Professional Engraving Systems

Setting Plate Size Using the Laser Touch Screen - by Jimmy DuBose

Have you ever had a hard time getting your job to laser engrave in the right location?

Do your production employees find it complicated to measure engraving areas and find engraving origins?

Xenetech’s R&D staff has developed a way to set the desired engraving area from the laser engraving table with the “Point and Engrave” feature.  The boundaries of this area are instantly communicated back to the engraving application software which automatically resizes and redraws the plate on the computer screen. Upon output, the plate contents are engraved in the exact area you previously selected on the laser engraving table. This new feature is a FREE update for XLT and XLE Xenetech laser owners.

The new feature makes engraving odd shaped pieces a snap. Simply place the item to be engraved on your laser system table, and use your touch screen to find the size of the engraving area.

**To use this feature you must have Viper Communications Suite version (4.1.8.0).(1.4.13).(2.2.4).(81) installed. You must also have Xenetech Graphic Workstation version 6.46 installed.

Make sure that your laser system is turned on. Go to the File menu and select “Do New and Set Plate Size from Pendant.” You will see the dialog below.

This dialog will be your interface with your laser system. There are currently two sizing methods available for this feature. The Fill option requires that four points be set on the boundaries of the rectangular engraving area. The more popular Corners option requires that only two points be set. The points must be set in two opposite corners according to the diagram in the dialog.

After clicking on , an hour glass will appear, and the operator will be stepped through the sizing process.

Jog the laser head’s red pointer out to the first point on the boundary of your engraving area, and select Report Position on the touch screen. Report Position is located under the Settings menu. In the Report Position section of the touch screen, press the Report Position button or the Check Box. Your monitor will prompt you to find the next point which in this case is the opposite corner.

After setting your final point on the boundary, the XGW software will ask you if the size of the plate is acceptable. If you select no, you will need to go through the sizing process again. If you select yes, your plate size will be displayed on the screen.

The laser head on your system will still be located over the last point. It can stay out over the last point, or you can send it home. The job will still engrave in the correct location regardless of the current head location.
Next, create the desired layout and send it to your engraver.

Notice that your X and Y offsets have been updated. The new offsets reflect the location of your first point. This location will always be the upper-left corner of your engraving area. Make sure that Origin is set to X Left, Y Top.

These offsets can be saved with your job, and the job can be used as a template at a later date. All that is needed for the next job to engrave in the correct location is for the item to be placed in the same position on the table. Customers will speed up their production with the use of templates by eliminating several steps in the layout process, not to mention creating a consistency in their engraved product line.

Finally, this feature eliminates the time consuming manual steps of finding the origin and engraving location on an item. The accuracy of all plate measurements and/or origin locations is definitely increased with this sizing feature. Using “Do New and Set Plate Size Using Pendant” should also make the training of new or inexperienced engravers much easier.