Laser Engraving Control – guest post
Today’s post comes courtesy of Tim Mathes II, he is a Laser Operator at Superior Labels based in Betterndorf, Iowa United States. He has sent it through as this product has been very beneficial to him in assisting with laser operations and thought other laser users may benefit too. Thanks for thinking of us Tim! This is a direct reproduction of an article by PI Engineering found here.
Laser Engraving Control
“Your product has helped me so much with speed and convenience. This is something I want people to know about.”
– Tim Mathes II
RubberStamps.net asked us to blur out some of the legends on the X-keys XKE-128 Tim set up to optimize workflow for their process. We can’t blame them for not sharing their secret weapon.
The X-keys runs Corel Photo-Paint, Corel Draw, and laser engraving control software. Tim tells us, “I have 220 programmed keys with a majority of them being application specific.”
- OS functions: Cut, Copy, Paste, Show Desktop, Select All, Alt-Tab, Ctrl+O, Ctrl+P, and Import
- Shortcuts to 7 files, 14 directories, 1 URL address, and 6 programs
- A Layer Toggle key
- 14 Keys that involve keyboard shortcuts and menu options within specific programs.
- Various keys for multiple settings.
Tim programmed the LED backlighting in banks to designate groups of keys. He also programed some special functions including keys alternating colors, or flashing for a period of time or until other specific keys are pressed. “Indeed, like you say on your site, it does kind of become addicting in a fun way. Not only to use – but to really figure out how to take advantage of it,” he writes.
“MacroWorks is very user friendly and has many options to take advantage of. It is a very powerful tool that I am glad to have. It is convenient that I can save a file of the script for backups or updating the other XKE-128 that we use. This also makes it easy to experiment on functions or rework the key layout at home then take that updated Script back to the office.“
“I find it nice that the keys are interchangeable. It is also neat that the caps pop off so I can make my own legend tailored to my specific layout and functions that I have programmed. So those features plus the programmable LED banks makes customizing the look of the keys more pleasant and easier to navigate. It has sped up particular processes that were tedious and time consuming before. Certain actions are way more convenient now.”
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