Wildgoose

Here is a copy changed as noted above. Some things I found while digging around that you should know are as follows: You had created a few compound shapes, primarily the black outline was a compound shape. You want to be making compound paths rather than shapes. It's complicated to explain but in a nutshell a compound shape is a dynamic shape that allows more flexibility in certain situations but is not what you are looking for when building cut files. Compound paths are a fancy way to group objects that tells illy that it is to be treated as one single object. Just about any time you do an operation you will see the resulting object changed back into a group and if you need to do more work on it you may want it to be all one and while it's still selected either pull down the object menu and select compound path>make or hold command 8 on mac (ctrl 8 on pc) For instance. To "knock out" the white letters within the blue background you would select them both and use the minus front tab from the Pathfinder menu. This will work pretty good the first time, provided that the white letters are on top of the blue in the layers panel which they will be if they look correct in the workspace. Then you decide to also knock out the oval around the red text. It has now slipped below the blue layer as a result of the minus operation you performed so you need to rearrange them in the layers panel by dragging them or using the shortcut keys command/ctrl [ or ] for up or down. Once you have the white oval back on top of the blue if you try to do the same function you did with the white letters you will get a mess because during that operation it created a new object that has the insides of the letters included in a group and the pathfinder button you are trying to use will take the top object only so the others get left behind and you wonder WTF. If you had changed the blue to a new compound path with a quick ctrl8 it would treat the whole blue object as one and the regular minus operation will go as expected. Now, I'm not sure why you are getting compound shapes rather than compound paths. In CS5 you have to use the option or alt as you click the pathfinder operation to get it to go to a shape (dynamic) rather than a path. I believe in one version which I think was CS3 it was reversed. Not sure which version you have. If you get compound shapes you can't ungroup or anything and I find them a pain. Easy way to convert them is to expand appearance and it will change them into normal paths again and then you can decide if you need to make them compound paths or not based on if you are done manipulating them. It seems confusing until you run through it a few times and get used to it. Hopefully you don't have to learn to option click every time you use the pathfinder menu (CS3). I saved this file is plain old CS so hopefully it will open up ok for you. This should be ready to go if you are installing on white substrate. I notice that the size is nearly 40" tall for the blue layer. If you have to panel this you will probably get a deeper color at the overlap. Good luck! Tint redux.ai.ai

Welcome to the forum. Nice looking work!

OK, redfish. This is the first opportunity I have had to open up your file and look it over. I have a few questions. You said this is going on a backlit sign. Is the substrate white or clear? If white you can cut the white letters out of the blue and the white outline around the red lettering. As it is built in both your original and Jays the blue layer covers the whole sign. That is going to show through all the lighter layers you are trying to do including the yellow. Jays work on your black outline will do what you asked however her shrunk the yellow lettering by overlapping onto the yellow which I didn't think you wanted and all of the lettering will be going over a blue layer as built. I would knock out the white areas from the blue and cut the red lettering to go inside the white oval area. I would also upsize the yellow a little so it will overlap the blue at least 1/4" inside the black to avoid having something show in case of misalignment and also knock out an area a little bigger than the black from the blue and have the black just the same size it already is cover up all the seams between the yellow and blue and the hole you will have in the blue that lets the light hit the yellow unobstructed. I assume you know that they make translucent vinyl specifically to go on back-lit signs. It allows light through much better than regular. The black doesn't really matter and in this case would be best if it is regular opaque vinyl to better cover any inconsistencies in the application. I don't have time to work on this tonight, or at least right now but I am willing to work it over for you if you want and post it up later. If the substrate is clear then you are going to have to deal with the white lettering also which will be tricky to get some white in the right spot under the blue knock outs. You could possibly knock out the letters then make the white areas slightly bigger and place them on top but there is a good chance that it will look crappy at the overlap. OR cover the whole thing with white translucent to start but your getting into more costs. I probably confused the heck out of you and if so, I am sorry.

