Working with .dxf files with Smart Fill Tool is essential to working efficiently and quickly within Corel Draw X7.
This tool allows you to create a new object from the overlapping lines of a .dxf file. A customer or engineer might provide you with a .dxf file to use for both engraving and cutting. These files typically do not have closed paths and when using these files with a Trotec laser engraver can result in the laser jumping around the job cutting / engraving small portions of the total job.
This is obviously not ideal and can cause job times to be longer than necessary. The tool that can be used to fix this issue is called the Smart Fill Tool. We will see how to use this tool below.
To prepare a file for engraving or cutting, please first create a new document by clicking “File” then navigating down to “New”
Once you have your document open, you can click “File” then navigate down to “Import”. A new dialog box will open; please find the path of your .dxf file and click “Open”. Alternatively you can click “CTRL + I” to open the import dialog.
NOTE: Please select DXF as the file type from the drop down menu in the import dialog. If this is not selected you will not see the file in the folder of which you have stored it.
As you can see the letter “A” was imported as a .dxf. The Object Manager displays it as a group of 19 objects. You can bring up the Object Manager by clicking “Window” then navigating down to “Dockers” and clicking “Object Manager”. This is what we want to avoid when working with .dxf files.
So instead of working with this file (which could be quite large and intricate), and deleting, connecting and filling the letter; we can use the Smart Fill Tool.
The smart fill tool is located in the tool bar to the left of the document window. The tools location and icon is shown above.
Now using the new toolbar options, select the appropriate settings. In this case I have selected Red as the fill colour and Black as the outline colour.
When you click within the shape, a new object is created with the settings you specified.
As you can see this is now a single curve. If you like, you can now delete the original .dxf file and use the new object for cutting and engraving. You can do this by using the Search Feature. Tutorial how to use this tool found here.
This tool is a great way to quickly and easily create a workable engraving or cutting file from a .dxf file. Most CAD programs will give a non-closed vector text, which can not be directly used. This tool will help fix this issue.
That’s it for now!
Catch ya next time!
Great Thanks.