Installing & Using a Center Driver

Installation
A center driver can be installed in your Vision 9 Software. This enables a user to set a custom home on the machine in the center of a desired engraving area. This is particularly useful when engraving in a specific location or on an irregular shaped item. This will work on most Vision engraving machines

Open the Vision 9 software and select ‘File’, then ‘Install’, and select ‘Cutting Devices’. This opens the cutting devices install wizard. Highlight the “Vision Engravers S4” from the left side and select “Phoenix/Vision Center Origin S4” from the right side (make sure it is checked). Also make sure any drivers you currently have installed are checked, so they remain installed. Only the selected drivers will be available after you run this install.

InstallShield

Creating the Job
In our example, we will create an engraving area of 1.75″ x 0.75″ in the center of a 3” diameter piece of acrylic.

EngravingArea

 

Set the plate size to 1.75″ x 0.75″ and select ‘Phx/Center Origin’ driver, and then click ‘OK’.

PlateSize

Type in the text or import the graphics you wish to use and center them in the plate.

VisionPlate

Setting Up the Machine
Now, we need to set the home position (set offset) for the item we are engraving. Move the spindle to the center of the engraving area. Press the ‘Set Home’ (Set Offset) button on the engraver. This is now the center of the engraving area for our job.

The picture below shows the spindle positioned over the center of the engraving area.

MachineSetUp

Select the Engrave icon from the left side toolbar.
Choose your material from the Material Setting drop down list on the top toolbar.
Select ‘Engrave’ from the Cut Toolbox, then press the Start button on the engraver to begin engraving the job. (You may want to perform a dry run before engraving to check for setup errors.)

Since we have now installed a Center Driver, if we want to use the centering feature in the future, we only need to select the Center Driver from the Device drop down list and set the home position (set offset) on the machine to the center of the engraving area on your item before running the job.

CutToolBox

This entry was posted in Quick Tips, Vision Software Tips and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply