en:symmetry:option_borders
Table of Contents
"Plate Borders" menu option (Alt + B)
Explanation
When you first open the “Plate Borders” menu option, the window will show a series of greyed out fields and a blank preview (first image). As soon as you increase the “Number of borders” by clicking on the [+] sign, the other fields will become active and you can start entering values (second image).
| Number of borders | In order to enter values and select a border type, you need to select at least one border. More borders will allow you to combine several border types. We will explain the use after going through the different values. |
|---|---|
| Edit Border number | If you have chosen more than 1 border, select the border number you are going to edit. |
| Lef Margin | Self-explanatory. You can enter the distance between the border and each side of the plate. |
| Right Margin | |
| Top Margin | |
| Bottom Margin | |
| Corner Radius | When the border type selected allows, the value you enter for the corner radius will be applied to the 4 corners of your job. |
| Border type | Please refer to the list of border types below. |
| Border colour | Linking a specific colour to a border will allow you to apply specific engraving parameters to this border, just like you can for a coloured text line. |
| Number of Cuts | By increasing the number, the border wil be replicated toward the center of the plate as many times as indicated. |
| Cut Separation | The distance between the different cuts. |
Border Types
| Plain |  | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Corner holes |  | Margins | The margins are calculated between the center of the holes and the top and bottom, left and right sides of the plate. For this particular border type, the “corner” radius indicates the radius of the holes. Please see to it that the values entered for the top, bottom, left and right margins are higher than the corner radius. If you enter a radius value higher than the margins’ value, the holes will fall partly outside the margins of the plate. |
| Corner radius | |||
| 2 Fixing holes |  | Margins | The margins are calculated between the center of the holes and the left and right sides of the plate. For this particular border type, the “corner” radius indicates the radius of the holes. Please see to it that the values entered for the left and right margins are higher than the corner radius. If you enter a radius value higher than the margins’ value, the holes will fall partly outside the margins of the plate. |
| Corner radius | |||
| Chamfer |  | Corner radius | The corner radius determines the size of the chamfered corners. |
| Scallop |  | Corner radius | The corner radius determines the size of the scallopped corners. |
| Fillet |  | Corner radius | The corner radius determines the size of the rounded corners. |
| Notch |  | Corner radius | The corner radius determines the size of the notched corners. |
| Ornate |  | Corner radius | The corner radius determines the size of the ornaments. |
| Ellipse |  | Corner radius | The corner radius does not do anything. |
Notes
▪ Number of borders vs. Number of cuts
If you want to apply two (or more) identical borders with a certain offset between them, you will increase the Number of cuts and enter the offset as the Cut separation value. One can obtain the same effect by increasing the Number of borders and adapting the values of the margins for each border. This method is more cumbersome, but allows for more flexibility. For example:
- If you create more than two borders, you can change the offset between each individual pair of borders. Let’s say, for the first border, you enter 5 mm margins, for the second, 10 mm, and for the third 17 mm margins. The offset between border 1 and 2 will be 5 mm, between 2 and 3, it will be 7 mm.
- You can apply a different border colour for each individual border. That way, you can apply a specific cutter to each border and use the outer border to cut through the plate.
However, when using the Number of borders field, when you edit the values of each border, you will only see the active border in the preview. If you want to see the result, you will have to leave the Plate Borders window and return to the main screen.
Obviously, you can also combine the two functions and create two borders, the first having a single cut (to cut out the plate), the second border containing several cuts with an offset between them.
▪ Holes (Corner holes and 2 Fixing holes)
- Normally, when selecting Corner holes or 2 Fixing Holes, you will need to cut deeper into the plate in order to be able to screw the finished plate onto a support or wall.
In order to do so, you can apply a Border colour and link this colour to the same cutter which you use to cut out plates when using Multiplate. Even with a plastic sheet like Graflux only partially pierced through, inserting a screw will be easily done applying some extra force.
Access through
- the [Alt] + [B] keystroke combination
- the Borders shortcut
- the Plate menu - Borders option
A practical Example
 | The first border contains 2 fixing holes (Border type) placed 15 mm (left and right margins) from the side and marked in red (Colour). This will allow us to link this colour to a specific cutter (e.g. a cutter with a cylindrical edge to cut out straight holes, or a V-shaped cutter creating chamfered holes for a philips head screw. |
|
 | The second border contains two (Number of cuts: 2) Ellipses (Border type). The margins between the outer ellipse are 5 mm (Left and Right margin) viz. 13 mm (Top and bottom). These ellipses are in black so they will be engraved using a standard cutter. |
|
 | The third border is a single (Number of cuts: 1) ellipse (Border type) with a 2 mm left and right margin) and a 10 mm top and bottom margin. Its colour is red, since we will use the same cutter with a cylindrical edge as for the 2 fixing holes. |
|
 |  | This is what our end result looks like in the Main Screen, before and after entering a text. When engraved, we will have an oval shaped plaque, with two mounting holes to fix it on a wall or door, and a double ellipse engraved as a border. Feel free to experiment with other combinations as you please ! |
en/symmetry/option_borders.txt · Last modified: 2023/05/17 10:05 (external edit)
