Wildgoose

BTW that is smart saving it already mirrored. I do that when I remember to, helps from forgetting later.

Seems like there is a certain level of update that you want to stop at. The last one or two were not working or something, or so I have read on the forum here. I can't remember which downsave version is best for scalp because I haven't had a copy since last july but you might try version 8.

You might take a look at what version you are saving your ai files in. Try a few different ones and I think you will find one that works.

I just checked the price on SignCut Pro dongles and they have evidently went up. Now priced at almost $400. Hmmm. I could buy a copy of each version of flexi starter.

grabbed one too, thanks!

I think if you had a pc that was not connected to the net and just cut with it you would probably be fine. Personally I didn't want my design computer tied to the cutter. In your case that sounds like it will be a laptop. I am sure it can be figured out to go with a mc and if for some reason in the end it won't then your only out the cost of an old pc that won't need to be big fancy or fast, in fact I think most cutting software would prefer widows xp, I don't think that is true of flexi but I'm still checking that out. You are going to spend 95% of your time on the design side and just a few clicks to send to the cutter so I would def go the mac way for designing.

Post a pic of what you are trying to vector

I always wonder now that I have learned a bit about this business. Why do they make a 28" cutter? Maybe vinyl comes in a different size in china or something. It's weird

My words of wisdom, be careful! Ha ha! I would be sure to wrap up every square inch of that thing and use as low of pressure as possible but I don't see why it wouldn't work great. People engrave them so etching will work fine too I'm sure.

I design on a mac all the time and cut on a windows 7 without any problems. Never had any file conversion issues, I have mac illustrator and a copy of cs2 illy on my windows laptop, have used Scalp on the windows and still use SignCut on it both cutting files built on the mac and directly transferred with a thumb drive between the two. I think the old days of mac incompatibility are gone as far as .ai, .pdf, .eps, etc... macs are awesome and I will never go back to pc for my main work but they are a bit more picky where drivers are concerned. BUT if you can get it to work at all it will work great. PC's are just software whores, they'll sleep with anything that comes along and that's most of the reason there are so many glitches. Does anyone even know how many pc software builders there are? Too many to count. There are like 12 for mac, LOL

Totally with you. I actually take a lot of time on installs to be sure it all lines up right. I don't trust levels much mostly because I am also in the building industry and few things end up nice and actually true level. I use the nearest straight line to match up like the door or window or chair rail. On a car it's a body line or window that is going to make it look right. It's amazing what the natural eye can pick up on and also just as amazing what you can trick the eye into believing.

Ok that's pretty cool. So how many here run their flexi on a mac? I assume it is mac compatible or has a mac version? It would be real nice if it was cross compatible. SignCut Pro is, once you buy the dongle you can just down load it into whatever machine you want and then hop back and forth with the dongle. That's actually one of the reasons I have been wanting to get the dongle bought because I have had my windows 7 laptop doing the blue screen any time I let it update and I'm scared of getting caught needing to get a job done. Currently while on subscription you can't swap from machine to machine without de-registering from the other computer and it is limited to 5 times. Tough decision here and I am going to have to make it within the next couple weeks.

Ha ha! That's awesome, and explains a lot. Morons

Hey it looks great and even matches the body lines and looks straight. I am continually amazed at how crooked some people get their graphics sometimes.

Ya it doesn't look like what you typically see with offset issues. Are you sure your vinyl is between the grit roller and the feed rollers. When I first got my original cutter and was new I didn't realize that there were only certain spots on the feed roller that have the material to gain traction on the back of the vinyl. I did cuts fine for a while then without knowing better moved one side so it was off the black grit area and on just the slick rod. Everything when pear shaped and I couldn't figure it out for quite a while.

Doesn't make much difference as long as you can get a good even pressure across the whole area. Some of the presses have a max thickness that they can deal with but for garments you won't have any problems.

There isn't a very good way to test the pressure. It's somewhat by learning curve. If you are using Siser Easyweed then the rule of thumb that is safe is to get it pressed good enough that you begin to see the shirt fabric pattern in the vinyl. If you can see that then you are in great shape. Good idea to figure out a way to check your press temperature too. A lot of the cheaper presses are off on the temp and this can foul up your job. I bought a decent infra-red thermometer gun. IF you get on of those it's worth buying a good one or your back in the same boat as trusting your press temp gauge. I've heard of people sticking the end of a candy or meat thermometer in the press and close it without too much pressure but haven't tried that method.

I used to think that but I'm not convinced anymore. I have a new cutter (Summa) and their regular blade is a 36 degree blade and it cuts smaller than anything I ever thought of with my other cutter so I don't know that the angle makes as much difference as I aways thought it did.

Kinda fundamental at some point in this industry. It's like running a business and not knowing how to read. Ya you can hire folks to read things for you or talk friends into helping out but eventually you need to learn to read.

Inkscape is way better than scalp, most have scalp from UScutter with their cutters. There are easy tutorials in Inkscape for drawing that I recommend you try out. Look in the help tab and I believe there are some basic lessons for drawing by hand rather than trusting the auto trace. Well worth your time to gain that skill set.

I tried bringing them into my font agent program and it didn't like them.

That job is a prime candidate for practice on learning how to draw and re-create from scratch rather than simple trace. Don't get lazy people. The easy button often equals sub standard work. I think you could re-draw that even in SCALP.

I couldn't get that to work. Maybe I tried the wrong way. Care to elaborate?

I made this one for my wifes ipad. It's not original to me and I would bet its illegal to sell but it gets a lot of comments. iPad Back8.ai

I'm probably going to get a new one next year but I want to find a swing-away or drawer style that has auto open (without air). I hate having to run over to the machine to open it back up and there is a lot of time wasted setting there at the press. I might even consider getting an auto open clam just for that feature alone although I now have an older hix and noticed the swing away is more user friendly for getting the layout right.