The CarveWright Pattern Depot

[JOHNB]

quote;
What program except for the CW Pattern Editor, or Jeff's Pattern Editor were you ever able to edit a PTN file with?

bob; is this a trick question? you know the answer to this. from cbpe to YOUR (any) favorite editing program.

edit; editing a ptn. (photo) was part of the fun.

[Lin]

I do have a question that hopefully someone that has upgraded can answer....can a PTN that you made yourself be opened in Pattern Editor after the upgrade? If not then unless your pattern is a scan it cannot be shared as an MPW file because you have to be able to open the PTN up in Pattern Editor to save as a MPW file.
Lin

[DustMe]

I was able to import a .png file, create a pattern and save it to my personal library and then open the pattern file in the editor with no problem.

[Jeff_Birt]

does anybody know if we lose resolutoin by going to the png format?

For a few diffrent reasons PNG is your best choice. First its compression scheme is loss-less, second you avoid the problems with paletted GIFs and third it has an Alpha channel unlike BMP which allows for a transparent background.

[BobHill]

Tim,
I do believe that some of you are very confused about file formats, graphic programs, and how they relate first to Designer and then how that relates to the CarveWright/CompuCarve.

For those that know what I'm talking about, plus ignor or bare with me.

First we have Vector type graphics (I won't bore anyone with techie talk, so I'll simplify what they are) which is like using a pencil or pen and creating LINE DRAWINGS, with or without a fill within their boundaries. The ONLY way you can get vector images from programs such as CorelDraw,
Adobe Illustrator, or Xara is to convert those to a raster format which Designer will accept via Import option: PNG (prefered), JPG (second choice), GIF (third choice), and MNG, XPM (which I'm not familiar with).

Any one of the above programs are NOT worked directly within either Designer OR a Pattern Editor. Programs such as the biggies: Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe PhotoShop Elements, Corel's PhotoPaint are what you'd place these raster file formats into in order to edit and create final looks prior to putting them into Designer. Although you can use a 24bit color image for this process, it's best to work with 8bit shades of gray (I won't go into why at this point). The 24bit color to 8bit shades of gray modes can easily be done in the above mentioned raster programs.

Importing any of the above image formats into Designer WILL automatically make them into a PTN pattern file when placed into your Pattern Library. They now will have a PTN file extension AND the only programs that will allow you to modify this shades of gray image

The above raster type graphic images are not line drawings, but composed of pixels (squares with each square having a single color). If you translate this pixel into Designer talk, it's the point where the head bit will come down on your wood, and it's color will determine which of the 256 depth points the bit will go into the wood. So Carving is very much like your inkjet printer, except instead of depth, the dots (which make the square pixel) don't have a height, but have dots of various colors to make the colors the eye will see and recognize).

Thus you are putting a pattern (PTN) file into your Designer project and the only bit that will do it justice is the CARVING BIt, as it has the smallest tip for doing the carving (the v is for strength, otherwise it would break easily). You can use the Designer vector tools and make your basic line drawings by creating a path. The vector tools in Designer ARE NOT patterns, nor do they make a pattern (as the term is meant here), so it's fully editable in your project at any time, whether you created these paths or someone else did and you are using their MPC file.

An MPC file is what you have when you SAVE a project as described above in Designer. This MPC file is created in Designer and it's the ONLY file format you can Save in Designer and Designer is the ONLY program which can open and use the MPC format. It's proprietary to LHR exclusively, at least at this time. Thus Designer can use a raster image, but can't create one. Designer can create vector paths (for use with a cutting or routing bit), but can't use one from another program. When you have an individual raster carving or have a vector paths for cutting on a project, or any combination of the two, you can SAVE it as a MPC file (only). Remember that the raster image is only from a PTN file, and remember that a PTN file is NOT a MPC file.

In all of the above, note that I have NOT mentioned anything about a Pattern (PTN) Editor, because the above has no way of doing that. This is what is confusing to people. Most people, and I suspect many who have written worries about how this will effect them, have never had the occasion to Edit a Pattern, nor will they ever, unless they are pretty accomplished in computer graphics. If you have never opened or used either the CarveWright Pattern Editor (only available if you have the Probe) or Jeff Burt's Pattern Editor (which won't work at this time, but will when details of the new system are worked out), then there should be no change what so ever in how you have using other people patterns in your Designer. For instance, if I attach a PTN file (or anyone does) and I am using Designer 1.124 (and I will here), you can download it and use it in your Designer just like before. You just won't be able to take that into a Pattern editor and perform any changes to it. If you'd like to change something in that pattern, you'd have to ask me if I'd like you to have that ability, and I'd have to either post or send you either the raster format (PNG, as an example) image which you can import and use to make your own after you edit that, or I'd have to post or send you that pattern as a MPW file (and I have a question on this which I'll have to answer later), which you could open in a Pattern editor and make changes ... with my permission being implied by me offering the image in that type of file format.

