LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

I am trying to make a few little ornaments for the residents in the care home where I work, things to hang on a small tree along with their polystyrene creations.

I have dxf files which I use in rdworks and scan. Pairs of lines are sometimes very small distances apart causing the scanned gap to be quite feint.

In the following pic, you will see images 1 and 2 looks quite well, but 3 4 and 5 are feint. Adjusting the image to increase the gap between each pair of lines is very tedious, i'm hoping someone in here has an alternative means of improving the image clarity.

I haven't checked using cut instead of scan yet, but there are a pair of lines so not sure what to expect, possibly "too thick"

I've read about people using "vector path" or something similar, i'm hoping it's a smart utility that travels the path between the pairs of lines and can be used with cut, not sure what to look for, any clever ideas out there .....

Each piece has the cut outline done, this is why i'm thinking to use cut on each pair of lines may cause an issue. I plan to give it a try tomorrow, but hoping theres a nice solution I can use ... oh by the way I haven't removed all the masking in the pic yet ...
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Ian- I think that Lightburn could do that, if you don't have it download the trial program as it is full featured. Otherwise you need a vector program of some sort.

Only thing i could suggest would be to use the offset polygon in RDWorks to give yourself multiple close lines.

Ran the pic through a filter or two - -you may b able to edit more easily now -Perhaps the ai file would be easiest

Ian Bell wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020
I have dxf files which I use in rdworks and scan. Pairs of lines are sometimes very small distances apart causing the scanned gap to be quite feint.

I haven't checked using cut instead of scan yet, but there are a pair of lines so not sure what to expect, possibly "too thick"

If the lines are very close together, I'd just "Cut" them (obviously at a lower power). I'd also de-focus the laser slightly before doing this part of the cutting (i.e. move the table up or down slightly so the beam is a bit wider when it hits the material).

LOL Jeff. Such a simple solution. And I would never have thought of it and I had a focus issue back when I first got my machine that was causing the symptom he is trying to produce. Kudos to you!

Wow, some great suggestions guys, thank you all for taking the time to help and provide test files.

I'm planning to try the cut option first, possibly followed by defocus as the lines are really quite close together on the finer scans.

Lightburn is definitely on my "to do" list, just a bit hesitant about learning another new software at the moment.

Thanks again ....

I went for the "cut" suggestion, had to make a few tweaks but thankfully only a few where the double lines were evident, overall i'm well pleased - thanks again for the help guys.