You can do anything you want Jay I'm just telling Redfish not to pay attention to your silliness! Ha ha! I know, I know, Corel is a grown up program too.

Don't listen to him about illustrator. Since the black around your yellow letters is basically an outline. It is a compound shape. In prder to work on only the outer path you would need to break them apart. This is done in the objects compound path release.. you can do this one letter at a time. Or select then all. Once they are separate just select the paths you want to offset an do the path offset discussed earlier. You can do this one at a time if you eant or select all of the paths you want to offset and use the ctrl-8 to make cthem a new compound path and do them all at once. After offset then delete the original paths and reconnect the inner paths to each letter by the same compound path method and you're done.

I would be willing to bet you will eat the words "I will never cut anything much larger than 3"x 6" within 1 month. You will love the cutter and be real glad later that you decided to get the full sized machine. Welcome to the group!

Hard to understand what your talking about without a pic but I would convert the black to a compound shape (Command 8 or ctrl 8 on pc) then pull down object>path>offset path. I'm not at my actual work station so I am going from memory on the pull downs but you should be able to find that and you can type in .25in in the offset field and it will do it just that much. (I am assuming that you are working in full scale) That should create a new object behind the existing one that is 1/4" larger. If you are still having problems then post the file and we can figure it out and teach you how. <edit> whoops I gave directions for 1/4" rather than 1/6" sorry. use .17in

mark-s you continually amaze me. You're like some sort of font savant.

Yup, better be careful.

I hear ya, aye. You should be able to find some for sale somewhere though.

Check your design for unfilled paths. Often during design it is possible to end up with the "holes" in a design being an actual object even though you wouldn't be able to see them. I have even seen this manifested as a compound shape around the outside of a design. What design program do you use or can you post up a file that you have had problems with? The other possibility would be the more obvious check mark in the cutting software to make multiple cuts.

I got a free roll end of some 3M reflective vinyl for print (which I don't do) and I think it is 10 mil. I followed a link on here somewhere and requested a free sample and they called and asked a few questions and then send 5yd x 48" roll. I haven't used it too much yet because its an off white but it has air release technology, little air vents in the adhesive and goes on super nice.

Oh ya she's loves having something special. I actually have two kids that go there so they both have them but they are the only kids at the school. The standard school shirts are plain and boring. I expect we will get some requests in to have some made for some of the other kids.

I did a leopard for one of my kids. I have pulled a lot of files off this section, thought I would share this one with anyone interested. It's a wrap around that turned out cool. Just drop the school name and add whatever. This is in Adobe 8 legacy format. Leopardblk8.ai

I even used a folded up handkerchief once. The only problem I had with using something in the middle was the sides of the curve didn't get as good of pressure on the press doing this so I ended up getting an additional press pad that was the right size. I needed a smaller one for the structured hats I was pressing.

I have a yellow handled version, two actually, that the blade retracts at rest and when you squeeze the handle it extends so you have your grip holding the rotary blade out there. It's awesome, brand is OLAF I think. I also have a pair tweezers that I bought at a machine shop that are ground out of spring steel that machinists use to pull tiny slivers out of their fingers that I use for the real small weeding on SIser and other heat applied vinyl. Couldn't get by without them.

Me too. Hot or I won't touch them. I love how you can squeeze them and they shoot out of the shell.

You're definitely going to want a machine that at least does 24" vinyl. I, like dakota downsized. I originally bought a 48" machine from USCutter but never ever actually cut any 24" vinyl. The only thing I ever did was a plotting operation with the pen tool on some 50" paper for a welcome home wall banner that they colored by hand after I used the cutter to outline the text. When I upgraded I went with a new SummaCut D75 which is 30". When I started up I had erroneously assumed that I would be cutting these huge full sized 4'x8' signs which I could have but most of them are simpler (and more cost effective) to just cut the various lines of text and assemble on the signboard. Also if you mess up then you haven't ruined a 48" sheet of vinyl. The Summa is expensive but I love it. I have heard the Graphtec and Roland machines are nice too. If you can justify the initial cost it is real nice to have a professional cutter over a hobby model.