If I attach a MPC file now, just like previously, you can open and carve this file on your machine after downloading it, just like before. You can even open it in Designer and change any of the details within that image file in Designer just like you did before. For instance, let's say that there is a raster pattern within that project along with text and vector paths. I can eliminate any of the text, I can edit the text and I can eliminate or edit any of the vector paths. Just remember that if I used one of my fancy Fonts to make the text, YOU WILL NOT HAVE THAT FONT, thus you won't see it as I created it, unless I also send you that font for you to install on your system. The text would need one of your installed fonts in order to cut and it would thus look like your choice of fonts, not mine. You can warp, turn, or resize the raster pattern or you can even remove everything from the project except the pattern and make that your carving project only. You can even crop that pattern using that function of Designer or even merge that pattern with another pattern (your's or someone elses) without a problem. IT IS ONLY THE PATTERN ITSELF THAT YOU CAN'T REMOVE AND TAKE INTO A PATTERN EDITOR TO CHANGE.

I know this is long winded but hopefully it's what might be needed to alieve all the apprehension over the new policy on using and sharing Patterns for the CarveWright.

Bob

Addition: I made a MPW file for the Boomerang, but I'm unable to attach it. I will have to check why this ability is not available here, but I suspect the Forum's attachments ability hasn't been updated to allow for the MPW format yet. I can open my PTN file in the Editor and I can Save it to a MPW file, and I can, of course privately send that to someone, but I should be able to allow anyone to download it here as well. I'll check to see if that's done on purpose or just hasn't been gotten to yet.

Addendum to Addition: I had forgotten that I can ZIP the MPW file and attach that, so here it is, for those who would like to see how that works in their Pattern Editor in version 1.124. Since this PTN was made in 1.124, those still using 1.120 or 1.121 shouldn't be able to open the PTN file, and I don't know about the MPW file (I never used that format prior to 1.124). But in any case the only change is that 1.124 will now open for editing the older PTN files that I DID NOT MAKE.

There is ONE negative, but not a large one, and that is, 1.124 Pattern Editor WILL NOT open the Patterns YOU made previously. They are treated exactly the same as if someone authored the image file. However, since I also have all the original raster images in which I made these Patterns, that's not a problem. I'd just re-import that raster image so 1.124 will create the PTN file. Now that will open just fine in Pattern Editor. No Harm, No Foul. PLEASE DO NOT MISINTERPRET THIS TO MEAN YOU CAN'T OPEN THE PTN FILE INTO A NEW MPC FILE or use a previously made MPC file and edit it. Read the full text and see that this ONLY pertains to opening and editing the PTN file (not the MPC file) in the Pattern Editor.

[jpeter14]

Thank you Bob for information on pattern editing. Very helpful info, I will use you suggestion later. Thanks again. John

[BobHill]

jPeter,

Also not that I've just now put in another addendum to my long post. I had forgotten that you can ZIP files here even if the format isn't allowed, so I added the Boomerang also as a MPW file via being zipped. You can open that just fine in your new Pattern Editor.

Bob

[mtylerfl]

Addition: I made a MPW file for the Boomerang, but I'm unable to attach it. I will have to check why this ability is not available here, but I suspect the Forum's attachments ability hasn't been updated to allow for the MPW format yet. I can open my PTN file in the Editor and I can Save it to a MPW file, and I can, of course privately send that to someone, but I should be able to allow anyone to download it here as well. I'll check to see if that's done on purpose or just hasn't been gotten to yet.

Hello Bob,

I downloaded your Boomerang file and tried to import it into my 1.120 version of Designer as a test, but it won't work. I get the error pictured below ("Boomerang.ptn is corrupted or is not a recognized file type").

Did you create the pattern after updating to 1.123? If so, that would explain the error message. Patterns created before updating to 1.123 will import fine into any Designer version. Patterns created after updating to 1.123 will not open in any previous version of Designer.

For instance, currently all patterns on the CarveBuddy website will open in any version of Designer, because they were created before the 1.123 version existed. So they'll open in 'really old versions' and they'll open in the newest 1.123 version, no problem whatsoever.

By the way, this is normal for an updated new-version filetype not to be backward-compatible. I own several music software programs. If I create a musical composition in a new version of say, my Finale music program, that new updated version of the file cannot be opened by a previous version of Finale. However, any composition files I created previously with an older version of Finale will open in any newer version. So...file types in many programs are UPWARD-compatible to new software versions, but not BACKWARD-compatible to older software versions. That is completely normal behavior.

[BobHill]

Michael,

Note, I made the Boomerang.mpw file in version 1.124 and it's not supposed to work in version 1.20. That version does not recognize MPW format, I don't believe (I sure don't remember it that way anyway). The MPW format releases the authorship lock of a PTN file and only the author of the PTN can do that and only 1.124 being used in anyone's system can open a MPW file. Hope this helps and doesn't further confuse.

Bob

[mtylerfl]

Michael,

Note, I made the Boomerang.mpw file in version 1.124 and it's not supposed to work in version 1.20. That version does not recognize MPW format, I don't believe (I sure don't remember it that way anyway). The MPW format releases the authorship lock of a PTN file and only the author of the PTN can do that and only 1.124 being used in anyone's system can open a MPW file. Hope this helps and doesn't further confuse.

Bob

Hello Bob,

My post referred to your .ptn file, not the .mpw. Nevertheless, it is the same either way. As I already pointed out above, yes, it is normal for previous file versions to open into new software versions, but not new file versions opening in previous software versions. I think you just echoed the same thing I said.

By the way, the 1.120 version does indeed open .mpw files (made prior to the 1.123 version of Designer) provided you have the Pattern Editor that came with the probe.