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Jon Jantz
01-22-2007, 10:45 PM
Hey, all...

I've been doing up some sign blank patterns to use to make some house signs etc. Here's one of them to use, if you like...

cajunpen
01-22-2007, 11:21 PM
Thanks Jon - I've been trying to come up with a nice "address sign" for my son's new house, I think I will give your design a go. Thanks for sharing.

HandTurnedMaple
01-22-2007, 11:23 PM
Hey thanx.

shaddy
01-22-2007, 11:56 PM
Here's a few I made or vectorized, to add to the thread, Thanks Jon

Shaddy

Ron Smith
01-23-2007, 06:34 AM
Thanks Jon. I've been doing some different designs. too. I like this shape. What thickness are you using for the board? I am leery about using the 3/4" stock because of the breaking bit issue when cutting it out. I guess I'll try something in 1/2'" stock. Thanks again.

Ron

BobHill
01-23-2007, 08:18 AM
Another winner, Jon

Bob

Baron Richard
01-23-2007, 10:02 AM
Hey Jon Jantz,
How did you create the PTN file for your signboard? :? Did you create the image as a JPG file, import and then export it? Or have you found a way to export a collection of lines curves, depth and bit information that make up a design in Designer as a PTN to use as a carving pattern in the pattern list? I have searched the Forums, and Timehunter started a thread back in June, but there was no conclusion to the discussion. :(

Richard

BobHill
01-23-2007, 10:12 AM
Baron,

If you take the image into Favorites, it's automatically converted into a PTN. Then if you Export it (right click on Favorites and with it highlighted), it's still a PTN. From where ever you export it, you can then upload it anywhere.

Bob

mtylerfl
01-23-2007, 12:26 PM
If you take the image into Favorites, it's automatically converted into a PTN. Then if you Export it (right click on Favorites and with it highlighted), it's still a PTN. From where ever you export it, you can then upload it anywhere.

Bob

Hi Bob,

The question is, after creating the layout in Designer, HOW do you actually take the image into Favorites ??

I cannot figure out how to do that.

Thanks in advance for your help.

BobHill
01-23-2007, 12:48 PM
Michael,

Anything you create in DESIGNER you Save as a MPC and you have your own folder for those, where ever you create it. PTN's are raster images designed for carving and putting into a new DESIGNER file. In both cases, you have access to the file.

If you wish to use something you've alread created in DESIGNER (a MPC file), then just OPEN it in Designer and change it's name (Save As - also an MPC file) and then modify it any way you'd like. No need to import that.

If you wish to share that MPC design with others (and as others already have) then just attach the MPC file to your message. They can open it in their DESIGNER and unless it contains a Designer created text with a font that the other person doesn't possess, it'll open and be exactly as you created it (remember that fonts DO NOT travel in most programs from one computer to another, and a utility built into Windows (and MAC) called PANOSE will substitute a font that one computer has with another that the other computer has when it doesn't have the original).

Bob Hill
Tampa Florida

HandTurnedMaple
01-23-2007, 12:53 PM
Hi Bob,

The question is, after creating the layout in Designer, HOW do you actually take the image into Favorites ??

I cannot figure out how to do that.

Thanks in advance for your help.

You don't. Cut and paste it from a saved project to a new project.

mtylerfl
01-23-2007, 01:09 PM
You don't. Cut and paste it from a saved project to a new project.

Thanks Bob and HandTurnedMaple.

That's what I figured...either save as an MPC and modify and/or copy/paste into any new projects.

After reading Bob's response to Baron Richard about his question and the picture of what he was asking about... "Export this collection of objects to the Pattern list...Can it be done in Designer?", I just got the impression that I was missing something based on Bob's answer.

I didn't see how that was possible, either.

menewfy
01-23-2007, 04:10 PM
as i understand it and correct me if i am wrong, when you bring as new image into designer it will be added to favorites.

when you work with it and get it how you want and then you save it it will not overwrite the one that is in designer, but you have to save it into a different file outside designer.

it is too bad cause it would be nice to have it right there instead of having to open it up in a different window if you already have designer open.

tim

HandTurnedMaple
01-23-2007, 04:26 PM
as i understand it and correct me if i am wrong, when you bring as new image into designer it will be added to favorites.

You're not really bringing an "image" into designer here, you're bringing in a project (.mpc). To import it into Favorites, it has to come as a .ptn (pattern) file. I'm not sure yet how to create those.

menewfy
01-23-2007, 04:36 PM
so you mean that if i save it somehow as a ptn then i can import it back into favs so it is there to use easily?

that would be great

tim

menewfy
01-23-2007, 04:40 PM
i just tried it i created something and tried to save it as ptn but it did not let me the only option i had was pcs. i dont know.

