ArtCAM Insignia 19.

Multiple Plates

19. Multiple Plates

Introduction.
To use Multiple Plates an Excel file must be generated and saved as a .csv file.

House Numbers Example

 Create a new model of size X900 and Y1200.

 Create a rectangle of width 400, Height 150, Corner Radii of 50 at X0
Y0.
 Create centered justified style text of Font Arial, Size 30mm with the
text {{house number}} {{street}} as shown.

The text {{housenumber}} will be replaced by

the number in the .csv file, as will the text
{{streetname}}

 Select both vectors and select Create multiplates.

The multiplate page appears. This has two pages. The geometry that has been selected needs
to be stored as the master template, by pressing set emplate.

 Press Set Template.

 Press Load Data.
 Select the file house-names.csv form Examples2 and press Open.

A preview of the file is displayed. To

identify the correct columns to use, the
correct filter must be chosen.

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 Select Comma, Start import at row 2 and tick First row is column
headers.
 Select OK.

The sheet layout has worked out that from the size of the sheet, and the number of columns
from the file, that it needs 2 sheets.

 On the Plate Layout, enter a Plate Gap in X as 25, Plate Gap in Y as 25,
X Sheet Boundary as 10 and Y Sheet Boundary as 10.

 Press the forward arrow.

By entering the offset values, the sheet number has increased to 2, as shown by pulling down
the matrix preview for the sheet.

 On the matrix preview sheet select plate 1.

In the variables section, the named areas are defined by

selecting either a number or a column from the .csv file.

A preview of the plate is shown in the Plate Values, to

check before creating the plates. You can also edit the
data at this stage as well. However it will not update the
.csv file.

 For House Number, select House Number.

 For Street Name, Select Streetname.

Plate No. 1 should display 32 Church Street on the page.

 Select Create Plates.

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The first sheet is displayed as the active sheet. Any other sheets and the Default sheet are
shown in grey..

However as the text size is fixed, the position of the number is altered and some signs do not
look central.

 Select Close on the page.

 Select Undo (Ctrl + Z). Switch on Layer 0 to display the original vectors.
 Right Mouse click on the vector text and from the menu select Edit Text
block (e).

In the text form there is a constraints option, which

will fit text into a specified boxed area.

 Select Constraints as Centre justified, Method as Limit by Box,

 Select Width as 375, Height as 125.
 Move the text to a central location (F9) and press Done.

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 Select both vectors and select Create multiplates.

The multiplate page appears. This has two pages. The geometry that has been selected needs
to be stored as the master template.

 Press Set Template.

 Press Load Data.
 Select the file housenames.csv form Examples2 and press Open.
 Select Comma, Start at Row 2 and tick First row is column headers.
 Select OK.

 On the plate layout, enter a Plate gap X as 25, Plate gap Y as 25, X
boundary as 10 and Y boundary as 10.

 Press the forward arrow.

 On the matrix preview sheet select plate 1.

 For House Number, select House Number.
 For Street Name, select Streetname.

 Select Create Plates.

By selecting Text constraints then the text is better spaced out in each sign or plate.

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 Select Close on the page.

Each sheet can be made active and toolpaths can be generated.

 Select File  Save and enter my-business-cards in C:\Temp.

Exercise

 Using the file bcard.eps and businesscards.csv, create a set of business

cards similar to as shown.

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