Working with The Trotec Rotary Attachment Part 3

Here is a photo of the image that we are going to try and recreate. Notice that there are 4 repeating eagles around the glass. We will recreate this pattern

One of rules of lasering glass is that all our artwork needs to be black and white. In the case of this artwork you can see I have some gray and some yellow. The gray I will convert to white and the yellow will be black.

Here is our image that is converted to black and white.

We need to rotate our image 180 degrees because of the orientation of our cones in the rotary attachment.

I have resized my image to the size I need. Note: Because I want to duplicate this image around the glass I need to know the diameter and how many images I want to place on the glass. Later we will see that the glass is 10 inches around. I want 4 images so I need to make sure that the images are no longer than 2.5 inches wide (4 X 2.5 = 10). In this case I do not want them to touch so they need to be under that size. I have kept the size a little under 2 inches so I have a .5 inch gutter between each image

Once I have gone into the Corel printer menu we need to select the Trotec Printer Driver (1). Once the driver is selected we need to click on the “Preference” button (2).

Our next step is to create and isolate the actual image in our Corel document. We do this by creating a page size that is the same as our image size. Note: Although creating a page size the same as our image size would seem logical Corel will actually only process images that fall inside .005 of the edge of a page. Seeing we have 2 sides than the actual total is .010. If you look at the info box (1) our image is 1.928 inches by .976 inches. We need to increase our size by .010 on each size. In the Trotec driver the page size is .010 bigger which is 1.938 by 0.986. Click the OK button to send the job to Job Control.

Set your power and speed for doing glass.

Before we leave the printing menu we need to tell the driver to only consider the selected logo and position it in the center of the page. First we need to select the “Layout” Tab (1). Select the “Reposition images to” (2) and select “Center of the Page” (3). Click “Print” . This will send the job over to Job Control

Our CorelDraw job shows up in Job Control that we have sent from the CorelDraw print manager (1). When the job is selected the preview is visible in Job Control (2)

Our Job Estimator indicates it will take 46 seconds to do the job at the selected speed (1)

Before we can create our full wrap design we need to measure the circumference of our glass. It is important that you measure the part of the glass that you are going to engrave on. I am using a seamstress tape to measure the area that I will be engraving on. The image shows that my circumference is 10 inches exactly. This will become our total engraving area. If I take a glass and flatten it out it would be 10 inches in size. So when we set up our engraving job we set it up on a 10 inch high plate.

We need to turn on our rotary attachment so go to SETTINGS (1) | OPTIONS (2)

Expand out the tree view so you can see the “Accessories” info tab (1). Next select “Rotary Attachment” (2). Type in your diameter (3). In this case my diameter is 3.2 inches 10 / 3.14 (Pi).

Click on the job you want engrave. In this case it is the eagle. While holding down left mouse button drag the file onto the workspace. Once you get to a location that is close let go of the mouse. Note; when you activate the rotary attachment you will see a diagram of the the rotary appear in the background. Do not worry that the attachment is turned the wrong way or is in the wrong place it is only here as a reminder that the attachment is installed (1).

When you drag out the job onto the workspace the image will automatically rotate. In this case my image was upside down in CorelDraw so when I bring it in the image rotates to face the right side of the workspace.

Because we are going to create a full wrap design we need to duplicate our eagle 3 more times. Select PLATE | DUPLICATE PLATE. This allows us to duplicate the first job

Our duplicated image automatically locates up to the top left corner at the 0, 0 location. We now need to locate this image.

I have placed masking tape onto the glass so that you can see the red dot pointer and where it is on the wine glass. Using the left and right keys move the laser head into position so that you are in the middle of the area that you want to laser. Even though I will be measuring from the bottom left corner it is normally best to locate your red dot pointer to the center of the location where you want to engrave.

When we turn on the laser machine with the rotary connected our laser head is parked at the far left in the middle of the rotary attachment. When we move the head to the left and the right the head travels along the x axis. The value of the laser head (1) is displayed in the menu bar (2). Because I am not moving up or down key – which rotates the glass – my value for Y is 0 (3). Note the red dot point is the middle of the cross hairs.

I have brought in my eagle into job control and placed it on my page. My location needs to be at the top of the page so I move my image to the top of the page. I am measuring from the top left corner so my X = 21.56 (1) and my Y indicates 0 (2). Note: If the image is at the top of the page the glass will not rotate before it lasers.

If we look our eagle image is located at X = 21.56 and the Y = 0. So where is this number coming from? If we look we can see that it is the top left corner (1). If we want to measure from another location we can select the anchor point based on one of the icons (1). For example if I want to measure from the middle of the logo I can select the middle anchor point (2). I will be measuring from the middle.

If I select the middle anchor point (1) my values for the location of the image are X=22.05 and Y=0.97. Whichever one you use is fine as long as you are consistent with all jobs.

Seeing I want to create 4 images I need 4 quadrants. each one of my images will line up with the beginning of each quadrant. Thus, i need to divide 4 into 10. I come up with 2.5 inches for each quadrant. Each quadrant will have a logo in it.

I have selected my duplicated job. I know this as the x and y is 0. All Duplicated jobs will go to this position unless there is another job.

I have already determined that each quadrant is 2.5 inches. My first image I have located at the Y = 0 location. My Y = 0 because I am measuring from the top left corner. My first quadrant is 0 to 2.49 inches. My second quadrant is 2.50 to 4.99. Seeing I am measuring from the top left corner and I have lined up my first image at 0 my second image goes to 2.50. I have set my anchor point (measuring location) (1). My X number needs to be the same as the first one which is 21.56 inches (2). My Y = 2.50 (3)

If we follow the same steps as we did in locating the second image our third image goes to x = 21.56 and y = 5 (1)

My fourth eagle needs to be placed at the beginning of the fourth quadrant. The fourth quadrant starts at 7.5 (3 x 2.5) so our y = 7.5. We can now send over the image to the laser and run the job.