wood which way

[menewfy]

Is there a better way to load the wood and what i mean is should I load it with the grain front to back or side to side, has anyone noticed if it matters?

[BobHill]

When you cut (vector), the machine works in both directions as well as crosscutting in both directions. When you carve (raster) the machine works cross wise in both directions, while the belts move front to back (when facing the cover). So there is little advantage with the grain and can be the source of some of the roughness on some work.

Bob

[menewfy]

ok so I guess it is a good a time as any to admit I am new at this can you please explain vector and raster I dont know what either mean.

And how do i know which i will be doing?

is there a benefit to doing it one way over the other?

And I think what youwere trying to say is it really does not make that much of a differrence on way or the other.

[BobHill]

The beauty of it is, whether raster or vector, the CW knows the difference and does all the "hard" work in determining what to do.

Without going into graphic technicalities in great detail, vector is like taking a pencil and drawing a line without lifting the pencil from the paper and making an object (one at a time) by lines only. Now think of the pencil as being a cutting bit and just add the ability to lift and drop the bit up and down as it travels along each object (line/path). The pencil (bit)may move left or right, but the movement of the paper (wood) travels forward or back according to how the pencil has to lay a line (like a plotter does as an example).

Raster is like having a great number of squares and in basics each square will have a shade of white to gray (256 of them, remember that in binary numbers 0 is a number) with each shade being a height of the bit. Instead of the bit traveling as directed (which is done by the movement of the belt as well as the head), however as in vector, the bit only travels left and right while the belt travels at a constant speed in one direction. Thus if the square is small enough the result will be like a photograph in 3D, which is extremely hard to do in vector (and can't be done at this stage with wood except by carving). The size of the square (called a pixel in graphics) in the CarveWright is determined by the program, but the cutting is determined by the size of the bit's cut (tip or cutting edge).

Hope this sort of explains things for you. If you were dealing in true visual graphics and not carving, I'd explain it differently, but it would then have to get into the digital world that's not necessary here.

Bob

[menewfy]

So I think igot raster it uses 256 shades of gray to determine the depth of the cut and therefore gives you a 3d look and does all images at once.

so deos vector use grayscale as well or something else?

is one faster than the other?

do we tell the designer which one to use?

when i am using coral to turn my image into gray scale what will provide the best results in desgner more scales of gray or less?

and BTW thanks for all the help

[BobHill]

Vector is vector and cuts to a constant depth (at least at this time) as you set it. For instance when you assign a bit to cut a path you also have to determine it's depth of cut. You don't use a gray scale. When you set a raster object to cut, you always ( make that should always ) use a carving bit and when you sent a depth that's the deepest depth the bit will cut according to the gray scale 256 steps for that particular depth. angle or arc of the carve is determined by the distances between the shades and the distance each shade between other shades are. The broader a single shade is established how flat that particular depth will stay and the closer the shades are in width the sharper the angle of cut. Jeff seems to have his gray scale pretty well down in Corel from what I've seen, for instance. So with a program such a CorelDraw, Xara, Illustrator, you can make a vector outline, then give it internal gradient colors (8bit gray scale) and end up with the nice curves needed to accomplish even the most intricate details you see in Library (which you can add to bye the way).

Bob

[menewfy]

okay thanks for the great info, as you can tell i needed it.
tim

[BobHill]

Glad it helped you.

Bob

[menewfy]

btw is there a way to look at the piece i am working on in designer to tell if it is vector or raster? if so could you tell me where to look and if i can change it just to see the difference?

thanks
tim

[BobHill]

Sure YOU (or anyone) can determine what is vector and what is raster. If it's vector, it'll have a white line (path) establishing it's meant to be CUT. If it's got an irregular shape it'll also have a yellow dotted line rectangular bounding box with yellow arrow corners and centers for sizing.

Experiment with vector by using the Connected Line tool and make a very irregular shape, connected or otherwise then "click off" (click off the work piece anywhere).

If it's raster it'll have a white bounding box outline (rectangle that looks like a vector path, except it'll have red corner nodes and center yellow nodes also for sizing ) but the inside will have the design but no white lines in it. This raster will be carved. The white bounding box lines in each case will not be cut or carved.

Experiment with raster by clicking one of the Library items and you'll see the bounding box. Now "click off" and see the difference between vector and raster.

When vector objects are not selected the path will show as a black dashed line. When raster objects are not selected you will see the object as it should cut, no dashed lines. You'll have seen each when selected and when not.

Bob