[firejoe911]

I purchased the Artsign 3040U engraver/cutter with Newlydraw 1. I can do basic engraving but can't figure out how to cut shapes with the program. (as all of us know the instructions are very vague and limited)

Does anyone know how to cut with this program?

Is there another program that will drive this Chinese laser machine?

Is there somewhere I can find more detailed instructions?

This Newbie thanks anyone who can help!

[email protected]
Pueblo, Colorado

[zax15uk]

firejoe911,

To cut a vector, just select it and change 'scan' to 'cut' in the toolbar.

You are restricted to Newlydraw unless you change the driver card.

Do you have the manual (not that it's very much help)?

If you have any specific questions let me know, Newlydraw is pretty basic but imports DXF's well and does anything you need to control the machine.

Zax.

[fullspeceng]

I can sell you an upgrade card to change your laser over to Mach3 control with PWM power control and better microstepping drivers so you can get rid of Newlydraw. It will take you 5mins tops to install.

Then you can use any CAM software. You get much better speed control and laser power control.

Check out my website www.fullspectrumengineering.com/co2laser

Still waiting for my machines to come in but the control board pic is there.
_______________________________
www.fullspectrumengineering.com

low cost Mach3 controlled CO2 laser cutters, Inkjet PCB kits, Laser 3D Scanning, Solidworks 3D Mechancial Design, Electrical Engineering Design, overseas CNC manufacturing consulting

[firejoe911]

Zax,

Thanks. The only options on the tool bar are "Engrave" and "Panel". Further to the right on that same tool bar are "Cut Order" and "Cutline Layer".

How do I know if I'm using raster or vector?

In your opinion do you think this program is worth using? I intend to scan or import line drawings that I want to both engrave in the middle, then cut out.

Thanks,
Firejoe

[fullspeceng]

My understanding of Newlydraw is that you can only choose 1 speed setting and you need to dial in the power with knob on your laser.

Therefore you cannot cut and engrave in 1 step.

Furthermore you probably can't cut at all unless you do many many passes manually.

Mach3 doesn't have these problems as it is GCode based. I can cut and engrave wood to make little plaques in 1 step.

_______________________________
www.fullspectrumengineering.com

low cost Mach3 controlled CO2 laser cutters, Inkjet PCB kits, Laser 3D Scanning, Solidworks 3D Mechancial Design, Electrical Engineering Design, overseas CNC manufacturing consulting

Zax,

Thanks. The only options on the tool bar are "Engrave" and "Panel". Further to the right on that same tool bar are "Cut Order" and "Cutline Layer".

How do I know if I'm using raster or vector?

In your opinion do you think this program is worth using? I intend to scan or import line drawings that I want to both engrave in the middle, then cut out.

Thanks,
Firejoe

[firejoe911]

FullSpecEng,

The link didn't work. How much is the upgrade card for my machine (Artsign JSM3040U). Does it add on to the board already there, or replace it?

Thanks,
Firejoe

[fullspeceng]

Sorry www.fullspectrumengineering.com/co2laser.html

forgot the .html on there

Look on my website for an email to get a price. I don't give prices on this board or PM.

Replaces the entire board.

No more dongle needed either.
_______________________________
www.fullspectrumengineering.com

low cost Mach3 controlled CO2 laser cutters, Inkjet PCB kits, Laser 3D Scanning, Solidworks 3D Mechancial Design, Electrical Engineering Design, overseas CNC manufacturing consulting

[austin.mn]

I can sell you an upgrade card to change your laser over to Mach3 control with PWM power control and better microstepping drivers so you can get rid of Newlydraw. It will take you 5mins tops to install.

Then you can use any CAM software. You get much better speed control and laser power control.

Check out my website www.fullspectrumengineering.com/co2laser

I love the idea of this. How much for a board? Also, I bought the HX40a (USB version) Any idea if this board will still work for me?

What does it allow you to do with the laser power? Will I finally be able to do grey scale images. I thought that I was supposed to be able to with what I already bought, but so far I haven't been able to get it figured out.

