworks and run the job.

Any help or insight with my process is really appreciated.

Thanks in advance everyone!

[Josh Ledger]

Does anybody have any suggestions?

[Kel Kodama]

Josh:

I would guess that RDWorks may not properly import the version of Illustrator that you are using. Did you try saving the file as an older Illustrator version?

What version of RDWorks are you using? I am using version 8.01.10 and it seems to import bitmaps and vectors from Illustrator CS ok, although I typically import bitmaps and vectors independently in RDWorks.

-Robert

[Jerome Stanek]

I think importing and exporting and importing helps

[Ross Moshinsky]

I have no experience with Chinese lasers but I know Gravostyle operates in a similar way so this is what I'd do.

I'd import the image. Then I'd import the vectors. Then I'd line everything up in RDWorks. Importing a file within a file is something a lot of softwares struggle with so it wouldn't surprise me one bit that RDWorks is having an issue importing a bitmap in a vector file.

[Bill George]

Will your RD works import a BMP file, it should. Does not need to be in AI or any other format as my Chinese laser would take any BMP or JPG file for engraving or rastering.

Do you need vectors for cutting out the project?
Try Exporting the entire project as a DXF file and you might need to experiment, not all DXF files will Import into other programs. I generally pick an older format as AutoCAD R14 to try first.

[Josh Ledger]

So I tried saving my AI file as an older version with no luck so I will just import my vectors and images separately.

Question though. How do I remove the white background from my image so I can see where I am placing the image in RDworks? I currently keep getting a white filled area that goes the size of the blank space of the image file making it almost impossible to line up my image placement

[Steven Taitinger]

I know this is old but has anyone else figured this out? RdWorks obviously doesn't import transparency properly in .png files. .jpg files and bitmap don't have transparency I don't think. Transparent parts it seems to fill with gray.

[Clark Pace]

Hi. I export to illustrator 3,7, or 8 from cordl. One of those normally works .

[Kev Williams]

The issue is this-- when you make the background of photos or bitmaps transparent, the background simply becomes see-thru, not "not there". There is ALWAYS a bounding box, which you can see in wireframe view. You can work with transparencies in Corel, making it easy to place 2 pieces of art together since you can see both. But to most laser programs and the machines themselves, the bounding box isn't see-thru, it's a solid object.

There's only one way to lose the bounding box, and that is to trace/digitize/vectorize the image into lines and arcs, aka toolpaths, aka vector art...

[Steven Taitinger]

One trick that has mostly solved my problem is to set the process number (top middle bar) on the image to 1. That will make it show up behind all the other graphics in rdworks. The process number doesn't change the layer or cut order and seems to be there for this purpose.

[Doug Fisher]

>>One trick that has mostly solved my problem is to set the process number (top middle bar) on the image to 1<<

Steven, can you please explain this more and also what you mean by the "top middle bar"?

[Steven Taitinger]

process number location.png

Let's see if this image showed up big enough to show it.... By top middle bar I mean the lower tool bar at the top of the screen in the middle of the toolbar.

[Doug Fisher]

Ok, thanks for that. I know changing that number for highlighted vector cutting items will change its position in the cutting order but I haven't done testing with that and image files. Good find on your part!

[John Noell]

Great tip! Thanks.