I have stopped at several similar locations when I was in Florida to pick up some fresh Bawlled peeenuts and sweet tater/ pecan pies. MMM MMM Good!

That looks really good. The only thing I could find to even criticize was the lower run of text, the black behind the yellow should be knocked out of the red like what you did with the quarter moon and other white text. I suspect you just forgot about it or your testing me. LOL I would personally round out the inside of the P where the line offset did its usual funkiness but that may not even show up unless you go big. I'd say you have figured it out perfectly! Not really that tough, when you get right down to it designing for vinyl is much less complicated than for print. No multiple fills or gradients, usually just a few colors to worry about which really don't matter other than to remind you which roll to grab for what layer. I often use light grey like you did the baby blue so I can see it on the what background of the workspace. I also often throw a color layer in the background similar to what I am going to be placing on, especially if its going on a colored shirt. Makes a big difference sometimes to help visualize and a good idea when sending proofs to clients.

Are you stacking them up before install? I have had more problems with bubbles due to the transfer tape causing little bubbles at the layered edges when I stack colors. I stopped doing that and just layer them individually on at installation time on most of my own work and just pre-stack for folks who are self installing.

I don't think they have a tiling option working yet. Not the last time I checked which was a month ago. You will be stuck setting your mat size to the size of vinyl you have and then moving the design around so that the rest of the design gets within the cutting area on the next piece. Good luck with that. You may have to place some diamonds or something within the area to use as registration marks to help line it all up. The Craft Edge design team said they were going to get this worked out and into one of the updates this summer but I don't think they ever got there. This would be a tough thing for any of us to do even seasoned pro's. With your post count I assume you are fairly new at this. I feel for you. <edit> I see you have used Sign Blazer so my assumption is probably off as to your experience. Sorry, no offense meant.

I just reloaded the program in trial mode to try it out and I can't find it either. In Illustrator you can change all kinds of options. It appears the only way to make this happen is to create a separate curved line below the lower text and set it on top of that line, then you start having to figure out workarounds to slide the text on the line and get it where you want it. You will probably have to adjust the spacing to get it to look right. Evidently another weak link in the SCALP design program. All I ever used it for was as a cutter driver with my old cutter. I think you will be much better served downloading a free copy of Inkscape and learning to use it. At least that program will have the capability to do what you want. Most of us were not that impressed with the design side of the SCALP program.

I may not be much help because I no longer have a copy of SCALP but you may have better luck if you cut the path in half at the sides then try. You should have an option to reverse the text and change the position but I can't remember the terminology in SCALP

I don't use cutting master or graphtec but you will have to have things built a certain way to cut. For instance gradients are not going to work in vinyl which is solid. Any line weight is ignored. Just flip over from preview mode to look at the vectors and that is what your cutter will see. You will have to learn to build things a little differently but it won't be that tough once you get the hang of it. If you have any strokes that you want we usually have that as a completely different object behind the front color so it appears as an outline. You can cut strokes if you outline them and make them an object or more correct a compound path. You will have to think outside the box a little and picture how each color layer needs to interact with the others. Some designs have more than one layer of the same color to get the effect that you are looking for. On the file you have I would have the black as one complete layer then cut the yellow, red and white layers and have them on top. That way the back black layer can show through as outlines around the red etc. You could also make the yellow a complete layer and then cover it again with black to create the outline effect for the red but it gets to be too many layers. Hopefully you see what I am getting at. If the design is small then the yellow could be a little tough and the crescent moon touching the M and yellow line will need to be fairly precise. I am not at my design workstation so I can't access the design you have attached to see it in illustrator but I will look at it this evening when I get a chance. I am assuming the pdf file is still in full vector format.