How to reverse the burn?

[conwaysanta (craig imboden)]

I am wanting to invert the engraving process. Say for instance I have a 1 x 3 inch piece of wood with the word TEXT centered within that 1x3 area. How do I “SCAN” or engrave the areas other than the text? In other words I want the TEXT to stand proud of the rest of the engraved wood? I hope that post makes sense.

[Blake (Blake Bartlett)]

Put a box around it of the same layer color as the text.

[conwaysanta (craig imboden)]

In other words make the text outline “green” to scan and then a box around the outline of the wood green as well ?

Would that not make the text scan too???

[KarlDunkerley]

Try posting an image of what you’ve got and what you want. Will be easier to answer query.

[Blake (Blake Bartlett)]

Yeah, I’m just making stuff up. Why not just try it?

[conwaysanta (craig imboden)]

Sorry for my reply “questioning” your wisdom ,but I’m on the road at my job and not in front of a computer or laser to test it out. I am new to this laser equipment and software and trying to envision this in my head.

Thank you

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

If you now select the ‘Preview’ (“TV” icon at top OR ALT+P) you will “see” what is sent to your laser. Blake was showing you an additional view (‘Window’>-‘Filled Course/Smooth’) but recommend you using ‘Preview’ to review your output.

This is a good read:

How do I invert (negate) a vector engraving?

If you want to invert a vector engraving (Fill layer) you need to add an outline to it. Think about what happens when you scan a circle, compared to the letter ‘O’. The inner ring of the O toggles the fill. If you add another shape (like a square) outside it, it negates the whole thing: [image] And a slightly different example, this time done by changing the outer line around the design to a ‘Line’, instead of leaving it as part of the Fill layer: [image] In the case above, the design alr…

Mine looks a little different but you get the same result

[conwaysanta (craig imboden)]

Ah, I see now…

Thanks so much!