[fullspeceng]

Look on my website for an email to get a price. I don't give prices on this board or PM. Should fit but send me a pic of your board to make sure.

Replaces the entire board.

Includes:
new stepper drivers
Laser PWM power control
Mach3 XML configuration file
LazyCam post file
Mach3 support
30 day 100% money back guarantee

I also sell a complete laser system with 50W Mach3 laser and air assist nozzle for $2000.

_______________________________
www.fullspectrumengineering.com

low cost Mach3 controlled CO2 laser cutters, Inkjet PCB kits, Laser 3D Scanning, Solidworks 3D Mechancial Design, Electrical Engineering Design, overseas CNC manufacturing consulting

[austin.mn]

Holy smokes. This thread got a lot of action in a hurry. I think you guys will be fairly busy selling boards to those of us that have been a little frustrated with the current control software of our lasers.

[firejoe911]

Just so I can compare and see what's out there, anyone have any other suggestions for replacement boards and/or software for the JSM3040U running Newlydraw?

firejoe

[fullspeceng]

The price alone to have some english support is worth the money

Since we build the electronics and write the Mach3 plugins/configurations, we know everything that goes into the laser.

Buying the high power 50W laser is quite a bargain for $2k I think
_______________________________
www.fullspectrumengineering.com

low cost Mach3 controlled CO2 laser cutters, Inkjet PCB kits, Laser 3D Scanning, Solidworks 3D Mechancial Design, Electrical Engineering Design, overseas CNC manufacturing consulting

[zax15uk]

Use the select tool (arrow) and click on a vector, then you'll see a drop down for changing scan to cut.

I find Newlydraw perfectly acceptable (as a driver), and for engraving and basic cutting out it is more than adequate. I bring artwork in from my CAD/CAM software as DXF which it does an excellent job of importing, set the cut order and layers if needed and send the job to the machine. On the small engraving machine it is true the power needs to be adjusted on the machine but the others have software control.

The only issue I have is on the non-USB version, where the speed can not be reduced enough and without PWM in vector cutting it is limited in thickness or requires 2-passes. That is why I am interested in the fullspeceng solution, although not until it is USB and has good raster capability.

Zax.

Zax,

Thanks. The only options on the tool bar are "Engrave" and "Panel". Further to the right on that same tool bar are "Cut Order" and "Cutline Layer".

How do I know if I'm using raster or vector?

In your opinion do you think this program is worth using? I intend to scan or import line drawings that I want to both engrave in the middle, then cut out.

Thanks,
Firejoe

[firejoe911]

Zax,

By vector do you mean a drawing or picture that IS a vector? Sorry, but I'm desperately trying to learn all this stuff.

So if the selected drawing or picture is NOT a vector, it won't give me the option to cut?

Ah, I think I'm getting closer. I drew a box, selected it and another tool bar came up with some x/y dimensions and a small box that has the choice cut/scan. So if I choose cut and open the "engrave" window, the job that will be sent to the machine will be a "cut"?

Joe

[fullspeceng]

The Full Spectrum Laser Control Board has 3.3V and 5V outputs connected to a DB25 parallel port. You can plug it directly into the parallel port or use a Smoothstepper from Warp9td.com for USB control.

The parallel port works fine but we are working on our own USB control board to sell to Mach3 CNC machines and this laser will be upgradable later to that board.

PWM does more than just engraves. By pulsing the laser at 10,000 times a second, it is better for the tube and you get cleaner cuts. The time delay allows the cut to evaporate the material and smoke to evaporate instead of heating the side area (called the heat affected zone).

_______________________________
www.fullspectrumengineering.com

low cost Mach3 controlled CO2 laser cutters, Inkjet PCB kits, Laser 3D Scanning, Solidworks 3D Mechancial Design, Electrical Engineering Design, overseas CNC manufacturing consulting

Use the select tool (arrow) and click on a vector, then you'll see a drop down for changing scan to cut.

