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fyrpuppy
06-26-2008, 11:03 PM
Attached is a copy of my first scan. It is a scan of a Fire mark that is made of cast iron. I have had this for about 20 years and found it in an antique store that had it listed as a lodge plaque. My problem is I had it hot glued to my sled and I used a tongue depressor to space the probe off of the sled so it never touched the sled. When you turn the image up on it's side there is all sorts of spikes. How do I get rid of the spikes. Thanks in advance for any help. Also for a little history this is the fire mark for Benjamin Franklins Fire Dept. The cast iron has a wood grain look to it , the original fire marks were wood and normally the items like the hands and numbers were cast iron. This one is all black with the hands and numbers being aged gold look.

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fwharris
06-26-2008, 11:13 PM
try "lowering" it when you import it into designer.

fyrpuppy
06-26-2008, 11:19 PM
Thanks, I thought that might lower the detail on the top instead of the back. Would that be lowering the depth or height?

fwharris
06-27-2008, 12:24 AM
I believe it does lower the height some. I compared yours to the one I lowered and it does not seem to make much difference. I am sure some of the pro's will jump in and explain it with more detail..

bjbethke
06-27-2008, 12:52 AM
I made a MPC and it looks like a great PTN to me. Thanks for the PTN. great job.

bjbethke
06-27-2008, 01:17 AM
You need a full one inch board to carve your PTN to the max depth and height

The PTN depth is.974 when I downloaded it.

ChrisAlb
06-27-2008, 05:53 AM
Attached is a copy of my first scan. It is a scan of a Firemark that is made of cast iron. I have had tis for about 20 years and found it in an antique store that had it listed as a lodge plaque. My problem is I had it hot glued to my sled and I used a tongue depresser to space the probe of of the sled so it never touched the sled. When you turn the image up on it's side there is all sorts of spikes. How do I get rid of the spikes. Thanks in advance for any help. Also for a little history this is the firemark for Benjam Franklins Fire Dept.

13325

13326

Hi fyrpuppy,

When you import the pattern, click the "Floor Edges" check box. This forces the edges to a common height. The pictures below show you the before and after effects of doing this. Also, change the "Depth" of it to .375" Before saving it to you pattern library. I did and it looks great without having to carve it so deep. Of course you can change the depth in Designer as well but then you WILL loose some of the upper details.

Hope that helps.

Chris

mtylerfl
06-27-2008, 10:09 AM
Hello fyrpuppy,

Chris is correct about "Floor Edges" - however, you would normally use the "Round Edges Tool" to bring the outside edges of the scan down to the Zero plane (the floor) in the Pattern Editor after importing your raw scan (mpw). The tool's name implies that it will perform some sort of a "round-over", but that is not the case...it's function is simply to bring any "incomplete" outside edges all the way down to "zero". (I've already suggested a name change for that particular tool that will better represent its true purpose.)

Also, when the pattern is brought onto a layout in Designer, use of the Depth and Height tools can be used in concert to find a good balance of pattern detail vs. a reduced carve depth. If the Depth is lowered, you can try raising the Height. This will often bring back some detail.

The June Tips & Tricks will have some tips about scanning (late in its release, since I've been out of town so much lately)...then a follow-up article in the July Tips & Tricks will cover the features and functions of the latest version of the Pattern Editor software. Both Tips & Tricks issues might come in handy for folks who already use the scanning probe and for those who will be getting one in the future!

roughcut
06-27-2008, 11:15 AM
I have really been needing tips on scanning.It all seems so simple when you Pros explain it. Thank You.

fyrpuppy
06-27-2008, 11:56 AM
Thanks guys I didn't know about the floor edges option, I really appreciate the help. Is there a way to assign an automatic cutpath to this or will I have to do a manual one. I have gotten patterns from you guys off of here so maybe now I can begin to contribute back.

ChrisAlb
06-27-2008, 12:01 PM
Yep, just put the pattern on the board, right click on it and select "Outline Patterns". Then hit the cut path button, flip the cut and you're good to go.

fyrpuppy
06-27-2008, 12:13 PM
:confused:When I highlighted and hit outline the cutpath option it did not come up it stayed grayed out, also what do you mean by flip the pattern and why. Thanks again.

ChrisAlb
06-27-2008, 12:21 PM
That's odd, it worked perfectly for me. Here's the MPC with the cut path applied.

We're not flipping the "Pattern", we're flipping the "cut path" . When you apply a cut path, the default cuts to the "inside" of the path line. This would cut a little off your pattern. When you "flip the cut" it now cuts "outside" the path line.

Open this one and you'll see.

Amonaug
06-27-2008, 02:03 PM
For me sometimes when I click on a pattern/path in designer not all the options come up for it. I simply click off it or click another pattern, wait a couple seconds and try selecting it again. It seems sometimes designer isn't catching up to what I'm doing and misses a few commands. I just have to be patient with it sometimes.

mtylerfl
06-27-2008, 02:17 PM
:confused:When I highlighted and hit outline the cutpath option it did not come up it stayed grayed out, also what do you mean by flip the pattern and why. Thanks again.

Hello,

This may or may not seem obvious, but you need to...


1) Click on the pattern
2) Then click on the Outline Tool
3) Then (while the outline is still selected) click on the Cut Path Tool
4) choose "Flip Cut" so that the cutout kerf will be on the outside of the pattern

fyrpuppy
06-27-2008, 02:34 PM
I saved it as an MPC and the cut path option was there after that. Thanks again for your help and info. I have had the machine since November and bought the scanner in Feb. but due to injuries and other things going on I have not been able to actually scan (just made my sled Monday) or make a carve other than 2 test carves, but I am back where I can play now so hopefully I be posting some completed projects on here before long.