girlonthem00n

Thanks for the welcome! That's great to hear that AI is the best in your opinion! I'll be using a PC for my home office. I also use macs but I'm in the minority when it comes to designers on which one they prefer (PC for me). I'm looking forward to learning new tricks with it. So far I've only done pretty basic cutpaths on printed decals but I'm looking forward to advancing in this area.

@slice&dice I already have one of those multi-use bucket things under my kitchen sink! Might have to repurpose it. So I got this weeding kit: http://www.uscutter.com/USCutter-Knife-Squeegee-Tools I actually already have several exacto knifes so I really didn't need the included one but at $20 I figured the other tools could be good to have too. I was looking at those larger kits like the one you posted and decided to buy some of those things individually since they were on sale right now since there were a few things in the kit I already own. Although I missed the Chizlers...never seen those before.

Thanks MZ! That's what I was thinking based on the stuff that I'd read but I'm glad to have confirmation that I don't need to buy any extra software. Also, thank you so much for the link! I'm feeling pretty confident about the Graphtec just based on lurking through this forum for the past few days. Seems like the brand is pretty well recommended around here and they make pretty solid machines. Full disclosure: I actually pulled the trigger last night and purchased the 24" CE6000 with the free heat press. This morning I had one of those 'oh man what if I really do need that software and I didn't do my research well enough' moments. I've been thinking about doing this for so long and had a little panic after I finally pressed the complete order button so I felt I needed a little confirmation from some people who have experience. I also snagged a weeding kit, an application tape roller and the starter kit of the Oracal 651 and 631 vinyl to play around with. If you can think of any other supplies that would be good to have for a new startup, I'd love to know.

Hey everyone! So I'm brand new to the forum, just found it a few days ago and have been going through older posts trying to educate myself on a few things. I've been thinking about starting my own cutting business for over a year now and have been doing research on equipment and tools needed. By trade, I'm a graphic designer and I have made decal files for a company I used to work for so I'm familiar with the initial file setup and would say I'm an advanced user in Illustrator and Photoshop. After making the .eps file, I would always pass it off to our print room operator and he would actually run the file and would produce the decal. Because of this, I don't really know which cutting software is the best to work with or if the software that ships with the cutter is sufficient. I'm pretty sure I've decided on the Graphtec CE6000 Plus and I see that it comes with the Graphtec Studio Software and the Cutting Master 3 Plugin. On USCutter they offer an add-on of SignCut Pro Lifetime for an extra +$269. Is that something worth getting or does it not really offer much more than the Graphtec Studio can do? I've been having trouble finding a decent software guide where I can compare features and would love to have some advice based on your experience. Any other advice on must-have purchases would be greatly appreciated, are any of the other add-ons worth it? Apologies if this is asked often - I tried to do a search on the forums and couldn't find the exact info so I figured I'd just ask directly. Thanks in advance for any advice!