Vector engraves - unexpected pattern fill

Community Support
1

Hi folks

I’m trying to re-build parts for an old design that includes filled vectors intended for engrave.

Two problems:

  1. loading the model from my app.glowforge.com home gallery, I’m not sure if the settings are the same as when it cut it last year
  2. I seem to have dot pattern settings even for vector fills. was it always like that? how do I set a constant power? Does it care about the fill color (I hope not).

-Alex

2

The cut settings are the same.

As far as convert-to-dots, etc. that would indicate that whatever is in the artwork is a bitmap. Vector graphics are constant power.

I’m not sure how that would have changed (in your artwork) or if it’s even possible.

I assume it’s just a solid fill? Black hopefully? If so, you can change it to vari-power and it will just engrave “on” like a vector does. And black will use the max power that you set.

As far as vectors, it doesn’t care about fill color as far as what the operation does - fill colors are just used to define different operations.

3

You are right - it is a bitmap that looks like a vector, not actually vector.

I have replaced it with a vector and now the UI looks like I expect.

I still aren’t getting the nice textures I used to : but now I think they must have actually come from the dithering.

I’ll have a play around another time.

1 Like
4

I’m sorry you ran into trouble with the settings on some of your previous designs. When you experiment with your settings, I’d recommend taking a look through our guide about Working with Manual Mode including the section called “Minimize Margin (Beta)” for your engraves which are bitmap images. This section includes information about how adjusting the slider between “Minimize Margin” and “Maximize Quality” is likely to impact your print results.

I hope the above information helps! I’m going to close this thread. If you run into trouble again, or have any questions, please post a new topic here on the forum or email us at support@glowforge.com and we’ll be happy to assist you.