Tim

Jon Jantz
01-23-2007, 05:07 PM
Tim, you were correct in what you thought...

When you 'Import' a picture or bitmap into Designer, it adds itself to the 'Favorites' in the library. In the library, it is a pattern or .ptn file. You can right-click on it and export it to send to someone else and it will be a .ptn file at that point...

When you drag that pattern into a design, it becomes part of the project and when you save that project it will be a .mpc file. However, the pattern will remain in your Favorites in the library to be used again if you like... but you cannot take the "Project" which is the collection of things in your design and turn that back into a "Pattern."

I suspect this because the "project" has a lot more information, such as Cut Lines, etc. that would not be included in a "pattern."

Hope I did not muddle the waters even worse!

BobHill
01-23-2007, 06:32 PM
Let's see if this makes sense.
If someone has a PTN file to upload. And you wish to download it, do so and then you would "Save As" it to any folder of your choice on your system. Open Designer and click on the Pattern Tool, RIGHT CLICK on Favorites and click Import. From the "Look In" box path to where you stored the PTN file and click it. It'll now be in your Favorites (where you can put it into any special folder there of your making).

Once the PTN is in your Favorites, you can call upon it any time for putting into a Designer creation. Of course the PTN file will stay in Favorites until you choose to delete it. The PTN image you put into Designer will also stay in that creation as long as you don't delete it and as long as you Save it as a MPC file.

If you wish to allow someone else to use this same PTN file (and you didn't keep it in another folder on your system, or it was created from a raster image) and only the PTN file, you can once again go to Favorites and RIGHT CLICK on the image and EXPORT it to any folder on your system you choose. From there you can attach it to an email or whatever.

IF you create a design in DESIGNER with a PTN or completely in vector and wish it to be kept whole (perhaps modified, like I did to make the Gothic Cross, if you've seen that) then Save it as a MPC and that, of course would be saved on your system as you would any file you create (also it can be uploaded to your Flash Card if you wish to put it there for carving). THIS IS NOT a PTN nor can be put as such into Favorites or Library, but of course it's not necessary to do so in order to do any of the above.

Hope this makes sense of the hows and whats.

Bob

Baron Richard
01-25-2007, 01:44 PM
First off: I want to thank all the members of this forum for posting project, pictures and ideas to this forum, it really help me make up my mind on what this machine can actually do.

Jon Jantz
I don't think you really muddies the waters any, but you really didn't answer my question :) - You posted a PTN of a sign board that appears to have various elements of something designed within Carvewright Designer:

1) There is a cutout shape that looks like a vector cut with a dept of cut set to something more the depth of the board

2) A border on that shape that looks like it was a tool path cut out using a router bit to give it a decorative edge

3) And the middle section looks like a void region.

My question: was this a JPG/GIF image that you imported, or did you find a way to lay out a design in Designer and then save it as a PTN so it could be pasted in to a design, as the start of a new project file?

The reason for asking this is that a PTN is a template that is relatively safe from accidental modification. When I set up a new document format in MS Word or Excel, I save them as template file type, so I don’t have to remember to “rename” my working piece to keep my template in its original condition. If I could design a layout and save it as a PTN, then I can select and place a “copy” of that layout in a new design without worrying opening a master file, and then getting so caught up in the design process that I save over my file .

It looks from your post that you did not save a Design as a PTN, but I wanted to clarify what I was asking so that the support engineers at LHR could see what I was driving at and consider it for future updates to the system. :wink:

Richard
================
Tempus Loquendi,
Tempus Tacendi.

Jon Jantz
01-25-2007, 03:38 PM
Hey Baron..

Sorry.. I guess I didn't UNDERSTAND the question.. hehe..

First of all I started off in Coreldraw with a sign frame I had used previously for a vinyl sign... but it was just a wireframe outline in that shape.

I then started adding the shading to it in Coreldraw, then took it into Photopaint... saved it as a .PNG file with a transparent background, then imported the bitmap into Designer as a pattern, which made it a .PTN file in the library...

After that I plopped it onto a board in designer, did an Outline and made the outline a Cut Path to cut it out to that shape... (at that point saving it as a .MPC file) The depth of the carving is NOT greater than the thickness of the board, there are no cut-throughs other than the Cut Path.

