RachelM

I searched for an existing topic like this, but couldn't find one and since yall have been great with other Qs I've had I thought I'd bring this one to you too. Most of the time I can do all the work myself, but currently it's busy season, and I've asked the previous owner if they would want to do weeding for me. I cut, they weed and apply transfer tape, I package and ship. My Q: How much should I pay them per hour? They are super skilled because theyve done it for years, and I'm pretty sure I couldn't even do it as quickly myself. I absolutely can't keep up with the work myself at this time, and wholesale customers want things now, not after Christmas. I absolutely refuse to pay anywhere close to as low as minimum wage. It's insulting to them because their time is worth way more than that, and I don't want to run my business like that. So... any thoughts? Also, want to do it as a contractor, not employee, because... they are not an employee.

I am using FlexiStarter with a Graphtec CE5000-60. All images (mainly text) are created in Illustrator, or in the past with CorelDraw. I drop the AI files into Flexi to cut them. So I have this problem with one of my designs. In the word 'grateful' it won't cut the e. Ok, it actually cuts out the little space in the middle but the outline of it is completely missing. I know it can't be the font that's causing problems because the e in that same font on that same design in another word gets cut just fine. Usually I just ungroup the image and pull the e out of the word and then after weeding, place it back into the design where it belongs. It works, but I'd prefer it work correctly because it's a script font, so it's obvious. I've just had another design do the same thing. Except its an i. The dot on the i is there but its bottom is completely missing. I'll try to attach an image in a comment.

And that solved one problem but this morning I looked back over the cut I made last night. Not exactly sure what happened here other than it’s treating this i separate from the other parts of the word. Any suggestions? I think I’m never gonna win with this design.

Thanks so much! I welded it in AI and abra-cadabra! all is as it should be again. Now if I could quick catch up on wholesale orders...

I have hundreds of different designs that are available in multiple sizes. I design them and save them as AI files but also need to have the ability to save them as jpegs, gifs, etc. I don't know if Flexi has those capabilities. I know you can design within flexi, but I was under the impression that it isn't comparable to AI. Since I have AI for other purposes I also use it for designing. I don't usually convert my type designs to paths/lines and rarely have a problem. Occasionally there is a design that has an issue but then converting to paths works. In this case it was already in paths and still had problems.

I'll have to try the Unite option. As for the file version, I think a lot of these files have actually been saved to an older version, but not sure which one. (I purchased the business this year after doing their design work for the last five years, and a lot of the designs are from before I was there. ) It's not uncommon for me to never open the file up in AI, because I just drop it into flexi. And occasionally when I do open a file it will give me some line about legacy something that I've tuned out from seeing it so much, so can't recall the exact wording. Terrible I know.

I was just cutting in flexi, from AI. The only thing I do in Flexi is adjust the size.

I've attached the file. And auto-weld is checked. 5291-Life is not about.ai

I have a Graphtec CE5000-60 and am using FlexiStarter 8 to cut an image I created in Illustrator. Basically it’s a chalkboard sign with a word cut out of it. It didn’t cut the dot on the i or the j. Ive had problems before where fonts didn’t get correctly but then I’d covert them to lines and it was ok. This is already converted so it’s not a font issue. It shows up on the Flexi screen and in the preview when I go to cut. Is this a Flexi issue or the cutter? In other instances where something won’t cut I’ll just ungroup and move the letter, but that’s not an option here. Edit: the image shows dots that’s because I took an Exacto blade and cut some sad looking ones myself.

Thank you so much for the help! The owner of the business was not very knowledgeable about some of the technical details, her husband had been, but he passed away from cancer, and so I can't ask her many of these types of questions.

Success! I tried it first with just unchecking the overlap, before you edited your post. That didn’t help. Next try without auto weld and plot dim. worked. As for optimize cutting order, I honestly don’t know. I bought this business, vinyl wall lettering, just a few months ago. I had done the design work for the owners for the last few years but the actual vinyl cutting is new to me and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not very knowledgeable about all the options in the production manager.

Do you want the other tabs too?

Chalkboard Rejoice.ai

Dakota, I checked and its single color, so don't think that's the problem.

Here’s the image in the production manager. The dots are there. Does this mean it’s an issue with the cutter?

It’s not really text though. It’s a shape with the text cut out of it. Negative space, basically. I could attempt to do it in Flexi, but I need to have the image in other formats and I’ve never used Flexi for design purposes. Also, I’ve had similar things happen with other designs and I’d love to know how to prevent it.