Starcad

This was posted several years ago on Signforums and works for me every time I change blades. Take the blade holder out of the machine and adjust the blade so that when you run your finger over it, you can JUST feel the tip of the blade. Now hold it vertical like a pen and drag it across a scrap of vinyl, it should cut thru but not the backing (don't over do the down pressure on it ). Replace the blade holder and adjust pressure until you can cut thru the vinyl and just mark the backing paper. Cut a star about an inch big with long points, if it lifts the points it is still too deep If it's small lettering, slow the speed down. If it's a jagged cut, it's too deep. Creation manuals aren't very clear and the diagrams are a bit deceptive as it shows the blade sticking out a fair way when in fact you have to really look to see the very tip that is just showing when you hold the blade holder up to the light. Hope this can help someone. Guy

Tator, sorry for jumping in here but thought I could share some more info for Beth. Beth, vectorizing is almost an art these days. So, unless you have Corel Draw or something similar then your stuck with WinPCSign. Not a bad thing just a little limited in what it is capable of doing. Downloading an image from the web is again not a good image to try and vectorize unless it's EPS or AI format. It's just not the quality you need. What you can do is download the image and then use a Sharpie to highlight the image tracing the lines you need. Then scan the image you traced in black and white bitmap format at a resolution of around 600 dpi. You can do this from WinPCSign and then convert it to a 1 bit image to use the automatic vectorization program in WinPCSign. You will have the Vector on top of the scanned image at that time. Just move it off and delete the scanned image. You should be able to select wireframe and then be able to touch up the image and reduce the nodes making a cuttable image. Hope this helps a little.