User guide

Link to Table of Contents
User Guide
52
User Manual
This is what we call the “nominal” power setting. Over-powering the material will produce poor
results.
In your graphics software, create a series of ve rectangles that are about ¼ inch high and 6 inches
wide as in the following diagram:
Starting with the top rectangle, set the power setting to a value that you know will be too low. For
example, engrave the rst rectangle at 5% power, increasing the power for each subsequent
rectangle in 5% increments, nishing the series o at 25% power and note the results. Choose the
rectangle that uses the lowest % Power setting to achieve the most contrast. If 25% is not enough
power, then engrave the rectangles once again, this time starting at 25% and increasing in 5%
increments as above.
In this particular example, we’ll say that 20% power looks over-burned, but 15% appears
under-burned. Since the material may be sensitive to small power changes, you may need to
narrow it down a bit further. Engrave a new series of rectangles, but this time start the top rectangle
at 15% then add 1% for the next rectangle, and so forth, until you nd the best setting between 15%
and 20%.
The setting that produces the highest contrast using the least amount of % Power is called the
“nominal power setting.”
Engraving a Calibration Scale
00 01 02
03
04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
Now that you have established the nominal power setting, you will need to engrave a grayscale
calibration scale. You can create one of your own or use the one provided for you which can be
found on the Software Installation CD-ROM called “3D Calibration Scale.cdr.” This is a CorelDRAW 8
le so using versions 8 and higher will open the le.
The scale looks like this:
Each rectangle is 0.5 inches wide (12.7 mm) and 0.25 inches tall (6.35 mm). Each successive shade
of gray is incremental by 16 levels starting at 0 and ending at 255. The numbers below the scale
are there as a reference to the 16 levels of power control (explained later) and do not need to be
engraved if you do not want to.
Engrave the calibration scale, onto your material, using the nominal power setting you established
earlier. Compare it to the actual calibration scale that you see on screen or in this manual. If the
response of your material to the laser beam was perfectly linear, then the result should look exactly
like the calibration scale. Most likely you will nd that several rectangles appear to have the same
appearance of shading. The objective would be to engrave the calibration scale and produce a
result that would appear as if each rectangle would have its own distinguishable level of gray,
starting from white all the way to black. To help you achieve those results, the printer driver gives
you the ability to calibrate the power level of each one of the rectangles. To access the feature, click
on the “Setup” button.