Hey folks, I have several fill techniques to create patterns on acrylic (using Boss CO2 laser). These are primarily created by using large line intervals and optionally cross hatch. I store each as a library entry for rapid use. I have been experimenting with programmatic creations of spaced dots, but have been largely unsuccessful. The desire is to have a “perf mode” or “dither” type of burn as a fill. Recently I have attempted to create the effect using a gray image imported and then using the various image controls. Does anyone have a suggestion for a technique to do such a thing? Still playing but thought I would poll the greater knowledge pool 
Set your fill interval and optional cross hatch, then use “convert to cut” in the edit menu. This creates a bunch of lines as a new group. Put these lines on a new cut layer, then adjust settings, e.g. perforation, passes, etc. I get some very lovely fill patterns with this method, especially with perforated crosshatched lines. Hot tip (literally): defocus your laser for even more variations.
2 Likes
Sean,
Thx. I had just created an array of very small circles and then used the boolean tool to cut the grouped array into the right shape. I really like your approach! I’ll do some more experimenting with it.
It’s on the wish list to have the system allow you to treat a filled shape as a bitmap with a gray value, and then allow the use of the image options like dithering. Performing the operation isn’t hard, but figuring out how to manage the UI for it is a bit tricky. I might start with an option to just create a bitmap from a shape, which would punt on the UI for a while.
Is this something that’s on the fider list and I should go vote for?
I was just wishing for something like this yesterday.
I’m not sure if it’s on Fider - it’s been on my personal wishlist for a while. 
Awesome! If it’s already on your personal wish list then I’ll assume that’s all the votes it needs. 
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.