LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

I feel like this should be a simple fix, but I am not sure how to fix it. I do 95% of my design work in corel and then send to RD works via the macro. Once in rd works, I have a layered design but it shows up as lines how I want it ( heart shape, with text in the middle). The problem I have, I want the letters to engrave, and just the outline of the heart, but the program is trying to make the negative space of the heart is engraving, and not the letters or outline of the heart. I'm not quite sure what I am doing wrong. Thank you!

Select the heart outline and make it a cut layer.
Try 300mm/sec @ 40% pwr to get an engraved line ...selecting the text as a scan should finish the job.

in corel and other design programs, you have for a shape the "fill" and the "stroke". this is NOT the case in RDworks, where you only have the shape.

thus, you have to change your way of thinking.

if a CLOSED shape (closed is the important word) is set to a "scan" layer, the INSIDE of the shape will be engraved.

if you have many shapes OF THE SAME LAYER that have intersection, RDworks will do a boolean XOR, and the inner shapes (the part totally within the outer shape) will NOT engrave.

if multiples shapes have different colors (=layers), there will be NO boolean operation between different colors. so suppose you have a red heart, and within a blue text, the machine will engrave TOTALLY the hearth, then TOTALLY the text.

if you want to "engrave" only the outer line of a shape, then using the scanning mode is NOT the solution. you can assign a "stroke width" in corel, but in rdworks the shape is only one line.

there is two solutions :
- first, duplicate the shape to be engraved, assign another color, and set the layer to "cut" with low power --> it will mark the edge without cutting totally
- or, duplicate the shape, "offset it" to enlarge, the "offset to inside" the original --> you have now two shape, one a little larger. set both shapes to the same color and set to "scan" --> it will perform the boolean operation and "substract" the inner shape from the outer, thus leaving a small area on the outer which will be engraved.

HI,
I have found, very weirdly, that if I use the Macro to go from Corel to RDW, with editable text, filled letters needing scanning turn into outlines.
Despite the layer parameters being 'scan' they scan the outline.

The only solution I've found is to type Ctrl Q, in corel (convert text to outlines instead of text), and then save as AI version 3, then import into RDW.
The black text stays black, to be scanned then.

Hope this helps - it seems to be an issue with the macro exporting text - in my opinion.