I designed a piece in CorelDraw with a dotted line from one point to another.
After importing to LightBurn the line is solid.
How can I make a dotted line that is thick enough for engraving(.5mm)?
A line is infinitely thin in software, and will result in a single stroke of however wide your laser beam is (perhaps 0.1mm).
To go 0.5mm wide, make a rectangle and set it to “Fill”.
That’s the first idea I needed to share. Now what do you mean by dotted line?
I was thinking of making a bunch of rectangles also. I didn’t know if there was an easier way to do it.
I’m lasering a map on a piece of slate with “dotted lines” between locations of travel.
A pattern of rectangles would be a way to do it.
Thank you for the info.
In Inkscape you can draw a plain old line and give it the stroke width that you want to engrave. Then select it and click “Stroke to Path” and that will convert it to an object the same size as your line but with 4 nodes instead of 2. Essentially it turns the line into a rectangle for you.
I’ll bet you can do something similar in Corel.
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Hank’s version (in InkScape, Corel, Illustrator, etc) is probably simplest, but if you want to do it in LightBurn, you can:
- Create the shape you want dotted
- Set the cut setting to Perforation Mode and choose the length and gap you want
-
Select the shape and go to Edit > Convert to Cut
-
Select all (Ctrl-A) and choose a layer color (I apparently broke the convert to cut feature)
-
Select the output and use the offset tool to create your dashed lines:
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You could also use the 'Copy along path" feature to copy a number of “dots” (small circles or whatever shape you choose) along a drawn path between your destinations.
Thanks for info. I’ll be trying these tomorrow and I’ll check back with the outcome.
In CorelDraw I was able to select my dotted line and convert it to an object. Once it was an object it had 4 nodes and was engraveable.
Alternatively, if time is important, you can use the built in perforation feature and put your material out of focus .
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