Engraving problem

[Bert Kemp]

I smart filled portions of a mirror and wanted that portion engraved, but only about half of what I wanted engraved was done , any ideas before I pull it out of machine. hoping to finish it.cdr.jpgthis is what i sent to laserIMG_20160919_152308412.jpgthis is what engraved, bad picture but you can see no letters flag strips engraved.

[David Somers]

Afternoon Bert!

Perhaps a problem with layers? That would be my first thought.

[Chris J Anderson]

Text etc needs to be black maybe Bert ?

[Bert Kemp]

I want the areas around the letters taken out, letters left untouched.

Text etc needs to be black maybe Bert ?

[Bert Kemp]

layers ugg thats over my head lol . I just took the open design and filled everything I wanted engraved.

Afternoon Bert!

Perhaps a problem with layers? That would be my first thought.

[Kev Williams]

This is one of the reason I don't use smart fill, it's never worked right for me in this type of situation.

...with my LS900, if I take a solid black circle, then place white text on top, it looks great on the the screen. But it's 2 layers, a black layer and a white layer. My laser doesn't care what I see on the screen, all it cares about is the layers. It ignores white, and engraves black. Since they're separate layers, the machine will engrave out all the black.

For it to NOT engrave the white, it can't be white, or any other color for that matter. It has to be "hole", which is why you "combine", which takes a closed item within a closed item and makes it a hole. And if there was another closed item within what's now a hole, will be solid- this process repeats till there's no more items.

There's an easy way to test if what you're about to send to the laser is a correctly combined graphic, or just uncombined colored layers: Give your Corel background a color. Just use any unique color. I'm using cyan--

Now, just move your graphic half off the screen.
If your holes are actually holes, it will look like the top graphic, with the cyan showing thru.
But if they're NOT holes, it will look like the bottom graphic, with a white layer over the background

combined.jpg
If I were to send the bottom graphic to my LS900 from Corel, it would engrave a solid black rectangle. The upper graphic would be correct.

Now, THAT all said-- Bert-you don't engrave direct from Corel, correct? You have to upload it into Laserworks or whatever else you're using?

One thing about my Triumph's LaserSoft program, whatever I see on IT'S screen is what gets engraved, so IT will tell me if I have any 'hole' or open graphic issues. I would think yours program would be the same way? Is it? and did your engraving program's screen show correct? Of course, it may show correct if it uploads the white color... any chance that happened? (I've never tried to upload white)

Not sure if I'm helping..

[Bert Kemp]

when I make the design theres nofill in anything then I smart fill what I want engraved, in this case I wanted the back ground engraved out leaving the design. untouched. I have done 4 different ones today but this one didn't engrave right for some reason.