haumana

not quite understanding the question or issue. If you select the color red to be cut, then everything that's red will cut as long as it fits in the design space and the media size at you set in your software. It will also preserve the layout so if you have a 36" design with a single red item at the very left, and a single red item at the very right, the cutter will jog all that vinyl between the two different elements. If you have multiple red items, but it's not cutting all of it when you send it to the color, make sure that all the elements are actually the shade of red, because the software will know if it's RGB Red 255 vs RGB R250, and it will only cut the one that you designate. <- That's just an example.

Thanks for keeping us posted. Sounds like you have some serious static management going on.

Super random - any chance those two elements are actually raster and not vector?

If you can't seem to break it apart like you would like, then copy and paste, then node edit out what you don't want to keep from each one. I do that frequently.

I'm a dual platform person, however, I spend the majority of my time on Macs. Right now, the top priority is getting clean cuts, so let's get this done one step at a time. The best way to tell if the cutter is going to perform to your standards, and get the clean cuts you're looking for, is to test it across multiple software if necessary to see if you're getting differing results with the same image. If you are, then it's the software that you should be looking at. I get that the AI plug in was a huge selling point for you, but it's not quite time to throw out the baby with the bath water. Have you downloaded and installed Graphtec Studio? I would select on design which will be your benchmark to test across the board. You know the results that you're getting from going the Mac > AI plug in route, so merge that design into Graphtec Studio and see what those results are. You can also test the design on a Windows machine. Window is not going to be you go to right now, but this is part of the process of elimination to get your machine dialed properly.

You cannot start blaming the hardware, until you've had a chance to test it with other software. Be patient with dialing in the machine until you find the 'sweet spot' of blade depth, speed, and force. It was a learning process with my first cutter (LaserPoint), and another learning process with my Graphtec CE6000. It is what it is, and I would have liked to be able to dial in the Graphtec quicker because I had cutter experience, but every machine is different, so it is what it is. If you're wanting more accurate detail, wait until your 60* blade comes in, hopefully you ordered a Clean Cut Blade. You'll get there. Don't give up on the machine. Just find smaller designs to get your feet wet with this cutter.

Is your media tenting? If so, check your pinch rollers, and make sure that they are evenly spaced from each edge (ie. 1" from the right and 1" from the left). Does it tent on all material, or just specific material and/or width? Is the material fairly flat? I have material that has a slight curled at the width edges - which makes me totally crazy, because I can really only use it on small cuts or use it on a cutting mat. How far does the material jog back and forth before it tents? Are you leaving enough slack in your material for the entire job? Material should never be pulled directly from the roll under tension. Another is the possibility that the pinch rollers are out of balance in terms of tension (ie. one has more tension than the other), and/or the rubber on the pinch roller is hardened so it doesn't grip like it should, and/or it could be slightly out of round - like there might be a flat spot(s) because it's not kept in the "up" position when the machine is not in use. It's usually not recommended that the tension be adjusted on the pinch rollers, but do what you think you need to do to fix it. Although, another alternative is to order another set of pinch rollers. You can also try slowing the cut speed, so it will slow the jog speed. Keep us posted.

The cutter is a very simple machine, and SBE works best with a very basic .eps file. If I'm exporting or saving in Illustrator, I will always have it save backwards to Illustrator 8, or an earlier version. Saving/exporting to any version newer than that become problematic for SBE.

Take the time to register. It's free, and then you will not need to wait for one of the volunteer moderators to review you your post. If you've successfully cut from SignBlazer, there really was no need to purchase VM. You should check into the connection/communication section of the VM software, and make sure that you have the correct COM PORT selected. If what's designated in VM does not match match the port number that Windows has assigned, then VM is basically sending the signal to the wrong port. Please let us know which version of Windows you are on, and which version of VM you purchased. Have you tried to go back and cut your design via SignBlaser?

Helps if you let us know what software you're using, and maybe if you're on a Windows or Mac system, and what version of of the operating system.

I agree with Wild - the scaling of the carbon pattern within the design might be difficult to get on point. But I totally get that some customers just cannot envision what something will look like. The struggle is real when it comes to some customers.

So carbon fiber is more a pattern than it is a color, though I hear what you're saying about getting mock-ups to clients. The difficulty that you'd run into that, is that in order to see the carbon fiber pattern, there are different shade of green involved in order to visual the pattern and texture.

You want to do what you can to prevent the blade from going off the vinyl - for starters, you might want to adjust the design space in whichever program you are using, so that the working width matches the width of the vinyl you're using. If you have sufficiently sliced up the cutting strip, then that's something that might need to be replaced. like s&d suggested, remove the blade holder and open it up, and remove any debris that might be in there. you would be amazed at the amount of vinyl bits and garbage that can get into the tiny little hole that your blade rotates in. there have been often times where there's junk in mine, and that prevents the blade from freely rotating in the necessary directions. keep us posted.

the LP has the ability to do the test cut box without even being connected to any computer. if you're having issues with simply running that test cut from the machine, then it's an issue with the machine. unfortunately, the LP is long out of production, and I'm not sure how available parts are for it. you might want to start considering an upgrade to a newer machine.