So, I actually did all my design of that frame in Coreldraw... and not in Designer. I don't know if it's possible to get all those beveled edges on the regions in Designer yet at this point.

But yes, that is a .PTN file and you will not mess it up by designing over the top of it in Designer, the frame will remain unchanged in your .PTN library...

Gettin' worse or better yet?? LOL

Baron Richard
01-25-2007, 05:25 PM
Jon

Yep, that answered my question. Thanks :)

Aaron B
01-25-2007, 07:26 PM
Importing PTN files. If I import something into the favorites folder then make a new sub-folder under favorites is there a way to move a ptn file straight into that new sub-folder without importing it again?

If there is already something in a sub-folder you can just drag things around but that doesn't seem to work when the folder is empty. That the way it works or something I am missing.

Thanks

Jeff_Birt
01-25-2007, 09:19 PM
Just move the mouse slightly to the right, the red line will grow shorter, that's how you kow it is in that folder.

BobHill
01-26-2007, 11:15 AM
Tim,

You CAN'T save as anything in Designer to any type of file EXCEPT a MPC. But then you really don't need to. as a PTN is a pattern, which you can create from ANY raster image. A MPC is a designer file that can be opened in Designer at any time and since it carries both vector and raster parts if they exist, they can be modified. Remember that you can merge two rasters if you wish and do other modifications to raster and always edit and change vector parts. But if you wish to radically change a raster, you have to have or make an original image (either in CorelDraw, etc. or PhotoShop, etc.) and then import it as another PTN image in Favorites.

Why would you ever really have the NEED to make a Designer MPC into a PTN? Remember that if the MPC has any vector into it, that vector would now be a raster, if the translation from MPC to PTN was made.

Bob

rgant05
01-28-2007, 11:03 PM
Thats what I have been asking on another thread more recently. The way I am understanding it now is that.... If you create a design in another program and import it say by way of a jpg or gif file, it will become a ptn file in your favorites directory (or where ever you choose to save it). You can use that ptn pattern file on a project and you can export it outside to be sent to someone for their use, but you can't create something in designer and save it as a pattern (ptn) file. You must save it as a project (mpc file) and then either open it and modify it to create a new project or copy it and then paste it into another project. I think that is a shortcoming of the software that would be nice to improve on at some point. I would personally like to be able to develop and create a library of items that I can find all in one place. But I guess two places is the next best thing (projects and patterns instead of just patterns). Both have their purposes and they do overlap, but I look at patterns as building block resource tools and projects as completed assemblies items, and would like to keep them a little more separated, but can live with it either way as long as I undersand it.

BobHill
01-29-2007, 02:18 PM
Yup, you have it ! Although if you also had all your projects as PTN files, wouldn't that get pretty disorganized, where as those items that you'd like to use in more than one project being a pattern in it's own catagory in Favorites makes a lot of sense. Thus the if it's being used in a project MPC, then it's also probably in your Pattern favorites or the Library now, isn't it?

Bob

rgant05
01-29-2007, 03:18 PM
Yea Bob, that is what I was trying to say, kinda. The point I was expressing was not that I wanted all the mpc projects to be in the ptn files, but rather selected motifs of what ever you want to call them from some of the mpc files to be in the pattern file. They wouldn't already be in there if I got, for instance, a project that you created and had shared with me, and I liked a particular item within that project and wanted to use it somewhere on a later project. So to keep it in an organized place, I would want to take just that particular item out of your project and keep it in my favorite patterns files where I could find it. As it is now, I have to remember what project file it was in and open it and copy that particular motif and then paste it to the project that I want to use it in. If I was able to save that motif to my pattern file where I could keep it in an organized manner, I wouldn't have to search all the mpc projects trying to find which project happened to have used it. It is true that if I created it, that it would be in my pattern files, but if you created it and shared the project with me, then it wouldn't be in my pattern file. Its just that little bit of ability that would help to keep things organized where they belong that I was hoping for.

BobHill
01-29-2007, 03:35 PM
I do now see what you mean, however, you'd still have the MPC file if that's how I sent it to you, OR, you could always ask for the PTN which I would certainly have. And if for any reason not, you'd still be able to use anything within that MPC file as you know, by opening it and doing a copy paste to a new project, or for that matter just do a SAVE AS of that project to another name and modify anything on it to your heart's desire. I keep all MPC project I've gotten from others in a special OTHERS PROJECTS folder, as a matter of fact and have sub-catagories in that to fit particular projects for better organization.

Bob