JobControl Help

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Hope someone can help me, as I’m at my wits’ end!

I thought I had this thing finally figured out, I’ve done a bunch of tiny square cuts with engraved patterns as tests this afternoon, trying to optimise the power/speed settings, and I’m satisfied and ready to cut my piece.

I’ve triple checked everything, the settings are perfect. The laser is focused. So why is the Trotec just whizzing back and forth over my plywood as if it’s engraving (when it’s not) and then stopping as if it’s finished the whole job. It doesn’t even do the cutting portion after ‘engraving’.

Maybe I’m just paranoid, but it looks to me like the job preview is super pixelated (see below.) Is that normal? Or is JobControl not considering my objects as suitable for cutting somehow?

Any ideas would be appreciated! I’ve been here for hours and I’m going home empty handed… again.

Also: Where can I find a more comprehensive list of recommended material settings? If there’s something readily available here or on the internet, I’m not finding it.

There’s general material settings on the wall, but you’ve probably seen them

@lasertechs?

@StudioNelle was having grief with JobControl

@tomnewsom is it worth a reload?

Problems I’ve had before have sometimes been due to members adjusting settings/preferences and not changing them back…however I’m not sure we have the full set of basic settings recorded…

We do have a full set of the basic settings on the tool page on discourse. Reset those and then check your material settings in job control.

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Thanks, there’s obscure ones too…once someone reset the z-axis offset…

looking at that picture top left it shows engraving (red )2:58

cut (blue) 0:00

looks like you have got your settings back to front

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I spent nearly 4 hours tryi!ng to resolve this from changing cables, checking basic settings, reboot, reboot, reboot nothing worked.

I had the same issue with the time calculations. It’s not reading the cut line. I tried changing colours no joy. I noticed this kept popping up attached.

20180810_021536|500x500

I tried illustrator, coral draw (I think licence is expired) same problems with vector reading as image, or lines not being visible, or half job visible or what everyone it wanted to throw at me a different issue everyone rebooted. I think there is a software issue.

Dan I hope you found a resolution.

Your image is missing.

It seems a bit pixelated, anyhows to cut it the outline stroke has to be 0.001inch/0.025mm.
what you’ve got on that picture seems like red - engrave and blue-cut.

The blue may not have an outline stroke and its just filling.

Error message that kept popping up:

Also some pictures to illustrated some of the issues experienced.

The classic No job found - but after a reboot 50 times it suddenly find the same job plus 50 previous jobs

Original file with no black engraved lines, blue selected at .100mm or .1inch

And the result:

Orginal settings used:

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I’m on my way in to take a look at the evil job control! Please be advised that If you are using the laser this morning, I may need to stop access to the machine whilst I make an assessment.

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Come to think of it, I’ve seen that error as well.

I hadn’t noticed that! I did literally a dozen successful tests before loading up my final job, and then I triple checked all the settings before cutting. I have no idea how that could have happened.

Upon very close inspection, I can see that my vectors were very lightly engraved! Since the blue in my design has no stroke, the Trotec had nothing to cut for blue.

I’ll be back in on Sunday to try again :muscle:

Ok, test complete, results show the laser and job control is working as expected. My test job was as follows:
Download b/w image of the internet for engrave.
Open illustrator and draw a shape for cut line.
Make shape 255 blue and 0.001in thick.
Scale and place black image is shape.
Click print and set media size to speedy 300.
Check setup and set settings appropriate to material used.
Open job control
Check wysiwyg and preview image.
Check time scale of print and engrave.
Hit go as all looked good.
Perfect engrave and cut.
Images for all settings and finished product below.

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That’s a good sign, thanks for testing

However: I’ve often had parts of files simply missing when you get to the WYSIWYG stage…sometimes it mysteriously works from Corel Draw, but maybe that’s an experiment for another afternoon…there was definitely something around page size communication between Inkscape and JobControl on occasions

Ahh ok, I usually teach the fix to this issue or very similar in my induction sessions. I often find this occurs because of 2 reasons.
1 line colour and weight settings are incorrect.
2 the project you are trying to process is sometimes small and using job control to take the size from application fails. Turn this setting off and set the size manually to a size slightly bigger than you project extents.
99.9% of the time these 2 things cause such an issue.

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Okay, I’m back to try this one more time. I’m giving the finished piece to a friend in a few hours as a birthday present, so I’d really, really like for this to work, please, Mr. JobControl.

JobControl now says EMPTY_JOB no matter what I do.

Stroke is 0.025mm, flat colour RGB, 255 blue and 255 alpha, 100% opacity. Everything looks correct. I’ve rebooted the software a few times and then even the whole computer a couple of times.

Anyone encountered this issue before? @StudioNelle…? @lasertechs?

+1 HOUR UPDATE: Someone in the space volunteered to have a look, and we prodded some print settings in Inkscape… and now I can’t even get my jobs opening in JobControl. They don’t load up.

I can ‘open recent’ and load previous user’s jobs, no problem. I’ve even tried opening my files in Illustrator and printing from there – same problem. Jobs don’t open in JobControl.

I don’t drink and never have, but I might start right now.

Hmmm, have you created this file in Inkscape on another machine and then opened it here on the Makerspace laser pc? I troubleshooted @StudioNelles files the other day and found some anomolies I couldn’t explain… a fresh file on illustrator worked perfectly though…

Yes I encountered the same problem. I had some joy by simply copying and pasting the same file into a blank new file in inkscape, reset the stoke settings, and make sure print preference is set to take from application and it has worked on occasion.

As Johnathan mentioned he was scratching his head as to why the file wasn’t reading at first. I personally think it’s a software issue with how inkscape and job control speak to each other as the same file we give me 3 or rdifferent issues with the same file using the basic suggested settings.

I likely and annoying problem could likely what caused the software issue is using different versions of inkscape. I realised the files that I have been using for over a year that had worked without any issues and then suddenly becomes issues occurs when I create updates using the computer in the clean room. I don’t have illustrator at home so not realistic for me to create files in illustrator, and can’t rely on using the computers in the space as some files can take some time to create adjust not ideal if others need to use the laser cutter.

I will check and post the version of the inkscape on the laser cutter computer again later today, and clean room and make sure they are the same and it might be worth checking the inkscape on you computer also matches. This could be the solution?

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Successful cut!

Went into Control Panel and it turns out there were 23 items in the trotec print queue. I assume thats what was causing JobControl to lock up. After cancelling them all and rebooting, it appears to all work as expected.

Huge huge thanks to @Jonathan for calling me from work to offer troubleshooting advice and talk me down from the ledge. You’re my hero!

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I know this isn’t exactly on the topic of JobControl, but now that I’m getting more into laser cutting I’d love to have more info on recommended settings for different materials, and a guide to kerf widths. I’ve made vectors that tesselate in theory, but are loose when cut, because I can’t find any solid info on kerfs and material thicknesses etc.

Google has failed me. Where do the experts get their info?