Cut order question....

[Brian Lamb]

I'm using a ULS X-600 laser, just FYI. I draw a part in my CAD software, export a DXF file and then import that into Corel. Part is a small rectangular piece with some holes and notches cut out of 1/8" acrylic. I want to duplicate the part and cut 17 across and 5 up and down. So, I take the time in Corel to use the object manager and shuffle the individual lines around to start say in the lower right corner and go clockwise around the part. Once I got everything in order, I duplicate my columns and rows.

Go to cut and the laser jumps all back and forth on the lines instead of going clockwise from the lower right corner.... so what am I doing wrong? Or is there a way to set your cutting order?

IMG_1742.jpg

[Scott Shepherd]

I'm not sure which software runs the X-600, but in their job control software, there's usually a tab that says "Vector" or something along those lines. Under that, there should be 3 or 4 radio buttons that say stuff like "Enhance and Sort", "Enhance", "Sort", and "None". Select "None" and it will do them in the order you arranged them.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Scott, what does enhance and sort do, as far as ordering the pieces, then?
(Thanks)

[Scott Shepherd]

Ian, if you turn it off, then it uses what Corel sends over. In this case, Brian is going through a lot of effort to manually put them in order, then the system is looking at the cut path and saying "that might be what you want, but it's not the most effective way to cut that" and it's recalculating the order. If you turn it off, it will cut them in the order they are drawn in Corel.

[Brian Leavitt]

X-600 has the Enhance and Sort options. I'd bet it's set to either "Sort" or "Enhance and Sort" under the "Advanced" tab.

[Bruce Clumpner]

Is it possible the object is not a closed polygon? That may be why the machine jumps around to cut different edges. But to reproduce multiples I use their imposition layout function in the printer dialog box. You can duplicate an original multiple time or print multiple originals on a page. Within the module you can set the pages to include

[Kev Williams]

Corel works like this, and I'm not sure why--

If you draw 4 lines, say 2" tall, 1/4" apart, then group them and make 4 copies across for 5 sets of 4 lines, the order it engraves is:
line 1 original,
line 1 copy1
line 1 copy2
line 1 copy3
line 1 copy4--

line 2 original
line 2 copy1
line 2 copy2
line 2 copy3
line 2 copy4--

etc---

The only fix I've found for this is,

draw line 1, 2, 3 and 4, then COMBINE them before copying them, then the engraved order is
line 1 orig
line 2 orig
line 3 orig
line 4 orig

line 1 copy1
line 2 copy1
line 3 copy1
line 4 copy1

etc----

SO to keep from jumping around COMBINE everything you're copying first, then it will at least only jump around within each group rather than the entire layout--

Now, how to change the order within one group, I'm not sure

[Brian Lamb]

As an update... I could find no reference in the ULS print driver to enhance and sort, maybe my version for the X-600 is too old to have that feature. I was able to use Object-Shaping-Boundary to create a closed object then delete the previously loaded DXF file and got the cut order I was looking for. Thanks for all the help!