I find Newlydraw perfectly acceptable (as a driver), and for engraving and basic cutting out it is more than adequate. I bring artwork in from my CAD/CAM software as DXF which it does an excellent job of importing, set the cut order and layers if needed and send the job to the machine. On the small engraving machine it is true the power needs to be adjusted on the machine but the others have software control.

The only issue I have is on the non-USB version, where the speed can not be reduced enough and without PWM in vector cutting it is limited in thickness or requires 2-passes. That is why I am interested in the fullspeceng solution, although not until it is USB and has good raster capability.

Zax.

[zax15uk]

Joe, yes you can only cut vectors (this is the same for all applications) so if you want to scan artwork and then cut it you'll need to use Corel or another program to convert (trace) the image.

Zax.

By vector do you mean a drawing or picture that IS a vector? Sorry, but I'm desperately trying to learn all this stuff.

Joe

[fullspeceng]

Most programs should allow you to raster output a bmp on the laser

Even newlydraw does it.

LazyCAM/Mach3 does it.

Vector is better though. Cleaner obviously.
_______________________________
www.fullspectrumengineering.com

low cost Mach3 controlled CO2 laser cutters, Inkjet PCB kits, Laser 3D Scanning, Solidworks 3D Mechancial Design, Electrical Engineering Design, overseas CNC manufacturing consulting

[frizlot]

Good day

I wonder if some one can help me - I just got a China laser engraver KR 400 and it is running on Newlydraw 1.5. I have istaled all the software as instucted but can't seem to laod the drivers - I have tried on Windows 7 and XP. The computer seems to find the machine but cant find any drivers to install. I can't for the life of me find out how to install or where to find these drivers. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Regards

Shane

[dskowron]

Good day

I wonder if some one can help me - I just got a China laser engraver KR 400 and it is running on Newlydraw 1.5. I have istaled all the software as instucted but can't seem to laod the drivers - I have tried on Windows 7 and XP. The computer seems to find the machine but cant find any drivers to install. I can't for the life of me find out how to install or where to find these drivers. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Regards

Shane

I just got a NewlyDraw 1.5 machine also and mine came with a small CD with the drivers on it. All in Chinese. The very first thing I plan to do is upgrade to the Full Spectrum Engineering's Retina Engrave USB controller and software. Newly Draw is absolutely THE worst software I have ever encountered, and I have been at this since the first IBM PC came out (before the XT) when they cost 6 grand. I have seen some crap software in my days but Newly Draw takes the cake. The machine itself is very capable, but that controller/software combo couldn't suck any more.

[dskowron]

I realize this is an old thread, but I wanted to resurrect it. I think it is valuable information - at least it was for me. I have been running a GCC Venus laser system for the past 6 years without problems. It has a direct print driver to print straight from Corel Draw. I love the machine and it's capabilities, but I needed o get a larger platform. Last week I purchased a bigger machine - a 50 watt with a 12" x 24" work area. Problem is it runs Newly Draw 1.5. See my post above for my rant on that piece of s&%t combination! I was able to configure Newly Draw to take a dxf out of Corel and perform bot raster and vector operations in one step. I use that capability on my Venus for every job I do. I engrave AND cut 99% of the jobs I do. I have very complex drawings in that they contain both raster and vector operations, text and grey scales. The grey scales is the only thing I can't do through Newly Draw 1.5. I had to convert all my lines to curves in Corel in order for them to come across properly in ND 1.5. I still have to select them and change them to "cut lines" in ND because they don't take in the color properties that are used on my other system, which I have set up in Corel.

I hate that Newly Draw, but it does work if you really want ti sit and tweak it. I do not wish to go through that crap every time I do a job, so I plan on having a good hard look at Full Spectrum's USB controller and software which allows the machine to be seen as a printer in Corel.

Anyway, I just wanted to add that since this thread came up in my desperate search for help in this Newly Draw BS software.

My name is Dave, and I own a laser/CNC shop in Nevada where I make guitar picks. I do this for a living and can't have a machine that is so complicated to use that you need a damn engineering degree to figure out how to use it. Hopefully that FSE card/software combo will do the trick.

Dave Skowron
Red Bear Trading, Ltd.